Blocki - Flute Zoo Teachers Manual

Flute Zoo Teacher’s Manual by Kathy Blocki

The Flute Zoo Teacher’s Manual covers Flute Zoo Books 1 through 3 and Flute Zoo Five-Note Fun.

Spiral-bound

The Flute Zoo Books are fun, exciting, and engaging books that allow a slower walk through the award-winning Blocki Flute Method Book 1. These books, with their bright colors and cheerful imagery, were written with young flute students in mind, although we have found that older children love the fun songs and activities as well! After working through all four Flute Zoo books, students will be ready to start in Blocki Flute Method Book 2. The Blocki Flute method was designed to give the beginner an excellent foundation in beautiful tone, embouchure flexibility, rhythm and technique. This comprehensive and step-by-step approach was written to ensure success and includes theory and composition projects.

Tone and Flexibility

The method is designed so students can play in both octaves without having to read the notes in both octaves. This is an incredibly important aspect of teaching beginners. Teaching flute is not like teaching trumpet in which the high notes are more difficult. High notes become difficult when students only play in the low and middle octaves for as much as one year. The students then have trouble with embouchure flexibility, and the ability to form a smaller lip opening.

Rhythm:   Flute Zoo books 1-3 and the Five-Note Fun Sticker Book work together to insure a solid rhythmic foundation.  Towards the end of Flute Zoo Book 2 students are reading rhythms that may appear simple, but imply more difficult rhythms. They learn how to play rhythms like a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth long before they actually read it.  In Flute Zoo Book 3, students use the rhythm cards in the back of their book to first play these rhythms with tied eighth notes. Then the card is flipped over to reveal how the rhythm would be written without tied notes.

The Five-Note Fun Sticker Book helps to instill the ability to move between beat levels with ease. This foundation is essential for playing the complex rhythms they will encounter in Blocki Flute Method Book 3.

Creative Composing:  These projects develop creativity and highlight the new concepts being learned.  Each Flute Zoo Book contains several engaging composition activities.

What is the difference between Blocki Flute Method Book 1 and the Flute Zoo Book?

The content in the Blocki Flute Method Book 1 equals Flute Zoo Books 1, 2 and 3.  The Flute Zoo books move at a slightly slower pace and are shorter giving a sense of accomplishment as they finish each book more quickly.   The Flute Zoo Five-Note Fun Sticker Book is essential to the Flute Zoo series but can also be used with the Blocki Flute Method Book 1.

After working through all four Flute Zoo books, students will be ready to start in Blocki Flute Method Book 2. The Blocki Flute method was designed to give the beginner an excellent foundation in beautiful tone, embouchure flexibility, rhythm and technique. This comprehensive and step-by-step approach was written to ensure success and includes theory and composition projects.