Music In Our Schools Month® Activities 2026

It's time to get ready for Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) again! I love the buzz in my school building around music education each year I do this, and you can create that buzz too without a lot of prep work (promise) because I'm laying it all out for you here, from a March Madness song bracket to advocacy posters and in-class activities my students beg for every year! Each year I do things a little differently so here is a run-down of everything I'm doing for Music In Our Schools Month 2026.

School-wide March Madness Song Bracket

I started doing a March Madness- style bracket with songs tied to the national theme for that year's MIOSM a few years ago and it has been a huge hit in my building! I go into detail about how I set everything up and run it in this post so check there if you've never done this before, but basically each class votes every day in their homeroom, and the song that gets the most classes' votes goes on to the next round. We play the winning song from the day before in the lobby where all the students enter in the morning and announce it on the morning announcements each day as well. I am super excited about this year's bracket- I am doing songs that include 2 or more languages (to tie in with this year's theme of "United through Music")! You can find the full list of songs for this year's bracket, plus a free template to set up voting in google slides, in this post.

Advocacy Posters

We've had a lot of turnover in teaching staff the last few years in my building and I've noticed a trend of teachers not taking seriously the importance of music classes in the comments they make to me, to each other, and most importantly our students. So I'm ramping up my advocacy efforts this year, especially focusing on getting my colleagues to understand that music class actually enhances their overall education rather than taking away from their "more important learning" as many of them seem to think, especially in relation to the ensemble classes and pullout instrumental lessons. 

I looked up some of the latest research studies and compiled some of the key findings that I thought other teachers, school and district administrators, and parents would find striking, and put them on these simple posters. I will be putting these up around the school and also sending them as images in emails to families throughout the month. Hopefully this will spark conversation and reflection for the other adults in the broader school community! I've also posted them here as a free download if you want to use them in your own buildings.

I've also had this bulletin board display up on the wall outside my classroom for years now, promoting the importance of music for its inherent value rather than just how it can help you do better in other subjects, mostly aimed at my students. If you haven't used this before I highly recommend it, I always get tons of positive comments and wonderful questions because of the display, and it's an easy way to periodically have students create their own posters talking about one of the inherent qualities from the display to add to the board and change it up.

Rhythm Battle: Music Class Activity #1 (K-6)

I do several special activities and contests during music class in the month of March to celebrate Music In Our Schools Month, and the one I've been doing with every class, every grade, every year that I've taught (now 2 decades!) is the Rhythm Battle! And my students still look forward to it every year. We start class with this each time they come to class. They sit down, I start the music, and I put up a slide on my projector that says "Rhythm Battle!". When the intro is ending, I count off 4 beats and click to the next slide on "four". There is a 4-beat rhythm on that slide. If the class claps it correctly, I click to the next 4-beat rhythm slide on the 4th beat, and they have to continue clapping with no pause. They keep going until they make a mistake. When they mess up, they go back to the first slide and start over. Whatever their longest run is before the song ends, that is their class score for the day. I have a score board for each grade so we keep track throughout the month, and the class with the highest total score at the end of the month wins. If you want to see the slides I use, you can get them here.

Disco Duel: Music Class Activity #2 (K-3)

This is another music class activity I've been doing my entire teaching career! I used to do this one with every grade as well, but a few years ago I came up with a different game that I do with my older students (see below), so now it is reserved for just my K-3 classes (although sometimes my older students ask for it too, and I save it as a reward activity if they finish everything else they need to do and we have some extra time left). Cards with the name of a movement (like "cowboy", "DJ", or "hop"), along with a matching picture, are on the whiteboard in a few columns (I usually do 3-4 columns). Before we try it the first time, I teach them the movements for each- they are all movements that can be done with the beat. The last card is always "boogie", which is free dance- students make up their own. To play the game, students perform each movement for 8 beats, reading from the left column, top to bottom, with the beat of the music that I play. BUT I start each group at a different time (I relate it to a canon for older students), so that when the first group finishes the first column, the second group starts. When all the groups finish, I pick the winning team that did the best job of performing the moves correctly and staying on the beat for the correct number of counts. I've updated the movement cards- you can get them here if you're interested.

Melody Match: Music Class Activity #3 (4-6)

After doing this with my older students for a few years now, my 4th-6th graders take this just as seriously as the Rhythm Battle! So this year I'm changing it up and keeping track of points to make it a competition between classes as well. The basic idea of Melody Match is to see how many note letter names the class can identify in one minute. Depending on the grade it might be just treble clef on the staff, adding ledger lines, or treble and bass clef- this could even be done with solfege. A note comes up on the screen and I call on 1 student to name the note. They get one chance- if they're right the class gets a point and I pull up a new note, if they're wrong I go to the next student and continue until they get it right (or the timer ends). The total number of notes they identify correctly in one minute is their class score for that day. Here are the links for the different versions I've set up for my students (all with 1 minute timers): treble clef on the staff, treble clef from middle C to high A above the staff, and treble and bass clef on the staff. There are endless ways to adjust these for different games to practice pitch names! 

