The Oreo trick for getting your instruments where you need them! 🤫
Published 3 months ago • 2 min read
A Fun End-of-Year Concert Idea + An Easy Way to Collect Instruments! 🎻
👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter:
🎻 The Sane Teacher’s Guide: A brilliant way for collecting end-of-year instruments.
📚 The Story Framework: How to extend your concert without piling on extra repertoire.
🪐 Behind the Music: A sneak peek at my quirky new "Planet Songs" for beginning strings.
🍪 A Stress-Free Instrument Inventory Hack
Do you dread the annual scramble to get students to return their instruments at the end of the year? I certainly used to!
One strategy that has completely changed the game for me is scheduling our final concert near the very end of the year—and having students leave their instruments at school immediately afterward.
As an added bonus, my high school orchestra students help transport everything from the auditorium back to my classroom.
Their payment for helping? Oreos. (Works like a charm every single time!)
🎶 The Power of a "Story Concert"
This year’s concert was especially fun because we performed a Story Concert with my elementary students. Our library teacher read the book Giraffes Can’t Dance, and the orchestra performed short pieces between sections of the book.
If you haven’t tried incorporating stories into elementary concerts, I highly recommend it for a few reasons:
Built-in Structure: It provides a seamless, engaging framework for the music.
Work Smarter, Not Harder: It extends the length of the concert beautifully without requiring students to learn a mountain of extra repertoire.
Crowd Pleaser: It creates a rich, narrative experience that families and administrators absolutely love.
Cross-Curricular Win: It reinforces literacy by showing students how beautifully reading and music work together.
Over the years, I’ve invited students, administrators, librarians, and special guests to serve as our readers. It’s a fantastic way to involve the whole school community.
Our End-of-Year "Story Concert"
🪐 First Look: The "Planet Songs"
I’ve attached the opening portion of this year's concert below because the first two pieces were original compositions of mine!👇
Combining my love of alliteration and science, I’ve been writing quirky “Planet Songs” for beginning string players. These pieces introduce techniques unique to string instruments—like harmonics, glissandos, col legno, and strumming—wrapped up in a package of silliness that students absolutely love.
For this concert, we performedSliding into Saturn and Marching to Mars.
I’m currently putting these pieces together into a comprehensive resource book for orchestra teachers. Each piece teaches a specific technique while providing a clear physical and pedagogical reason for introducing it early:
Sliding into Saturn (Glissandos): Practicing glissandos gives me a perfect opportunity to check whether students are holding their instruments securely and maintaining great posture.
Marching to Mars (3rd Position & Strumming): Students use their 3rd and 4th left-hand fingers to strum the strings while playing in 3rd position. This keeps the left wrist straight while strengthening the two fingers that are often underdeveloped in beginners. Cellos and basses learn to keep their left elbow up and not into their sides.
📚 My Go-To Book List
Want to try the Story Concert? If you need book ideas, just hit reply and let me know! A few titles that have worked wonderfully for me in the past include:
Ana and Andrew and The Magic Violin
A Wish for Wings That Work
Berlioz the Bear
The Beginner Orchestra (written be a friend)
Quick Tip: Playing (or singing) Mary Had a Little Lamb—or any other familiar piece—in a minor key works brilliantly whenever the story hits a sad or somber moment!
Want to see the blueprint? Click below to see exactly what my Story Concert looks like. 👇
