Teaching preschoolers about the piano can be tricky when they aren’t able to sit on the bench for more than a couple minutes at a time. Use these fun preschool piano activities to help teach the names of the keys.
Why teach piano to preschoolers?
- Develop a love of music early on.
- Developmental and learning benefits of learning a musical instrument.
- Develops motor skills. Many other instruments are not accessible to preschoolers, because of their size or the motor skills or breath control needed to play them. Most preschoolers have the finger strength to push a key on the piano, though.
- Learning music and keyboard navigation reinforces the alphabet and language skills.
- Playing the piano helps preschoolers learn listening skills. For example, recognizing high and low sounds, as well as listening to directions.
- The piano is an instrument that is very common. Many people have a piano or keyboard in their house or easy access to one at a friend or relative’s.
If you’re looking for more resources on preschool piano, check out Preschool Piano by Color for some first piano songs to teach preschoolers who don’t yet know the names of keys on the piano.
Preschool piano activities for key names
The doggy in the doghouse
D is the first key your preschooler should learn to identify on the piano keyboard. It’s also the easiest and the most fun to find!
Most preschool kids love to learn that D is for Dog, and the dog lives in the doghouse. The doghouse is between the 2 black keys on the piano.
I have a collection of small plastic animals I found at the dollar store, but you could use any dog-like toy or picture. Encourage your preschooler to help the dog find all the doghouses on the piano.
- How many D keys are there?
- Can the dog find a D in a dog house up high (the right-hand side)?
- Can the dog find a D in a dog house down low (left-hand side)?
- Perhaps you can even make a doghouse for the dog on the piano. You are most likely more crafty than me. Mine is just a sticky note!
Keyboard hunt
Preschool piano activities shouldn’t all take place stiting on the piano bench! Learn the keys of the piano by moving around on an Easter egg style hunt!
Choose just 2 or 3 keys to review at once. For example, the keys C and D.
Print at least 4 pictures of each. You can draw them by hand, or print some keyboard flashcards out online.
Cut the cards out, and hide them around the room.
Tell your child how many of which letter (just ask them to collect one letter and leave the rest hidden)they are looking for.
Put on some music and have your preschooler go on a letter C hunt. They should collect all the C notes, but none of the D notes.
Manipulative Matching
Matching cards and objects is a good manipulative activity for preschool piano. It’s also another fun way to learn the keys without needing to sit still on the piano bench.
Use the cards with the keyboard keys marked that you used for the note hunt.
You will also need a small toy animal or picture that starts with each letter they will be matching. I love my little dollar store animals but haven’t been able to find an animal for F that doesn’t look too scary yet. So, I’ve just pinched a flower off a fake bunch, and that works fine! Although I do wish the frogs and fish at my dollar store didn’t look so scary for little kids!
Choose just a couple of notes and have your kids match the correct card with the keyboard picture to the correct animal or toy.
Once they get good at it, you can time them for an extra challenge, which always makes it more fun. Before it’s easy to match the notes though, it is best to just manipulate and match the cards without a timer!
If your child is also learning to read letters, this is an excellent opportunity to add that in and also include letter cards. Then they can match all three – the toy, the keyboard picture, and the written letter.
Create some music!
Preschoolers learn through play, and love to create on their own. Giving them a guided prompt will help them be creative while learning the keys!
- For example, can they create the ‘Disco Dog Dance’ (using only D’s)?
- Or perhaps the ‘Excited Elephants Everywhere’ (using only E’s)?
- What other songs can they create using the keys you choose together?
- Will they use high or low sounds or both?
- Experiment with holding the damper pedal for them (the right-hand foot pedal on the piano, or the only one on many keyboards) and listen to the sound change.
Keyboard race
If your preschooler just can’t sit still to focus, this is the activity you’re looking for.
You will need the toys, animals, or pictures for the keyboard letters again.
Call a letter, and have your child grab the right object from the floor or table. Ask them to put it on the correct key on the piano as quickly as they can.
Try to review just two or three letters and keys at a time as they start learning.
Time to start learning!
Preschool piano activities make learning fun for even the littlest and wiggliest kids with short attention spans.
Always make sure to keep your preschooler moving around with lots of different short activities. They can always come back to the activity again later, or keep learning the same concept with a different activity if they lose focus.
Would you like some free worksheets to start learning the keys on the piano?
One Response
Any info on fun games for preschoolers and 4 year olds is appreciated. Thanks