What are your plans for Music In Our Schools Month® this year? I really think this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the importance and joy of music education, and there are so many great ways to do that without making your life miserable with things that are too much work. I'd love to hear other ideas you're trying this year in the comments below, and let me know if you have any questions about the things I'm doing! If you want to see all the other things I've done over the years, here are all my posts on the topic.

Read more "Music In Our Schools Month® Activities 2026"

Snow Themed Lessons for Preschool Music

With early childhood music classes I love using themes to help activate students' imagination and connect my lesson to the world around them. This time of year one of my favorite themes is snow! I use these music lesson activities with preschool, kindergarten, and younger self-contained special education classes and they have been a hit. Here are some of my favorite activities to use in snow-themed lessons.

1. Snow Songs

There are tons of great songs about snow but my favorites for this age group include: 

All of the Snowflakes (great for getting non-verbal students to vocalize, and a fun song that will get everyone singing! I use this song with 2nd grade for a composition activity as well- see my full lesson plans in the linked article)

I Have a Little Snowman (I use this to introduce and show notes going up and down with movement)

It's Wintertime (this song isn't just about snow but it does talk about snowmen so I often include it with my snow themed lessons- it's an additive song that includes a different instrument students can play for each verse)

2. Movement Activities

It's Snowing Outside (this song invites movement in the lyrics so it's easy to learn and great to reinforce steady beat and practice moving safely in space)

Winter Scarves (the linked video demonstrates scarf movements you can do to match the lyrics about snow- my students love this calming song!)

I Live Inside a Snowglobe (I have students sit and do motions while they sing the verse at the beginning, stand up when it says "shake it up" etc in the chorus and do the move to match the lyrics, and then sit back down when it says "and then the snow falls down". this is a great one for practicing following directions for students who are working on self control because they have to start and stop a lot throughout the song but in a fun way)

Snowman Dance (this is a great brain break type activity I like to keep in my back pocket when students are unfocused, a lesson just isn't going well, or I see they need to get up and move for a few minutes because students just follow along with the simple dance movements in the video)

3. Iconic Play-Alongs

I like using iconic notation play-along videos to get my youngest students to track notation and relate it later on to paired eighth note, quarter note, and quarter rest notation. I also use these same icons off-screen by printing out similar clipart and putting them up on the board for students to read while I point, or have students use them to create their own patterns too!

Snow Day (hat=quarter, mitten=eighths, blank=rest)

Snow! (skate=quarter, snowman=eighths, shhh=rest)

Snowman Village (hat=quarter, snowman=eighths, rest sign for rest)

4. Books

All of these are books that I pair with music lessons.

Froggy Gets Dressed (I use the lessons in the article linked here every year with Kindergarten)

Snow Music (perfect for adding sound effects with instruments and/or found sound)

The Snowy Day (a classic book that's great for vocal exploration)

I hope this gives you some fresh material to use in your early childhood lessons this winter! Many of these are honestly also great for older grades when you want something fun that's still musical but doesn't require a lot of brain power, so they're great to keep on hand no matter what age you teach! What other songs and music lesson activities about snow do you use in your elementary music classes? I'd love to hear more ideas in the comments. Want to see how I incorporate winter and snow themes into all my grade levels K-6? Here's my full curriculum for January with full lesson plans and all the visuals and materials!

Read more "Snow Themed Lessons for Preschool Music"

Bad Bunny in Elementary Music

At this point I think most of us are aware of Bad Bunny's halftime performance at the 2026 Superbowl! And many of our students, especially upper elementary and older, will be aware of him now if they weren't already. Although most of his music isn't appropriate for elementary classroom use, I found the perfect song that is not only school appropriate but also can be used to teach and practice so many important skills and concepts I teach in elementary general music lessons!

Bad Bunny's halftime performance has brought new excitement and attention to Puerto Rico and its music and culture, and to Spanish language as well, which has been absolutely amazing. But it's hard to reference his music directly in elementary school because most of his music is made for adults, not children, and in a school setting especially would not be appropriate to share with students. But of course I was determined to find a way to feed off the energy of his performance! 

If you're looking for a song you can comfortably share with elementary students in its original form, I think "El Mundo Es Mío" is the one- the lyrics are not only school appropriate, but the message is empowering and the refrain is simple and easy for elementary students to learn even if they don't speak Spanish. 

