Promoting Music In Our Schools Month

March is Music in Our Schools month and one of my favorite times of year.  This is a great month to educate your school and community about the importance of music education.  It is also a great time to brag on your amazing students.  Plan performances, radio spots, a special newsletter and huge bulletin board or hallway displays in your school. 

HERE are a few ideas for decorating for MIOSM from a previous blog post.

Looking for some fresh ideas for celebrating Music In Our Schools Month?  Try a few of my favorites below!

Daily/Weekly Music Trivia

This is such a fun idea and the competition heats up day after day.  When I taught in a K-12 district I did a weekly trivia question for the elementary and a daily one for 7^th-12^th grade.  For the elementary students I put the question up and then a coffee can that they could put their answers (plus name and class) into and collected it on Friday and announced the winner. 

For the older grades it was a little easier as they had daily announcements typed and delivered to each classroom.  I would put the question of the day on and announce the winner on the next day in the announcements.  I had a can for collecting answers in my classroom and one right outside the office so the secretary and principal could keep an eye on it.

For prizes I called around to local businesses to see what they could donate to support music in our schools (and yes, I asked using that phrase).  We had free ice cream cones from Dairy Queen, hamburgers from McDonald's, tacos from Taco Bell, personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut, free sodas from local gas stations and grocery stores and more.  They were quite excited to be a part of something to support the arts.   I sweetened the deal by promising them a shout out in our local paper.

The questions varied from music history, current music trends, music vocabulary and even questions about the musical background of the teachers and staff.  I could have had the students come up with the questions, but I was trying to keep it as fair as I could.

Over the Intercom

There are so many cool ideas for using your school intercom or P.A. system that are easy to do and really get your whole school involved in celebrating MIOSM.

National Anthem- Although I wish this was something we did every day, I definitely scheduled these special performances to happen during Music In Our Schools Month.  I invited a class down to the office and we led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the national anthem.  If space is a problem you could just record the class during music time.

This Day in Music History-Great for daily announcements too, adding an interesting tidbit about music history is fun and educational.  Here are a couple of websites that can help in preparing for this.  This might be a great project for students too!
This Day in History – Look to the right hand side.  Sometimes there are several things under the Music category.

This Day in Music History –This is great, but usually has many things to read through.

Mystery Singer –Secretly recruit teachers and staff members to sing over the intercom.  If privacy (or performance anxiety) are an issue, you can record these ahead of time.  Have them all sing the same song (maybe the national anthem or your school song) or let them choose a song.  A verse or verse and chorus is usually enough.  Have students put their guesses in a coffee can or collect them online if your school has the technology and award a randomly chosen winner with a treat delivered by that person.

Another great way to do this is to have each class vote on who it is and submit their answer as a class.  This requires a bit more help from your classroom teachers, but is still lots of fun!  The winning class gets to hang a banner or plaque on their door until a new winner is announced.  Create a Mystery Singer Detectives of the Day certificate, pop it in an inexpensive frame from the dollar store and a way to hang it.  (A piece of yarn or magnets might do the trick depending on your setup.)

Brown Bag It

It might be possible for you to partner with a local grocery store to spread a music positive message in the community in a very artful way.  I contacted a local grocery store and asked if we might decorate their paper bags with a Music In Our Schools Month messages and pictures.  Partnering with the art teacher, we used art and music class time to color one side of the bags and then gave them back to the grocery store to use during March.  This was such an attention getter!  I had emails and phone calls about how much they loved carrying home their groceries in the bag.  The local grocer was pretty happy with this event as well!

I hope that these ideas will inspire you to try something new this year with your music advocacy efforts.  You are the strongest advocate for your program and your students.

One of my favorite displays comes from the stories of teachers and staff members.  I ask them a few questions about their musical tastes, activities and history and then create a display that has delighted both students and other staff members.  You can read about that bulletin board and download a freebie to get you started HERE.



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