Orchestra classroom

Orchestra Classroom Ideas: Organizing Inventory and a little re-decorating

After seeing a fingering poster online that another orchestra teacher had created, I knew I wanted to make a set for myself. I cut strips of black paper at various widths to show the strings from thickest to thinnest (1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1"), laminated the poster, then used Velcro to mark where each note would go. Each letter name bubble was cut out, laminated, and Velcro-ed. I also taped a plastic baggie to the back of the poster to store the unused notes. At one school, I have a strip of…

I always keep a few bags of dollar store balloons in a drawer in my classroom so that we can do these fun bow games. These are great to keep class interesting when students fall into a rut. You can use balloons in many ways. I give each student a balloon and have them blow it up themselves and tie it (I usually have to blow up one or two for students who can't tie balloons on their own.) I then put on some bow game music and the students try to keep their balloon in the air using a perfect…

This is my 12th year teaching orchestra, and I'm still learning and discovering more efficient ways to teach students and take care of daily teaching duties. Here are a few of my discoveries from the first couple weeks of school...wish I would have known this stuff earlier! 1. Putting tapes on instruments. I've posted before about the kind of tapes I use...car pinstripe tape: It takes a lot of time to put tapes on instruments. Some years I have let my more advanced students put tapes on the…

A few days ago a received a letter from a reader: I teach 4th and 5th grade beginning strings and orchestra. I absolutely love you...

It's the last 2 weeks of school for me! I like to make sure students are engaged and busy through the end of the year. Otherwise teaching can start to feel too much like babysitting teenagers. Here are my plans for the rest of the year! Some have asked how to play Apples to Apples orchestra edition. Here's a tutorial:

I decided to make binders to keep on every music stand in my classroom. I got this idea from some awesome teachers in Georgia - shout out to Amy Clement and Sarah Ball! Every minute counts in an orchestra rehearsal. By placing materials in binders, every student will have what they need. No more hunting down music for that kid who was absent, or making a new copy of our warm-ups because somebody left theirs at home. I'm still going to give each student a folder and music they can take home…

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