Bulletin Boards for February ❤️

There are so many things to recognize and celebrate in February.  Valentine's Day, President's Day, Black History Month and Random Acts of Kindness Day are in February just to name a few.  Here are four bulletin boards that are easy to print and post during the shortest and sometimes busiest month of the year.

NOTEable Black Musicians from A to Z

This colorful bulletin board is great for Black History Month or to post and leave up all year. It features 26 amazing musicians. Each musician is featured in an ABC format (with a few liberties taken with the alphabetization). On each page there is a picture and a short synopsis of their careers and accomplishments.

All That Jazz

Celebrate Jazz with some of these amazing musicians: 

Duke Ellingon, John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Thelonius Monk, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, David Brubeck, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Wynton Marsalis, Count Basie and Jelly Roll Morton

Love Yourself

Let's change the way we talk to ourselves and make it more positive.  This bulletin board reminds students to do the same too.

What Does Kindness Look Like?

Random Act of Kindness Day is February 17th so it is a great month to inspire students to be kind.  This colorful bulletin board does that.  Check it out and you can pick up a free kindness bunting to decorate the halls too!

I hope these ideas have inspired you and I hope you have the best February ever!

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DIY Light Up Staff

I have wanted to create an interactive treble clef staff display for my classroom for such a long time!  Using just a few simple and easy to find supplies, my students and I now have a beautiful and engaging new tool in the music room.

I use this staff display to show melodies for sight reading, lighting up a specific interval that I want them to notice.  I use it to highlight the notes that we will be using on Orff instruments.  I've used it when grading pitch naming worksheets by having students come up and tap the light of the correct answer.  I've even used it for games and centers.

As a center, students have labeled the lines and spaces of the treble staff.  They have taken cards from my Pitch Match Up sets and created the words on the staff.  They have used it to create their own "words" with the pitches of the treble clef staff.  I really feel like I have just scratched the surface of using this in my classroom. 

Let's get started with the supplies that you will need to create a light up staff display in your room. First consider the space that you will have for this.  You'll need some kind of magnetic white board or something similar.  I used a portion of a long white board in my room for this display.

Next, you'll need some puck lights.  You can also find them named push lights, tap lights and under the cabinet lights.  They often come in the shape of a circle which works great for note heads!  You can find them at hardware stores, Walmart, Target and on occasion at dollar stores.  I wanted mine to change color and I found two packs of Energizer Coloring Changing Puck Lights at Target.  

You'll also need black masking tape or black electrical tape, scissors, a roll of magnetic tap (the thick kind) and batteries for your puck lights.  

I started with a portion of my white board that I hadn't used and added a bulletin board border.  This one is from Schoolgirl Style.  I used black masking tape to place the staff lines.  Be sure to measure the distance of your lines by placing one of your puck lights between them.

I also used the masking tape to create the treble clef.  I'm sure there are more eloquent ways to do this, but this was fast and efficient.

Next I placed the puck lights on the board by hot gluing magnets to the back of them and them putting them on the staff.  

I considered stopping right here and using the display as it was, but was concerned that students who struggled with naming the pitch names would not find this very helpful.  I found some letter stickers at a local store and added those.  This was a great decision and has been really beneficial to all students.  If you are proficient with a cutting machine like a Cricut, you could use that to make your letter stickers. 

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Music Room Tour 2021

I am excited to reveal my classroom this year.  I went with big, bold colors and a refreshing theme-Grow With Music.  Students have really enjoyed it and during Open House there were many compliments.  Best of all is that everything is organized for learning!

This is the back of my room.  I put the bulletin board paper up and then divided the board into three sections with borders from Schoolgirl Style.  Grow Your Musical Mindset is my yearly growth mindset focus.  I refer to it before we start any challenging pieces to remind students that just because they can't do it today doesn't mean that they won't be able to do it next time.  

