March is Music in Our Schools month! Celebrate music in the classroom with activities, games, and worksheets for elementary learners.
You don’t need to be a music teacher to celebrate music with your students! March is Music in Our Schools Month (MIOSM®), letting every teacher bring a new rhythm into the classroom. Learn how to integrate Music in Our Schools Month activities, games, and other creative ideas into a dynamic elementary curriculum and your school community all month long.
Bulletin Board Ideas for Music in Our Schools Month
Decorating with musical imagery is a beautiful way to bring music into students’ and school visitors’ lives. Choose ideas that inspire elementary learners and teach them about all the different types of music from the moment they step through the door.
The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) sponsors MIOSM®, and they typically choose a new theme each year. This theme can serve as the basis for your bulletin board design.
Themes have included:
- United Through Music
- I See ME in Music Education
- Music is All of Us
- Music: The Sound of My Heart
- Music Changes Lives
- All Music. All People.
Easy Music in Our Schools Month Bulletin Board Ideas
Starting with the year’s theme or simply the idea that music is powerful and for everyone, you can create unique, original bulletin boards year after year.
- Music Favorites: Have students write their favorite songs, artists, instruments, musicals, and/or music genres on photos of themselves using colorful markers or paints.
- Famous Musicians: Let each student choose a famous musician to write about and hang their reports on the bulletin board.
- 3-D DIY Instruments: Help students create 3-D instruments using recycled materials, then hang them up.
- Musical Art: Play a specific type of music and ask students to create works of art inspired by how that music makes them feel.
Empower young musicians with “I Can” posters
Inspirational music posters on a bulletin board or around your classroom take center stage and empower musical curiosity. You can also turn them into a lesson where students write their own musical “I can” statements or write narrative stories about their relationship with music.
In music class we… Music Advocacy Bulletin Board based on National Standards
By David Row at Make Moments Matter
Subjects: Drama, Music, Vocal Music
Twenty music posters cheerfully announce what students can do with music in this set. Whether it’s “Create,” “Dance,” or “Perform,” they set the expectations for a music class in a colorful, engaging way.
Equip students with music vocabulary
Hang posters around your classroom to introduce and reinforce music terms and concepts. Posters and word walls often make great reference tools and help the learning stick, since students are easily able to reference them while they write, discuss, and listen to others.
What to Listen for in Music Bulletin Board Set
By Cori Bloom
Subjects: Instrumental Music, Vocal Music
The set includes 15 musical term posters, with additional vocabulary cards, all printable in your choice of black and white or color. Each poster gives a definition as well as questions to get your students thinking about and discussing the music. With all the materials that come with this set, you can also use it as a word wall in a music room, and change things out throughout the year as you tackle different units.
Activities for Music in Our Schools Month
Music activities for elementary students can happen anywhere in the school or the community! Use these Music in Our Schools Month activities in music class, math lessons, reading stations, or anywhere else that could use an upbeat tempo. Whenever possible, align these activities with National Arts Education Standards.
Practice identifying symbols with a matching activity
Can your music students identify a dotted half note? What about a sixteenth rest? Add this note-matching activity to your lesson on reading music, or have cards and clothespins in ready-made bags for students to use when they finish their other work.
Clothespin Match Cards: Note Symbol to Note Name | Great for Music Centers!
By music with mrs dunc
Subjects: Music, Music Composition, Vocal Music
Teach elementary students the difference between note symbols with a clothespin matching activity. The resource comes with eight pages of printable cards that cover whole notes and rests, half notes and rests, quarter notes and rests, and many more.
Reinforce beat and rhythm with music stations
Centers can help students explore the difference between things like beat and rhythm at their own pace. You can use stations to create a cross-curricular project with a music specialist class or lead into a unit on children’s poetry.
Kindergarten Music Centers/ Stations – Beat and Rhythm
By Aileen Miracle
Subjects: Instrumental Music, Music, Vocal Music
Everything you need to find the beat in your kindergarten classroom is right here! This resource includes cards to set up music centers, coloring sheets, and notations for the songs and chants in the activity. All you need are instruments for students to play!
Solve a musical escape room puzzle
Perfect for a non-rehearsal band day or music theory review class, an escape room puzzle engages even the most reluctant musicians. Have students work in teams to solve the activity, or use it as a getting-to-know-you activity in the first week of school.
Music Escape Room #1 (Teams use music theory clues to solve codes)
By Band Directors Talk Shop
Subjects: Gifted and Talented, Instrumental Music, Music
Playing music involves a lot of logic, and this escape room activity puts upper elementary students’ logic skills to the test. After using their musical knowledge to solve secret codes, unscramble messages, and complete rhythm math problems, learners put their clues together to “escape” the music room.
