Barnyard Friends

The Barnyard Friend characters represent landmark notes on the grand staff. Your students will have fun getting to know Gina, Farmer Fred and Cici the Cat. Enjoy the playful twist to learning and remembering notes on the staff.

Click on the video clips to the right and watch the three short cartoon animations right here on this page. Or if you prefer go straight to my Barnyard Friends Playlist.

View The Barnyard Friends Playlist on YouTube

The Videos

I recognize that some schools do not allow access to YouTube, so here is another solution for classroom music teachers who may like to use The Barnyard Friends videos at school. The following links will open a new page with a full screen Quicktime video.You may prefer to save each movie on your computer for quick access during class time.

Gina and the Treble Clef (1280x720, 12 MB)

Farmer Fred and the Bass Clef (1280x720, 15 MB)

The Barnyard Friends and the Grand Staff (1280x720, 32 MB)

You may download any of the teaching aids below for additional practice. Choose the resources that are helpful to you; it's all free for you to use at home, in school or at the piano studio.

Special thanks to my students Olivia, Sebastian, Abby, Lauren, Avery, Julie and my friend Bruce who provided the voice talent for the seven barnyard friends.

The Barnyard Friends Workbook

Download The Barnyard Friends Workbook (1.1.MB)

The Barnyard Friends Workbook gives children the practice they need drawing notes and clefs. Use it right along with any beginning method series. Whether your approach is intervallic, multi-key or middle C, this workbook helps lays the foundation for reading success.

The workbook files contains 36 black and white worksheet pages. You may print the entire book or just your favorite sheets to use with students.

The Barnyard Board

Download The Barnyard Board (164 KB)

Download The Barnyard Friends circle labels (83 KB)

Print your Barnyard Board back-to-back on 100 lb white cardstock and then have it laminated. Now you can do dry erase marker activities and just wipe it clean! This is a fantastic teaching aid that gets used over and over again. Practice drawing the clefs and landmark notes on the barnyard scene. As your student advances, flip the board to practice stepping and skipping from the landmark notes.

Print the circle labels file and you will have 3/4" circles with the Barnyard Friends' faces on each note. I like to print these on circle labels, but you could also print on card stock and cut them apart. The file includes four sets of Friends so you can make a full set for group activities.

The Barnyard Friends Flashcards

Download the Barnyard Friends Flashcards (309 KB)

The Barnyard Friends Flashcards are the perfect first set for any young student. There are 15 grand staff note cards (Bass C to Treble C) with clear keyboard diagrams on the back to show the correct key location and name. When all of the notes are learned we play two games:

• iRight - name and play all 15 notes with no mistakes.
• iSpeedy - name and play all 15 notes in less than one minute

Simply print the pdf document on 100 lb white cardstock paper (back to back) and cut apart the cards. There are 8 cards per page.

The Barnyard Friends Interactive

Now your students can have fun playing with the Barnyard Friends at their computers. Practice moving the Friends to their landmark locations on the grand staff, name notes from Bass C to Treble C, or identify steps, skips and repeats on the staff. A great littlegame for your beginners!

Just click the image to the left to get started. You'll need Flash 9 to play this game. Click here to update your Adobe Flash Player. Sorry, you won't be able to play this on the iPad yet.

If you like the game, why not boomark it so your students can play any time.

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