A composer of the month bulletin board can be a great way to expose students to a variety of composers throughout the year. Maybe in the past you’ve had a composer bulletin board, but haven’t really incorporated it into your lessons. Today I will show you easy ways that you can add composer of the month activities into your classroom to create some awesome music lessons.
What is a Composer of the Month?
The concept of a composer of the month can be used several different ways. Many teachers will pick a composer to focus on in their lessons for each month and do songs and lessons related to that person. You could also do a bulletin board as an enrichment activity for your students, with fun facts. You can even add interactive components!
How Do I Create a Composer of the Month Bulletin Board?
Creating your own bulletin board can be super simple. Here are the main components you will need for a great bulletin board:
Composer
Obviously your bulletin board isn’t going to get far if you don’t have a composer for each month. You can decide which person you are doing each month based on a variety of factors such as the composer’s birthday, seasonal songs they may have composed (Tchaikovsky for December for example), or just choosing what fits with the lessons you want to teach during different parts of the year.
Fun Facts
Make your bulletin board engaging by having fun facts about each composer that will pull students in and get them curious to learn more about the person, as well as basic important information such as famous pieces they wrote or what country they are from.
Interactive Component
A great way to really get your students engaged in your bulletin board is to have an interactive feature. Here are a couple ideas you could use:
Two Truths and a Lie
Post three statements about the composers. Two of them will be true and one will be false. Have students guess which one is the lie. You could have a guess bucket where they could submit guesses, you could have them submit through an online platform, or you could just take a poll at the end of the month.
Audiate This
This is a little more advanced but a great way to stretch your students’ audiation. You can post the notation to famous themes from your monthly composer’s songs and have students try to guess what song it is.
Unscramble Song Titles
Another option is to scramble famous song titles and have students unscramble them. Too easy? Add a level of difficulty by putting in one song that is not written by that person and have students spot the intruder.
Not ready to tackle all the work or prepping your own bulletin board? I got you! This Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Set makes it easy to create your own Composer of the Month bulletin board in a snap. No prep or planning required!
What Are Some Ideas For Adding Activities into my Lessons?
Build units around each month’s composer
This is one of the easiest ways to incorporate a composer of the month into your lessons. Many composers and their music lend themself easily to certain seasons of the school year. The Nutcracker Ballet and Peter Tchaikovsky would be a great unit in December. John Williams is always fun to do for May the Fourth (click here for some May the Fourth fun ideas!). Before you know it, you’ll have a whole year’s worth of fun centered around your composers.
Do a biography unit
In the past, I have had students pick a composer to research from the composers we learned for the year. This is usually an end of the year project in May, after they have at least been exposed to each of the composers. We took one music class period to go to the computer lab and research. Then students did a Facebook-esque profile for their composer containing important info. Click here for my post with all the details of the project.
Compare and contrast composers
You can take this project a step further by having a final display of the projects in class. Students must compare and contrast their composers with one of the other composers that they learn about as they go around the room and read the displays. You could also make it super fun and have students dress as their chosen composer and present about themselves. I think my old school did this with famous people and called it living statues or something like that.
Other Great Articles About Composers
Five Engaging Way to Teach About Famous Composers
Get Started With Your Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Today!
I hope you are as excited to start up your Composer of the Month bulletin board as I am! Honestly this post has me so excited about all the fun possibilities for a Composer of the Month. Make creating your bulletin board extra easy by downloading this ready-made Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Set. Let’s face it. Teachers NEVER have enough time for all the things in the day. Why start from scratch when you can click a button and be done? You deserve a break!
