2020 Mask Bulletin Board

 

My district is planning an in-person return in September.  I'm nervous about this decision, but one small thing I knew I had in my control was the message in my back-to-school bulletin board.  Here's hoping this is the only year I'll have to use this one!

I found a website that lets you resize a picture of a mask to a photo that you upload, so I tried to add a variety of string players and composers. 

• Photos and text (Word doc)
• Photos and text (PDF)

End-of-Year Photo Gift

Throughout the school year, I take several pictures of students--during the first few weeks of school when the beginners are still plucking, once students have learned to hold their bow, concerts, Solo/Ensemble tours, etc.  I like to display the pictures on the STAR Musician wall (see post here).

On the last day of orchestra, after students have tried out some pieces from their new summer packets, I give students a little photo memento.  I order photos through Walgreens (waiting for a good deal to come up!), cut colorful paper in half, hand-write the following information on the back, and tape the photo to the front with double-sided scrap-booking tape.
 
Name, instrument
School name, grade
School year
Solo/Ensemble piece(s) and ensemble partner(s)
-My name

It's pretty simple, a little time consuming, but a nice memory for students of their year in orchestra.

Springtime Music Bulletin Board

Happy spring!

A simple Google search for "spring music" brings up several titles, artists, and composers.  I selected a few and added images of composers and scores (from imslp.org) along with some quick springtime clip art to create this springtime bulletin board.

Pieces/composers included (in no particular order): 

• "Spring" from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1717)
• Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland (1944)
• "Spring is Here" by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (1938), sung by Ella Fitzgerald
• Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (1913)
• On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring by Frederick Delius (1912)
• "April Come She Will" by Simon & Garfunkel (1964)

• Springtime bulletin board pieces/composers/years

Women Wow the Music World! Bulletin Board

March is Women's History Month, and this year I wanted to create a bulletin board highlighting female musicians throughout history.  Thanks to my mom for coming up with the title: "Women Wow the Music World!"(and for cutting out and mailing me the letters)!

As with some previous bulletin boards (see the post "Celebrate Music with these Great Americans!" for Black History Month), I printed out the "condensed" file, trimmed and laminated each half sheet, and then attached them to a folded piece of colored paper.  If you'd rather save some steps, just print out the "double sided" file, fold each page in half, and you're ready to staple them to the bulletin board!

For each musician, I included her name and picture on the front and then her name, dates, country, instrument, profession, genre, and one famous title when you lift up the flap.

Here are the 24 musicians included (feel free to add your own):

• Martha Argerich
• Amy Beach
• Hildegard von Bingen
• Nadia Boulanger
• Regina Carter
• Cécile Chaminade
• Sarah Chang
• Sandra Dackow
• Jacqueline du Pre
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Aretha Franklin
• Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
• Jennifer Higdon
• Billie Holiday
• Alma Schindler Mahler
• Midori
• Soon Hee Newbold
• Florence Beatrice Price
• Clara Schumann
• Ruth Crawford Seeger
• Anoushka Shankar
• Bessie Smith
• Esperanza Spalding
• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Women Wow the Music World!--heading

• Google doc

Names, pictures, and trivia (condensed)

• Word document
• PDF

Names, pictures, and trivia (print double sided)

• Word document
• PDF

Enjoy!

Composer Trivia Bulletin Board

One thing that I like about our method book, "Orchestra Expressions," Book 1, is that it highlights several composers including Bach, Beethoven, Bizet, Copland, Strauss, Jr. and more.  The featured composers each have a portion of a page with their portrait, a short bio, a listening map for a specific composition, and a timeline.  The CD that comes with the book also has a recording of that specific composition for each composer; students are encouraged to listen to that CD track while doing various warmups.

Anyway, I took five of the composers and came up with a bit of trivia for each.  I put the fun fact on the front of a folded sheet of paper and the corresponding composer's name on the inside.  This way, it's an interactive bulletin board--students can flip up the flap to see if they guessed the correct composer!

Here are the pdfs of the text and pictures.  I laminated each bit before taping it onto the colored paper so they would last longer.  I've also included some pdfs of the same trivia written as a word balloon coming out of the mouth of each composer. Enjoy!

• Composer portraits (pdf)
• Composer trivia (pdf) 
• Trivia with word balloons (pdf)
• Great job! plus trivia word balloons (pdf)

Beautiful Bow Hold Bulletin Board

I had been wanting to create a bulletin board showcasing the bow holds of famous string players--and of my students--for a couple of years now and I finally made it happen this year.  You'll see some pictures both before and after I added the student pictures.  Students can check out some model bow holds and start to become familiar with the names of a few well known string players as well as feel recognized for their work on their own bow hold!

• Google doc of pictures, captions, and credits
• PDF of pictures, captions, and credits

Musicians included:

VIOLIN

• Regina Carter
• Yehudi Menuhin
• Midori
• Julian Rhee
• Chauntee Ross
• Lindsey Stirling

VIOLA

• Yuri Bashmet

CELLO

• Yo-Yo Ma
• Steven Sharp Nelson
• Monique Ross

BASS

• Edgar Meyer (French bow)
• Esperanza Spalding (German bow)

Celebrate Music with these Great Americans! Bulletin Board

With February being Black History Month, I wanted to create a bulletin board highlighting musicians and came up with the title "Celebrate music with these great Americans!"  It was hard to narrow the selection of who to include, so I think I will switch out some names halfway through the month (they won't all fit on my bulletin board at one time...).

I printed out the "condensed" file, trimmed and laminated each half sheet, and then attached them to a folded piece of colored paper.  If you'd rather save some steps, just print out the "double sided" file, fold each page in half, and you're ready to staple them to the bulletin board!

For each musician, I included their name and picture on the front and then their name/nickname, dates, instrument, profession, genre, and one famous title when you lift up the flap.

Here are the 24 musicians included (feel free to add your own):

• Louis Armstrong
• Chuck Berry
• James Brown 
• Regina Carter
• Nat King Cole
• John Coltrane
• Duke Ellington
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Aretha Franklin
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Jimi Hendrix
• Billie Holiday
• Scott Joplin
• B.B. King
• Wynton Marsalis
• Bobby McFerrin
• Jelly Roll Morton
• Thelonious Monk
• Charlie Parker
• Florence Beatrice Price
• Bessie Smith
• William Grant Still 
• Sarah Vaughan
• Fats Waller

Celebrate music with these great Americans--heading

• Google doc

Names, pictures, and trivia (condensed)

• Word document
• PDF

Names, pictures, and trivia (print double sided)

• Word document
• PDF

Enjoy!