The middle display is a reference for performance ensembles.  A few years ago I discovered that most 3rd-5th grade didn't know what to call a group of four performers, so I wanted to have something to remind them of the groupings.

The board on the right is mostly a reminder for me, but I don't mind if my students catch on to the idea either!  Being an ambassador of joy each day is such a privilege.  I am thankful that music is a wonderful vehicle for it.  This is a FREE download in my TpT store.

The pillows are my design.  I used my Bitmoji and Powerpoint to create what I wanted, saved it as a JPEG and then sent it off to VistaPrint to be turned into pillows! On the bottom shelf you'll see a couple of pillows from Target.

My library is on the bottom shelf this year because while doing centers at the end of the school year I realized that putting them on the top shelf wasn't convenient for kiddos that sat on the floor.  Now they are on the bottom shelf near the pillows and will serve as a workstation that it always set up and ready to go.

In the front corner of my room I have stored many things that we won't use right away this semester.  I love not using chairs so that transitions go faster during my lessons, but currently there is no place to store them in my building.  I'll use them some months so I'm just keeping them stacked and out of the way.  This rocking chair was my summer project last summer and I use it when I'm reading or chatting with classes.  The buckets contain drumsticks and light-up drumsticks.

I have wanted to create an interactive treble clef display for a long time.  I love how this turned out!  Using black masking tape I constructed the treble clef staff on a dry erase board that I didn't use very often.  The "notes" are actually push lights or tap lights, most commonly used for under cabinet lighting. Although you can find these inexpensively in dollar stores, I wanted something that could change colors. I picked these up at Target and then attached magnets to them.  The letters could easily be made with vinyl and your preferred cutting machine, but I chose to use letter stickers.  I plan to use them when we are learning to play only a few notes at a time, for instrument ostinatos, pitch naming games, etc...

This is the bulk of my classroom storage.  The cabinets are filled with centers, bulletin board supplies, miscelaneous instruments and props, office supplies and sheet music.  My ukuleles are on the rack near my door but I haven't taken them out of their cases yet.  My room gets very dusty throughout the year so until we begin ukes in the spring, I want them protected.

On the doors you see my music symbol posters (I printed them two to a sheet.) and my instrument families display. 

At the front of the room I store small percussion instruments in tubs.  They aren't in the picture but are just below the shelf you see at the bottom.  This bulletin displays tempo terms and dynamics terms.  I love that this set has backgrounds that progress from slow to fast and quiet to loud in color order.  I know.  I'm a nerd.

My desk with a little touch of Boho style.  Behind my desk I store my fridge and microwave, file cabinet, paperwork, cleaning supplies and things I need within an arm's reach.

I hope that you have enjoyed touring my room and wish you a school year filled with joy and peace.  If you are interested in using the Grow with Music you can find it in my TeachersPayTeachers store.

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Magical Music Classroom Reveal

Back to school time is so exciting!  This year I decided to use a magical theme for my music room.  Not exactly magic as in wizards and spells, but more of a celebration of mystical, musical creatures.  This year I've decorated with unicorns, gnomes, dragons, mermaids (and mermen) and narwhals.  It has been a lot of fun!  Take a peek at my room.

 This is the front of my room.  I used some stone wall paper to create a castle using the two bulletin boards and the space above my Smartboard.

 As you enter the room I have a small table set up for pencils, singing sticks and other odds and ends that we may use as the school year goes on.

Dynamic narwhals, tempo mermaids and unicorn ensembles are the perfect addition to my Magical Music room!  They come separately or you can get them in a bundle too.

I upgraded my crayon storage boxes this year.  For the last five or six years I've used plastic travel containers for soap.  This year I decided to go up to index card boxes.  I love that there is a little bit more room.  I also added a little reminder to keep the crayons in the box instead of dumping them out.

I love to have a reference board up for the lines and spaces of the treble clef staff.  This year it features gnomes.  Take a closer look.

Have a Magical Time in Music bulletin board.

