Recorder Karate Progress with Felt and Velcro

I’ve written in the past about displaying student progress through a Recorder Karate bulletin board but I wanted to share one more way to display students progress using felt squares and velcro!  This mimics another process I’ve done in the past where I built a big and colorful pagodas but adds a fun twist and signature for those kids who make it to black belt!

I’ve done Recorder Karate with my kiddos for three years now but I’ve never done it with three grades all at one time.  It’s just never worked out that I’ve been able to do that all at once because something with scheduling has prevented it.  In a way, doing all three grades at once stinks.  I’ve got so much recorder stuff to do at once (buying the actual recorders, managing kid money,  setting up the lessons) and it’s a little overwhelming.  On the other hand, I’m already dealing with all the hassles and books and recorder karate belts and everything else.  Why not get it all out of the way at once!

One of the things that I didn’t predict was that I wasn’t going to have enough space to show student achievement with another recorder karate bulletin board.  When I first started recorder karate I wanted a way to show off what belt the students had earned.  In the past I’ve made pagodas with colored felt squares and attached student names with Velcro.  When they earn a new belt they not only get a real belt tied on their recorder but they get to move their name from one color square to another.  It gives them pride to move their name when they earn a new belt and also shows others their progress.

The other fun thing about this bulletin board is that students get a very clear picture of where they want to go.  They want to make it to the top of the pagoda and make it to black!  They see where their ultimate goal is.  All in all, it’s a fun way to show off their progress, track their learning, and give them encouragement to move forward.

Well, when I do all three grades at once I don’t have enough space to make lots of pagodas.  And shoot, that’d be 11 pagodas in a room!  Too much!!  So, I had to branch out.  I decided to transform my hallway bulletin board to reflect recorder karate growth.  I stuck with the felt squares and put them in order but also added a few things.  See the gallery below to see how things ended up and read the captions to see my descriptions.

So, there are pagodas in the music room for the third graders, colorful fluffed out pipe cleaners for fourth graders, and these colorful squares out in the hallway for my fifth graders.  So many displays but absolutely worth it to display my students’ amazing growth!