Here are a few ideas for using this song in elementary music lessons:

1. Steady beat

Use the song as a track to practice showing steady beat through movement or instruments! With Kindergarten and 1st grade I love doing a game I call "follow the leader", where I call out each student's name throughout the song and that student becomes the new leader to come up with a steady beat move for the rest of the class to follow. With older students I will also review classroom instrument names playing techniques by handing out a few different instruments, then calling out a name of an instrument for only those students to play on the steady beat.

2. Rhythm practice

Use the song as a track to have students play rhythms with: they could practice reading rhythms from notation and then play it with the beat of the song, take turns improvising rhythms, or split up into groups and play different rhythms as ostinato patterns, with body percussion or with instruments (bonus points for instruments that are a part of Puerto Rican music, like guiros, maracas, or hand drums!).

3. Solfege

Ask students to identify the solfege in the refrain (la-re-do, la-re-do-ti). This is perfect if you are working on presenting or practicing low la and low ti. Once they have aurally identified the solfege, practice singing the refrain with Curwen hand signs, or have students notate it on the staff. I like using mini erasers and other small manipulatives as note heads for students to practice notating solfege, and I think my bunny mini erasers will be perfect for this!

4. Rap writing

Teach students the brief refrain, "el mundo es mio, el mundo es tuyo". Ask students to think of something that they're proud of about themselves, and then figure out how to say it with the beat in an 8-beat phrase. Have a few students take turns saying their line about something they are proud of, then have the whole class sing the refrain, then a few more students say their line. You could even use a karaoke track of the song to do it with. This could tie into or lead into more lessons to practice developing "flow" in rapping: here are some lesson ideas for teaching rap skills in elementary music.

Of course this is also the perfect opportunity to explore the music of Puerto Rico more broadly as well! Here is a lesson plan for Ambos A Dos, a Puerto Rican game song I love using with Kindergarten, and another set of lessons for El Coqui, a frog song from Puerto Rico I use with 2nd grade. You can search for all my blog posts on Puerto Rico, or on Spanish language songs, on this page. This would also be a great time to explore Puerto Rican musical styles like Reggaeton, Plena, or Bomba... more on that to come. 

Are you planning to talk about Bad Bunny with your students at all? Have you found other ways to incorporate his music in your elementary music lessons? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments. 

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Ice Skating Themed Elementary Music Lessons

My favorite event in the winter olympics has always been figure skating! With the next winter olympics coming up soon, here are some of my favorite ice skating-themed lesson activities I've used in my elementary music classes, along with the concepts that I use them to teach. 

Skating by Stephanie Leavell

I love using this skating song with my self-contained and early childhood music classes! Of course it is made to be an easy to learn, singable, fun song for young children to sing and move with (including sections that tell you to move and stop), but I actually use it the most sitting in chairs with instruments, usually either egg shakers or jingle bells. We hold the instrument and glide it around and stop, which is a great way to get kids to practice following directions, sing, and explore instruments at the same time.

Skating by Vince Guaraldi Trio

This wonderful jazz piece is from the Charlie Brown Christmas movie and it instantly evokes the image of skating on a frozen lake outside in the softly falling snow. I use this song to practice ABA form, either by having students do some basic moves contrasting moves for each section on the beat, asking them to raise their hand when they hear the music change, or most often showing the contrasting sections with paper plate skating (see below).

Paper Plate Skating

If you haven't tried paper plate skating yet you are missing out! Have each student put a paper plate under each foot and they can "glide" around the room like they're skating! I have carpet in my room so it works great- you'll want to test it out first if you don't. I use this to teach 2 different concepts: with younger students I use the Vince Guaraldi Trio song above to show ABA form by gliding around the room in the A section, then staying in place and doing spins/ jumps in one spot in the B sections. For older students I use similar moves to practice legato and staccato: glide for legato, do a "ballet spin" (tip toe around in a circle in place) for staccato. If you have 4th/5th graders that you can convince to let loose and be silly, this is one of the best things you'll ever do- trust me.

Skater's Waltz by Émile Waldteufel

This is a great orchestral piece to use for teaching triple meter and to review the instruments of the orchestra. I'm always looking for songs with a strong triple meter feel and this one is a perfect tempo for students to move with the downbeat or even do a very basic waltz step to get used to the triple meter feel. I also like using the linked video recording specifically to have students visually and/or aurally identify instruments of the orchestra, which is something I do with 3rd and 4th grades this time of year. It has different spots in the music that feature different instruments and sections of the orchestra so it's a good piece to have students either try to identify instruments by sound or by watching the video. It could also be another good one to use those paper skates with too!

I hope this gives you some fresh ideas for connecting with the winter olympics in your music classes, or just incorporating a wintery theme that's fun for everyone! What other songs or music lessons do you teach with an ice skating theme? I'd love to hear more ideas in the comments! You can also find more winter themed elementary music lesson ideas in this blog post, and snow themed lesson ideas in this post!

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