**From FOCUS GAMES, a series of games I’ve developed to teach ‘focus’ to my beginning students (link)**

This game is designed to develop awareness, not attention. For an explanation of the distinction between the two see the post linked above. With awareness the goal is to enter through the back door of the student’s consciousness. You want them to strengthen their muscle of broadening a field of input, without focusing on anything in particular.

Some first-steps for doing this are to play I-Spy or I-Listen or I-Feel games. The teacher asks, “I Spy something green, can you find it?” Or “I hear something loud/soft/high/low, can you hear it?”

I like to play this game as a next step.

MATERIALS

Index cards and a marker (for game extension)

PROCEDURE

Student sits criss cross on their foot chart facing away from the teacher.
They sing Twinkle or hum any Suzuki tune
The teacher slowly brings an unmarked index card from behind them into their peripheral visual field. It could be to the right, left, above the student.
As soon as the student sees the card, they point to it with their hands without stopping their signing/humming.

GAME EXTENDERS

– write 1-5 on five different cards. Play the same game, but hover the card until the student is able to hold up the amount of fingers on their hand that the card is marked (ex. If you hover a 4 they hold up 4 fingers)
– flash the card faster and see if they can catch it
– play the game while the student is playing their violin (they can point to the direction with their scroll)
– play the game with numbers while the student is playing their violin, they say the number out loud while continuing to play
– play with images or letters
– the student keeps their eyes on a fixed point (either in front of them or a place on the violin while playing) while maintaining open awareness
– bring the game into other random activities. With no explanation, quickly flash a card while doing another unrelated activity and see if they can tell you what was on it