The Great Snowman Challenge

I love giving my students in lesson challenges. Sometimes they run for a month or two, sometimes a couple of weeks. This is a one lesson challenge.

Wendy Stevens (ComposeCreate.com) has a number of great resources. Last winter, I found her set of snowman flashcards.

The basic principle is to match the top to the correct bottom. This set covers many levels of learners. It comes with intervals, white keys, note names on the staff (up to 2 ledger lines!), and steps & skips.

Best part? They're free!

When I first used these flashcards in lessons, I didn't think to time my students until a little one asked how fast he did it compared to himself previously and his 2 sisters.

Thus, The Great Snowman Challenge was born.

I created a simple spreadsheet to track my students' times and had each student choose at least two categories to complete.

To download this image, right click and hit 'save image'

There are a few things I love about this challenge:

1. It takes less than 5 minutes of lesson time including setup and cleanup.
2. My students get instant feedback about their learning.
3. I get a good view of my students current strengths & weaknesses.

An extra bonus is my kids seriously love this challenge.

Do you do any winter challenges or incentives for your students?