Let’s talk about Composer of the Month activities. If you’ve ever considered doing a composer of the month in your classroom, but never hit the go button because you couldn’t quite figure out how to implement it, then this post is for you!
While there is no one right way to bring composer of the month activities into your classroom, I will give you a couple ideas of how you might get started, and you can see what most inspires you and give it a try!
Looking for something QUICK? Click here to grab a growing set of all the composer of the month activities you could ever need!
What is a Composer of the Month?
The idea of having a Composer of the Month is to feature a famous composer each month in order to expose your students to a wide variety of famous composers throughout the year. Imagine – if you did this K-5, think of how many composers your students would know about by the time they left your class!
Why Should I Have a Composer of the Month?
That’s a great question, and I’m glad you asked! There is SO MUCH to cram in as a music teacher. Why focus on composers?
First of all, you can embed many of the concepts you need to teach (dynamics, timbres, tempo, etc) while learning about famous composers and their music. Often, I think that teachers think they have to do a composer who was born in that specific month. Nope! You can pick your composers based on whatever criteria you want.
Perhaps you pick an African-American composer like Scott Joplin for Black History Month. Or you focus on Tchaikovsky while you study the music of the Nutcracker. Or while learning about forte and piano, you study a composer who wrote music with stark examples of forte and piano – Haydn, Rossini and Vivaldi come to mind.
Also, teaching about music within the content of history and talking about the person who created that music helps students make connections, which is what makes learning stick. And seeing composers from different backgrounds may even inspire one of your students to become a composer some day! Who knows?
Composer of the Month Activities You Can Try In Your Music Class
Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Display
Let’s start with the baseline. If you are just looking to create a little more awareness of different composers, but don’t have time to fit them into your lesson plans, you could simply have a Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Display.
Grab my starter set here or read more about ways you can use a Composer of the Month Bulletin Board display here.
Make It Interactive!
Want to get your students engaging with learning about famous composers? Take your bulletin board up a notch by creating interactive elements that require them to think or even submit an answer.
You could do Two Truths and a Lie or Audiate This – both included in my Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Set. Or create your own way to engage students: take a poll, add a QR code to listen to a song, or any number of other things!
Feature a Famous Composer’s Music Each Month
To go a step farther, you can actually incorporate the music from a featured composer each month. It could be as simple as starting class with a song by the Composer of the Month each week and have a question they have to answer about the music.
Or you could plan more detailed Composer of the Month activities. Whether you are moving, listening, or playing along – these featured composer units have ideas for how to incorporate music into your lesson plans for weeks of study. This can be GREAT for a music appreciation class or for any time you want to do a focused unit of study on a specific composer.
Currently, I have units on the music of:
(And they are all some of my best sellers – if that counts for anything!).
Another great resource is my Growing Composer of the Month Biography Bundle. It gives you tons of activities for learning about composers (and the list of composers continues to grow!). Then you can supplement it with whatever songs you want by the given composer.
These Meet the Composer biography sets go beyond simple biographies and incorporate lots of interactive individual and group activities that will help your students really get to know about each composer with minimal effort on your part.
Guess the Composer
Looking for something a little different? You could make your composer of the month a MYSTERY! Each week you could offer clues. You could even play some of their music, starting with more obscure stuff and getting to their more famous songs towards the end of the month. At the end of the month, you could have the big reveal and see who was correct.
This approach is great from an education perspective because it really requires students to think critically about the information you give them.
Have Kids Vote in the Composer of the Month
Are you looking for ways to give students more say and autonomy in your classroom. Try a more student centered learning approach by letting students VOTE on which composer will be the next Composer of the Month.
This one can really help students have more buy-in to the lessons, since they got a voice in what they chose to learn.
But it requires you to be prepared to teach lesson A, B or C depending on how the vote goes. I would highly recommend purchasing the Composer of the Month Growing Bundle so you can just print and go if you are trying this approach. It takes all the stress out of the equation.
Want to Get Started with Composer of the Month Activities Today?
Click here to grab the Composer of the Month Growing Bundle and have instant access to a growing number of print-and-go lessons on famous composers from every era. Each composer set comes with 10 activities you can use in music class to bring each famous composer to life!