Sing a math song to illustrate the concept
Songs can help students learn different kinds of facts and information. For example, you could play a math song for students during a lesson on graphing fractions, or you could ask them to write their own songs about another mathematical concept.
Fractions On a Number Line Song
By Music Notes
Subjects: Applied Math, Basic Operations, Fractions
Standards: CCSS 3.NF.A.2
This fraction song is sure to be the song of the summer — at least, in your classroom! The catchy song explains how to graph fractions on a number line for students who could use some help visualizing the concept.
Write emotional reactions to music
Incorporate a music journaling activity into your language arts lesson, either when working on narrative writing or poetry analysis. Have students share their responses in a classroom presentation for public speaking practice.
Music Listening Journals
By Math to Music
Subjects: Instrumental Music, Music, Vocal Music
The best music brings out our true emotions. Record these authentic responses in a music journal resource, which includes journal prompts, a Listening Journal worksheet, and a sign for your classroom door to keep people outside quiet during work time.
Games for Music in Our Schools Month
What do music and games have in common? They’re both fun — and playing them can help kids learn other important skills. Reinforce music concepts with Music in Our Schools Month ideas for games that elementary students will want to play over and over again.
Play instrument bingo
Bingo is a classic game all kids know how to play, and it can cover any topic area. Use a bingo game as a formative assessment after a lesson on the different instrument families. You can also set it up as a learning station for students to play once they’ve finished their other work.
Music Bingo Game Musical Instruments Non-Pitched Percussion for Elementary Music
By Linda McPherson
Subjects: Instrumental Music, Music, Vocal Music
Younger elementary students identify unpitched percussion instruments in this bingo game. The resource teaches about instruments you may already have in your music class, including finger cymbals, maracas, and rainsticks. It comes with color-coded cards and calling instructions for the teacher.
Review musical symbols with an engaging card game
Use musical symbol cards to play a simple card game during a music theory lesson for any elementary grade level. Keep a set of musical symbol cards ready for substitute teachers or when music students aren’t practicing their instruments.
Music Game for Elementary Music – I Have, Who Has? Symbols, Dynamics, & More!
By Melody Payne – Music for a Lifetime
Subjects: Instrumental Music, Music, Other (Performing Arts)
Can your students identify parts of the grand staff or keys on the piano? They will after playing “I Have, Who Has?” with a resource that quizzes them on beginning and intermediate music concepts. With full sets of color and black and white cards, plus teacher instructions and an answer key, the resource is a one-stop music review shop.
Roll the dice to identify notes and rests
Music games can help students practice their musical knowledge and arithmetic skills at the same time. Tie them in with a math lesson on addition, subtraction, or multiplication to reinforce math basics along with music concepts.
Music Dice Activities – Whole, Half and Quarter Values
By Music with Sara Bibee
Subjects: Music
Combine music, math, and the fun of rolling dice with a resource on notes and rests. After constructing their paper dice with musical symbols on each side, students roll and total their scores with worksheets provided in the research.
Coloring Pages for Music in Our Schools Month
Music and art go hand in hand! Capture the beauty of music with illustrative coloring pages that make excellent finishers, homework assignments, or classroom decorations for Music in Our Schools Month.
Review musical instruments with decorative coloring pages
Print out coloring pages featuring instruments and keep them available for early finishers throughout the year. You can also group them by musical families and pass them out as you study each one in music class.
♫ 80 Music Coloring Pages for Elementary Music Class ➜ Educational & Fun!
By Dariana Jiminez
Subjects: Arts & Music, Music, Other (Performing Arts)
With inspirational quotes, helpful concepts, and beautiful backgrounds behind musical instruments, these coloring pages are a creative addition to any music theory lesson. The resource comes with 80 coloring pages in a variety of skills for different grade levels.
Color beautiful musical symbols and clefs
Let students decompress by coloring musical pages while you’re playing classical music. The resource also makes an excellent sub day option for music classes.
Music Coloring Pages (Music Notes)
By Heidi Babin
Subjects: Instrumental Music, Music, Other (Performing Arts)
Ornate music notes and symbols inspire young musicians and enhance the decorations in your classroom. Students use their favorite coloring utensils (thin markers and colored pencils are ideal) to make the intricate designs even more colorful and detailed, reinforcing important musical knowledge at the same time.
Feel the music in your classroom
Music is one of the most valuable gifts we can give our students, no matter what classroom they’re in at the moment. Celebrate Music in Our Schools Month all year long with more music resources from TPT for music specialist classes, language arts lessons, math activities, and more.
