How to Create a Keyboard Bulletin Board

Many of you have probably seen the bulletin board I created several years ago in one of my classrooms. It is one of my most popular pins and one of my all time favorite bulletin boards. It was inspired by an idea on Tracy King's Bulletin Board website.


Some of you may be wondering just how hard this is to create yourself and where to start. Well, here are the steps I followed to re-create the look at my second school.







And that is it! You have a complete bulletin board.

If you try this tutorial I would love to see your results!
Thanks for reading!

1,000 TpT followers Giveaway

Wow! I cannot even believe I'm writing this right now. Just a year ago I was celebrating 400 followers and now I have OVER 1,000 followers. What a humbling experience. I'm so grateful for each and every one of you that has followed me, so I'm throwing a BIG HUGE giveaway!

SIX FABULOUS prizes up for grabs:

1. $25 TPT Gift Card to be spent on anything site wide
2. $15 credit to my TPT store
3. Ready for School Bundle: Watercolor Music Word Wall (donated by Lindsay Jervis @ Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom) and Music Teacher Binder (donated by Aileen Miracle @ Mrs. Miracle's Music Room) (approximately worth $17.50)
4. Listening Activities Bundle: Carnival of the Animals - Listening Journal & Fact Sheet (donated by Cori Bloom @ Rhythm & Bloom), Peter and the Wolf - Storybook Powerpoint (donated by Shelly Tomich @ Pitch Publications), and Flight of the Bumblebee - Listening Activities & Assessments (Katie Robertson @ Cowgirl Compositions) (approximately worth $14)
5. Music Games Bundle: Rhythm Monsters (Jennifer Hibbard @ The Yellow Brick Road), Solfa! An Uno-Inspired Game (donated by Amy Abbott @ Music a la Abbott) and The Case of the Sneaky Singing Snails - So, La, & Mi edition (donated by Tina Jones @ Totally Tuned-In Teacher) (approximately worth $12.50)
6. Music Worksheet Bundle: Space Pals - Music Worksheet Bundle (donated by Jena Hudson @ Sew Much Music), Music Worksheets (donated by Sara Bibee @ Music with Sara Bibee), and Do Worksheet Bundle (donated by me) (approximately worth $12.50)

Here is a preview of what you could win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

High and Low Worksheet Activity

This year I created a small project for us to work on to continue work on high vs. low. I really enjoyed this project because the students got excited about it. (It includes coloring, cutting, and gluing. All things Kindergarteners love.) Plus, it was an easy way for me to assess how students were doing with this concept. The first time I used this project with my first set of Kinders, I chose to do it too soon and students struggled with it. So, I tried it as one of my final activities with my second set of Kinders and they were rather successful with it.

Here is how it works:

1. First, students get the page with all the pictures of different items.

2. I played short music clips of each of these sounds for students to hear. I really stressed that they should NOT just pick based on what they thought, but on what they actually heard. (Link to these music clips is included in the file)
3. As we went along, students colored the squares orange if they sounded HIGH and purple if they sounded LOW. Note: It's extremely important to continue to remind students they are listening for high and low. I also had students draw an orange - UP arrow and a purple - DOWN arrow to remind them what color they should color the square.
4. After coloring all the pieces I had students turn them in. This gave me a chance to assess how they did and figure out which students I needed to work with on certain sounds.
5. The second day, I had students cut out their squares and glue them into the correct places on their "Is it High? Or is it Low?" worksheet. (With some classes, that did really well on this worksheet, I had them cut and glue on their own. Other classes, that struggled, went through the answers one by one and glued them in the correct places. This allowed them to easily see which ones they got right or wrong.)

In the end, some students ended up with sheets that looked 'perfect' and others were 'imperfect' but it was a great learning experience. I also found that after doing this activity my students were much more aware of high and low sounds. They didn't refer to everything as loud and soft all the time.

Now for the GREAT news! This project is a FREE download in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can download it HERE! Please feel free to download and use. I'd also really appreciate any and all feedback you can give me!

Five Favorite Music Freebies

I'm really sorry for another lack of updates, but I promise that my next blog post will have a cool forever freebie you can all add to your collection. Hopefully, that will make up for it!

Today I'm linking up with Noteworthy by Jen to bring you my Five Favorite Music Freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers.


There are MANY out there, so it is very hard to pick just five. Read about the freebies below and then click any of the pictures to download them yourselves!

1) Cowgirl Compositions
I actually found this gem LONG before she was creating other items on Teachers Pay Teachers. I don't exactly remember how I stumbled on it, but I know I downloaded it one of my first years of teaching. It was my first year teaching at a school where students had little to NO experience clapping ANY rhythms. (Even basic rhythms like ta & ti-ti) My 4th and 5th graders had no desire to learn music, because they never had to do much before I got there. This rhythm football really made my 4th and 5th grade boys excited to practice rhythms. Not only because they love sports, but because it was a game and competitive. I cannot tell you how many times we used this game and how many times they would beg me to play it. Cowgirl Compositions now has several others versions of the game that you can download and use in your classroom, as well.
Note: This file is a SMARTnotebook file, so unfortunately you will not be able to use it if you don't have SMARTnotebook.

2) Floating Down the River
Along the same lines, Floating Down the River has a freebie for March Madness. I like this idea because not only does it involve singing, but again it is perfect for my boys who are obsessed with sports. This is such a creative game and what boy will not want a chance to shoot a basket? Now to find some different size balls to play this game next year...

3) The Yellow Brick Road
It's the perfect time of year to use this matching game by The Yellow Brick Road. I like how she has two different versions: one for a whole group activity and one as a center activity. Can you ever have enough activities for preparing and practicing ta and ti-ti?

4) Totally Tuned-In Teacher
My students can never get enough practice on counting BEATS for different rhythms. This year, this has been a major focus. My students have such a hard time understanding that two notes does NOT mean two beats. Plus, my 3rd graders are working on time signatures right now and this would actually tie in well with that. Even though this freebie is 'technically' for Valentine's day, you still could use it any time of year OR you can get one of her other rhythm activity packs.

5) Brittany De Laruelle
Finally, I just have to do a shout out for one of my favorite freebies in my store. I have several freebies, but this one is still one of my favorites. This would also be a GREAT activity to use with your students this time of the year. Not only will your students be able to practice their solfege, but they'll also love the chance to color.

That's all for now! Don't forget to read about all the other freebies back at Jen's original post. You can read about those HERE.