After an exciting year of acheivment it's time for our awards ceremony. Here are some ideas that we do for our awards ceremony that you might like and get ideas from:

1. Order your medals in Mar/Apr (the month before your ceremony) when you know how many medals you'll need. This year we have a Senior (gr. 7-12) and a Junior (gr. K-6) division so I needed 2 ea. of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. I get the medals from Maxwell Medals online.

2. Order your certificates from KJOS online. They have 7 event certificates and single event certificates. I use mostly 7 event certificates because most of the students do at least 4 events. I use the single event certificates for those who only do one or two events.

3. We give awards for the following categories:

     Participation (movie ticket certificate)
   
     The Seven Events in Keyboard Gymnastics:
     Performance Outstanding Students (ice cream cone certificate)
     Creative Project Outstanding Students (personal pizza lunch from Fredrico's Pizza)
     Theory Perfect 10's (Book Table gift certificate)
     Ear-Training Perfect 10's (Book Table gift certificate)
     Sight Reading Perfect 10's (Kneaders gift certificates)
     Technic Perfect 10's (Book Table gift certificate)
     Ensemble Outstanding Students (Cache Valley Fun Park gift certificates)

     Highest scores in each division: Cash award, $10 itunes cards, and a Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal

     Runner-up prizes: Twizle Berry Cash certificates

     Outstanding Student (highest overall cumulative score) personal mp3 player

     All 7 Events (this is where the fun begins!)
          We purchase one Symphony Bar per student that qualified and place a $1 bill OR a Golden   
          Ticket in each. (this year we're putting in two golden tickets!) After each student opens their
          candy bar two lucky students are awarded personal mp3 players. The rest of the students will
          find a $1 bill, so they're not too sad either--and everyone gets to eat a giant Symphony bar.

4. We usually end with the All 7 Events award because this really motivates the students to complete all 7 events the next year so they are eligible for the mp3 player.

5. Our awards ceremony program consists of giving out awards interspersed with students performing their outstanding pieces in performance, creative project (composition or project), and ensemble.


This year we combined our Ensemble Event with the USU Monster Concert. Every Keyboard Gymnastics student who participated in the Monster Concert was given a score of 8.5. At the USU piano festival KG students were give the opportunity to better their performance score (which had been done in the fall) or their ensemble score (they had to prepare a different duet or concerto than the one they did in the Monster Concert). It was surprising how many students took advantage of this opportunity and achieved even higher scores!

It's been a great year. I hope this information helps with your program. Feel free to share your ideas as well!

Kathleen