For the last three years I have had some kind of growth mindset bulletin board up in my classroom.  It is such a great reminder to students and also to me!  This year I used dragons to help students change their mindset.  The title (which is a little tricky to read with the glare) says "Is Your Mindset Dragon You Down?"

On the side of my room I just used a bit of the stone wall paper to add some interest. 

Positive song lyrics!  My kiddos love these and I'll catch them "getting" what song one of the posters if from and smiling.  Love that!  See them here.

This bulletin board will hold the titles of Songs of the Month.  I'll start with the "Star Spangled Banner" in September.  The border and bulletin board pieces are from Creative Teaching Press.

In this corner I store my Orff instruments, steady beat swords, pool noodle ponies, Boomwhackers and right now, my piano.

My ukulele storage is actually a drying rack from Walmart.  I padded it will pool noodles and added numbers on the noodles and on the ukuleles so that students know where to put their ukes.  

I love these mermaid themed borders but didn't have anything mermaid to hang up.  I took an old bulletin board, Meet the Composers, and gave it a new title.  I think it turned out great.

This is my reading corner.  I added some sequined pillows that add some sparkle.  I decided to sort a few of my books into categories this year.  I think that I may use them during centers time. 

I hope you've enjoyed a peek at my classroom.  You can find most of the decor items that I'm using in my classroom this year in this bundle:

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Rhythm Cards for Rockin' Repetition

I love creating a routine at the beginning of my classes.  It helps students focus and gives me a second to handle questions and get things ready to go.  For some classes this is a hello song, echo clapping or a movement activity.  In this post I'll share one of my favorites.  Rhythm cards are the perfect way to get students thinking and moving in music class.

The rhythm cards that I am referring to have 4 beats worth of notation.  I copy the same card on front and back so that they are easier to use. One card has 4 quarter notes.  Another has two half notes and so on.

When using these cards I am reinforcing note values and sharpening skills that we will use in other activities to compose rhythmic ostinatos or melodies.  Students are able to feel the duration and this makes a strong connection.  Using this activity at the beginning of each or during each class for several weeks in a row has been a great skill builder!  I like to call it "rockin' repetition".

I wish this simple but brilliant idea was mine, but I actually learned about it from Kristin Lukow, music educator extraordinaire on the Music K-8 discussion list.  I've incorporated it into lessons for many years now and my students are better for it.  Thanks Kristin!

Here's what I do:
I choose a song with a medium to fast beat (which are much easier than slower songs) and start it as students are walking into music class.  They clap the pattern as an ostinato until I change the card.  That's really it!

This activity works great with my drums, classroom percussion instruments and different kinds of body percussion instead of just clapping.  Often we will do this with tennis balls or basketballs (if I can borrow some).  When we use balls with the cards here are the movements:

whole notes - count as you move it around your waist, back and then to your front.  Think of it as traveling around the world.
half notes - bounce so that the first part of the note is when the ball hits the floor and the second is when you catch it
quarter notes -same as half note but on each beat.  It helps to be closer to the floor for this one.
eighth notes-hot potato!  We pass it from hand to hand in rhythm.

Since this activity is used many times during the school year my play list is pretty diverse and always growing.  I include songs that I'll use with tennis balls, basketballs and with body percussion.  I can choose faster pieces for body percussion than the others.  Some student favorites:

"Can't Stop This Feeling" by Justin Timberlake
"Song of the South" by Alabama
"The Star and Stripes Forever" Sousa
"Best Years of Our Lives" by the Baha Men
"I Love a Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbit

You can check out my entire playlist for rhythm cards here:  Rhythm Cards Playlist on Amazon Music.

I know this is a simple idea, but once you've implemented it I think that you'll find it  is helpful not only for establishing routine, but for improving rhythm skills and steady beat with your students.  I'm so sure it will that I want you to have a copy of the cards for free!  Print out two copies and laminate the same pattern back to back.  Get the cards here: Rhythm Cards for Rockin' Repetition

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