Golden Note Challenge

I am a huge believer in flashcards.  I set weekly personal goals with my beginning students and anyone who seems to be struggling with notes.  Each week we time how fast they can "say and play" their individualized pack of flashcards.  If they achieve their goal they earn a bag of skittles (kids will do anything for candy!  Like many other piano teachers, once a year I hold a studio wide flashcard challenge.  Here is my version.

The challenge lasts for 5 weeks.  There are three mastery levels.  At each mastery level, the student must say and play all the notes in that particular group of flashcards in 1 minute or less.  The mastery levels are as follows:

Blue Level - Bass C to Treble C
Silver Level - Bass F to Treble G
Gold - All of the note cards in the flashcard deck

I keep a chart on the piano, so the students can see each other's progress.  They earn foil stars for the following achievements -

C Position
Bass C to Treble C in 1 1/2 minutes
Bass C to Treble C in 1 minute - BLUE LEVEL
Bass F to Treble G in 1 1/2 minutes
Bass F to Treble G in 1 minute SILVER LEVEL
The Whole Deck 1 1/2 minutes
The Whole Deck 1 1/4 minutes
The Whole Deck 1 minute GOLD LEVEL
I also leave 3 spots for improved times in the Gold Level.  My older students love to try and beat each other's times!

Prizes - I am a big believer in candy as a motivator, but I wanted to offer something a little different with this challenge.  Each year I order wooden note cutouts off of ebay and crust them in glitter.  I simply mix polyurethane with glitter and gob the mixture onto the wooden notes.  Some years I am lucky and find year brads which I attach through a hole that I drilled into the note prior to the glitter crusting.  In addition to the note medals I also offer gift certificates.  There are three types of certificates available.  They are for skipping a song that you don't want to play, playing any song out of order from your book and a one time flashcard boost (to be used anytime through out the year, other than during the Golden Note Challenge).  Students who achieve the gold level get three certificates, silver gets two and blue gets one.  The certificates are very popular and they hoard them like gold.