Beginning-of-the-Year Bulletin Boards

As I'm entering my ninth [edit: 14th!] year of teaching elementary orchestra, I'm starting to get a collection of beginning-of-the-year bulletin board ideas, so here they are all in one place (with links to each post below the picture):

Parts of a Note Bulletin Board

Conducting Bulletin Board

2020 Mask bulletin board

"Welcome" Bulletin Board

"Changes" Bulletin Board 

What Will YOU Create This Year? Bulletin Board

Take Part In A Musical Year! Bulletin Board

Together We Will SCALE New Heights! Bulletin Board 

Metronome Bulletin Board

Dr. Seuss Door Decorations

This year my school is doing a whole Dr. Seuss week, complete with door decorations inspired by different Dr. Seuss books.  My book was The Foot Book, and what better way to decorate the door of the band/orchestra room than by adding feet to instruments?  I colored and cut out photocopies of feet from the book and added them to laminated pictures of instruments that I already had from an earlier bulletin board, and voila!  I think I like the feet on the trumpet and bass the best :)

Take Part In A Musical Year! Bulletin Board

For this fall, I played on the words "take part" as an opportunity to display instrument and bow parts.  I don't mind puns when I can use them as a learning opportunity :)  And a special thanks to my mom who came up with the phrase...I knew I wanted to do something with instrument parts, but couldn't think of a good back-to-school phrase.

My mom and I used the overhead projector to trace the instruments onto poster board, and then I outlined them in permanent marker and filled them in with water colors.  On the bulletin board itself, I stapled black yarn to connect each instrument part to its label.  I really like how this one turned out!  Now as students in all grade levels are walking to and from music class, they might pick up a few new vocabulary words and have a greater appreciation for all that orchestra students are learning about next door in orchestra.

• List of instrument parts (Google doc)

End-of-Year Recruiting Bulletin Board

Near the end of the school year, I posted pictures and the names of the instruments students can choose to study in band and orchestra (plus the option of singing in choir).  I also included the grade levels when students can join each ensemble.  Now on their way to and from music class, students can be visually reminded about their musical options for the upcoming school year.

Here are some pictures from a couple versions of this bulletin board:

Magnets

You can make a lot of handy classroom tools with a laminator and magnets :)

The clefs and notes come from a package of musical symbols, and I made the instrument labels with a Cricut cutting machine.  These are easy to see from even the back of the room (though my color choices were maybe not contrasting enough on the instrument labels), and having these movable notes saves on time in class and dry-erase marker usage.  Because I mostly use quarter notes on the board, I cut the dots off the dotted quarter notes and the flags off the single eighth notes (and I cut the note-heads off the single sixteenth notes and glued them on top of the half notes) to create more of the quarter notes.  The alto clef came from a Google image search.

I use these magnets most often when introducing new notes to my students.  For practice, I'll have a student come up and point to different notes and their classmates will play what they see, performing this improvised creation.  Then, if I have a small group of, say, violas followed by a cello or violin group, it's easy to move the notes up or down on the staff as needed as the kids are coming in and unpacking versus erasing the marker and drawing new notes.  One of my schools has a white board with the staff lines built in to the board, which is great for a music classroom.  For my other school, I bought a sheet that goes right over part of the white board and has three staves on it. 

Note: since then, my school bought a double-sided whiteboard on wheels for the band/orchestra room.  One side has staff lines, which is much appreciated, and the other side is plain white.  I also have enough magnets now to post the five notes for violin/viola/cello all at once so I don't have to switch them for each new instrument group.

Question of the Week

The last thing that we do in full orchestra each week is the "Question of the Week."  I read the old question, share the answer, and then draw a correct response out of the bucket.  Then I read and post the new question.  Students have until the beginning of the next week's full orchestra to submit their response.  This is totally optional for students, but it gets them thinking about lots of different aspects of music and how to use their resources to find the answers.  It also provides structure to our full orchestra rehearsals; students know that we do question of the week at the end and that it's time to start quietly packing up so they can still hear the answer.

Students know that good times to enter responses are before/after school when they are dropping off or picking up their instruments or before/after class--not in the middle of orchestra.  They also know that I do not say if their answer was correct or not--my lips are sealed until the end of the next full orchestra.

Slips are color coded by grade so everyone can all use the same bucket to drop their response into.

The prize?  I write the winner(s) a composition that they can play on their instrument, and I have it waiting on their stand at the next full orchestra.  It doesn't cost any money on my end, it's personalized for each student, and it shows that I am a composer too, just as they are.  Some weeks lend themselves to having more than one winner, but I usually keep it at one winner.  If a question has two parts (a bonus point) and the winner gets both parts, I'll write them a duet to play with a friend.

I try to include a variety of questions throughout the year--parts of the instrument, composer trivia, music theory, vocab words, a connection with one of their pieces, etc.  I use the same question for both grades each week, so it has to be something that works for both.  The answer may be something that students should already know or in their book or on the walls of the orchestra room or they may need to look up online.  I try not to repeat questions within a two-year cycle so that students are exposed to as many as possible (though there are a few questions that tend to be used each year).

When I draw the winning slip, I don't read incorrect responses (or the name of that student) out loud; I just keep drawing until I find a correct answer and congratulate that student.  I don't want to encourage silly answers or embarrass anyone for putting in the wrong answer.  Students may win more than once each year (I don't want them to stop participating once they've won), though I may draw a second winner that week just to get someone new too.

Note: Since the pandemic, I added a Google Form with the weekly question and paste the link into our class Canvas page so that students aren't congregating by the bucket to fill out their slip.  Students fill out the Google Form to enter, and then I fill out a paper slip for the different entries before class so I'm still drawing a slip from the bucket.  If someone has already won, I'll fold their slip a few extra times to make it less likely I'll pull it out of the bucket.  I still tape the question on the wall in the classroom so students have access to the seeing the question a few different places.  I've also been keeping track of which questions I ask each year so students get different questions between their first and second year of orchestra with me.  It's a few extra steps, but it doesn't take long.

• Sample "Question of the Week" questions (Word document)

• Sample "Question of the Week" questions (PDF)

Beginning of the Year "Changes" Bulletin Board

For this beginning of the year bulletin board, I wanted to highlight changes in music throughout the years and have students start thinking about how they will grow in their learning this year.  I used a different colored background for each category and linked them with black yarn:

• history of the trumpet
• keyboard instruments
• recorded sound
• violin bows 
• me as a beginning violinist in elementary school up until more recent years

 Feel free to use!  And here are the labels along with approximate dates.

"Welcome" Bulletin Board

For the beginning of the school year, I made a welcome back bulletin board with instruments and greetings from all around the world.  With a world map and black yarn, I matched each instrument and greeting to its corresponding country.  Feel free to use!

Here's a list of the different string instruments and countries represented:

• Balalaika, Russia
• Celtic Harp, Ireland
• Charango, Peru
• Electric Guitar, U.S.A.
• Erhu, China
• Goje, Sudan
• Guitarrón, Mexico
• Hardanger Fiddle, Norway
• Koto, Japan
• Molo, Ghana
• Mountain Dulcimer, U.S.A.
• Oud, Iraq
• Pipa, China
• Sitar, India
• Ukulele, Hawaii, U.S.A.
• Violin, Italy