MIOSM Home • What is MIOSM? • History of MIOSM • The Biggest School Chorus in the World • MIOSM and Advocacy • Activity Ideas • MIOSM Awareness Items • MIOSM Chairperson • Press Information • Download Logos
Connect with students, parents, colleagues, and the community…
- Celebrate by participating in the Biggest School Chorus in the World!
- Create a video for local advocacy. Record your students performing and include an introduction from your principal, mayor, or another leader demonstrating their support for music education. Use the video for outreach to television and radio stations, newspapers, and legislators. (See MIOSM and Advocacy for tips for working with the media.)
- Download, share and promote NAfME’s “Why Music?” radio public service announcements for MIOSM.
- Make a “Music Month” calendar, and suggest that students dress for different musical eras. Play appropriate music as students arrive in the morning and at lunchtime.
- Add a musical touch to the morning announcements. Try having a “mystery tune” each day, or a music trivia question, with MIOSM prizes for the winner.
- Present faculty members with MIOSM buttons or lapel stickers and ask that they wear them every day during March.
- Sponsor a poster or poetry contest. Posters and poems should support Music In Our Schools and revolve around the current year’s theme. Have individuals from outside the school judge the entries.
- Plan an all-school sing of American Young Voices music!
- Have a talent show emphasizing music. Tell a story, a joke, or read poetry about music, and be sure to include traditional acts of singing, playing instruments, etc. Invite the parents, and choose a winning act from each class to perform in a winners’ assembly.
- Collaborate with the art teacher and have students design posters, banners, and buttons featuring the MIOSM theme.
- Ask students to draw their favorite musical instrument, have them design an instrument of the future, or bring in homemade instruments for “show and tell”.
- Collaborate with your school’s history or social studies departments to create cross-curricular activities based on the theme of the concert or the pieces being performed.
- Ask students to cut pictures of music and musicians out of magazines and create a musical wall collage for your classroom(s).
- Have students list ways in which music is a part of their everyday lives. Have them compare lists with friends and family members.
- Invite teachers in your school to sing along with your students at a concert. Better yet, create a teacher chorus or instrumental ensemble to perform at an MIOSM concert.
- Take a field trip during MIOSM to hear a local college group, community chorus or orchestra, or invite a group to perform at your school. Take advantage of MIOSM events to teach students about concert etiquette.
- Invite local Tri-M or Collegiate NAfME members to participate in your MIOSM plans through performing, teaching, games, and discussions.
- Take students to a local senior center or hospital and invite everyone to participate in the sing-along.
- Present students with lapel stickers to wear during MIOSM.
- Ask the local radio station if your group can record PSAs for MIOSM, and look into placing music education messages on local marquees.
Successful ideas from NAfME members…
- The students at Lamar Reese Elementary School in Albany, GA, won MIOSM® T-Shirts by participating in a music contest in which they colored the MIOSM Coloring Page and wrote a short story about the picture.
- At Clarksville Elementary School in Clarksville, MD, students told “What Music Means to Me” through a writing assignment. The papers were placed around the school for all to read.
- “Family Activity Night” at Richardson Elementary School in Oscoda, MI, combined MIOSM and reading with a dinner, reading activities, and a music concert presented by each grade level.
- An opera concert, performances by a men’s quartet, jazz band, and country singer, and a bagpipe concert were all organized for Upson Lee North Elementary in Thomaston, GA, to entertain and educate students.
- Avery Elementary School in Hilliard, OH, held a month long Composer Contest. Each week featured a new composer, and clues were provided every day that became more specific throughout the week.
- “Talent Sharing Day” at Winkelman Elementary School in Glenview, IL, had students playing their instruments and singing for each other during class time. The students then voted on who would perform in an assembly.
- The spring musical at Waccamaw Elementary School in Pawleys Island, SC, featured an artist from the Egbe Kilimanjaro African Drumming Band.
- In Germany, students from the Waldbuttelbrunn Volksschule joined their friends at Wuerzburg Elementary School to present concerts during March.
- At Santrock Elementary School in Barberton, OH, students sang and played their band instruments during the morning announcements throughout March, and some of the beginning band members performed at the monthly PTA meeting.
- A local opera company led a residency program at Stonehouse Elementary School in Williamsburg, VA, after which the students put on a production of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” for the school.
- In Denver, CO, Merrill Middle School students wrote operas based on African folk stories, and performed them for a sixth grade audience.
- The band at Worthingway Middle School, Worthington, OH, took their MIOSM celebrations as an opportunity to perform “young people’s concerts” at local elementary schools.
- At Pleasantview Elementary School in Sauk Rapids, MN, the students played a song guessing game after the morning announcements. Students had to guess the title, artist, style, etc., and hand in their entries as a class to win a special treat. A selection was also played for the staff to get them involved, too.
