• Music symbolsmusic background image by Nataliya Galkina from Fotolia.com
  
  Bulletin boards in a elementary school music classroom can be good tools for teaching and reinforcing musical concepts. Music bulletin boards also liven up the atmosphere of a room. By investing a little time and energy along with a few resources, you can make your classroom more inviting and remind students about musical topics at the same time.
  
  

Pyramid

• This bulletin board illustrates the relationship between various rhythm notes. Create a title (such as "Rhythm Pyramid" or something similar) for your bulletin board. Cut a large triangle out of poster board. Use as much of the poster board as possible so the notes will be large and visible. Divide the triangle into five reasonably equal sections by drawing four horizontal lines across the triangle. In the top section, draw a whole note. In the second section, draw two half notes. In the third area, draw four quarter notes. In the fourth section, draw eight eighth notes, and in the fifth section draw sixteen sixteenth notes. Use the bulletin board to remind students how many beats various notes are worth.
  
  

Instrument Families

• This is a bulletin board that teaches about the major instrument families--strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Create a title for the board that reads "Instrument Families." Post sub-headings in four different areas of the board for each of the families. Have your students go through magazines for pictures of instruments, or you could even have them draw and color the instruments themselves. Once your pictures are ready, assist your students in attaching them to the proper place on the bulletin board. This type of bulletin board not only will remind the students about instrument families, but it also can allow them to see their own work displayed.
  
  

Genres

• When you are studying different genres of music, create a bulletin board to go along with your unit. The board should have the title of the genre, along with other related concepts such as instruments used, famous songs, well-known musicians, definitions and historical facts. For instance, if you are studying country music, you could include pictures of guitars, basses, steel guitars, fiddles and banjos. For well-known musicians, you could add pictures of George Jones, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash, alongside modern musicians such as Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood and Blake Shelton.