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Activities that Teach Children to Read Music It is important to continually reinforce and review concepts that the children have learned in earlier lessons. To do this, I play lots of quick, fun warm up games at the start of a lesson such as the following. "Draw me a whole note on the B line." (Student quickly draws the five lines of the staff and a whole note on the middle line.) "Good job! Now, draw me a quarter note. Wow, you did that fast! Now, how long does a quarter note last?" (If asking questions of a group, be sure to require hand raising–or call on students at random–and wait a bit before taking an answer so that all the students have time to formulate a response. If you merely call on the first person who puts a hand up, the slower students don’t bother to think since they won’t be called on anyway. Try to give everyone an equal opportunity to answer questions.) While looking at the book together, say, "Point to a quarter note," or, "Show me a half note on the B line," or "Point to a repeat sign," etc. These can all be fun ways of repeating concepts and of teaching to different learning styles.