I’ve been wanting to have my friend Lindsey share this post for years (yes really), and we finally made it happen! Her composer graveyard is such a wonderful idea for the music classroom and I think this is such a wonderful way to help composers come to life. This is such a fun experience for her students and I loved the idea of having Lindsey share it with you.
She notes this is for grades 4-5
One thing that I LOVE during the school year is the spooky season! There are so many Fall songs to include that completely align with my Kodaly-inspired curriculum, but I also love to create experiences for my students through classroom transformations!
When I first started teaching at my current school in Oklahoma, I saw students twice a week with a class and a half, with the occasional double. I felt like there were always fun things to do with my younger students this time of year, but I also wanted to challenge myself to find something that would engage the older ones and somehow tie in a little “preview” to composers.
As our school continued to grow, we started seeing more grades with double classes, so I was given a music aide to help with tasks and help manage behavior, as needed. Heidi was an incredible artist, so I floated this idea of a “graveyard” to her as a way to introduce the older composers to students. She was absolutely instrumental in helping me with the various shapes of gravestones that I still use today!
I went to my local Lowe’s and bought two sheets of blue foam insulation and some spray paint. It worked well, because the spraypaint actually left some textured imprints in the foam, giving it a more of a “worn” look for each. Of course, as the idea spread to others in my state, a much easier solution they found was to head to their local dollar store around this time of year and purchase the premade lawn decorations, which would be a great time-saver!
Once we finished cutting, painting, and labeling each gravestone, I created a template of basic information about each composer I chose, along with a few familiar and famous works and fun facts that I pinned or glued to the back. Setting up a scavenger hunt for the students was simple once I had the facts made, since I took clues from each for the students to find. Some questions even included a little math, when I only listed the birth and death year.
Setting the scene was also incredibly important to me, because I wanted it to be engaging, but also memorable! I put out a black tarp, blue lights, cheap holiday decorations, such as cobwebs, skeleton bones (aka: the salad tossers from Dollar Tree), and glow-in-the-dark spiders and other creatures. I lit up the LED lights that were already around my white boards, and pulled up a spooky scene on a Google Slide, along with Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue” playing on repeat. Eventually, I even added a fog machine! Students were given their paper, clipboard and pencil outside the Music Room, along with a flashlight and away they went!
Some of my best memories have been seeing their faces as they entered or hearing gasps of surprise. The Composer Graveyard has become a memorable part of our music room, sparking curiosity, conversation, and plenty of questions from my students. (I’ve even had a few administrators and superintendents come check it out!)
To me, music is meant to be magical. It’s meant to hold a special place in their educational experience. I want it to inspire them to discover joy, confidence, creativity, and a lifelong love of music that can extend far beyond the few years we share together.
Lindsey Schroder, M.M.Ed., is in her nineteenth year of teaching elementary music and choir and middle school choir in Oklahoma. She is also a director and co-founder of the Enid Community Children’s Chorus and serves as an instructor for the University of Oklahoma Kodály Institute. A passionate music education advocate, Lindsey has served in leadership roles at the state and national levels and enjoys presenting and serving as a festival clinician throughout Oklahoma and a few surrounding states. She continues to share her love of music with students, fellow educators, and her community. Lindsey and her husband can usually be found chasing their two little showmen from curtain call to the first pitch.
Find her on Instagram: @lyricsbylinds
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2 Responses
This is fantastic! I do something similar when studying jazz. The last week of the unit I decorate the classroom like a jazz club and the kids can come and chill, listen to music, and complete small activities. It’s fun, such a core memory, and gave me a reason to buy a disco ball!
Do you have the scavenger hunt and materials available anywhere? Would love to try the graveyard out this year. Thanks!
That’s so fun!! I do not but perhaps Lindsey does. You can contact her at her instagram profile which is at the bottom of the post.