Hi readers! The school year is starting soon, and I’ve been busy in my classroom getting everything ready. If you’ve been looking for ideas on classroom setup for your elementary music class, then look no further. I’ve got a couple new ideas this year for my classroom setup that I’m excited to share with you. So let’s check out the room!
Front
Here’s a quick shot of the front of my room:
Now let’s zoom in on some of the features I’ve added this year that I want to show you.
World Instrument Corner
There are a couple things going on here. I’ve left may bookshelf in the same spot as last year, but I’ve moved the piano in front of it. The reason is two fold. One, I don’t use the piano that often, so I wanted it moved out of the way a bit. And two, some of my students with behavior impulses who had trouble controlling their urges would grab all the instruments on the shelf and start playing them. Now the shelf is a little more protected. But it was important to me that the students be able to see the world instruments (they are one of the prizes that we can earn during the year for good behavior), so I made sure that students still had a line of sight to all the cool instruments from around the world by gathering them on to the top shelves.
Small Changes
I colored my CHAMPS poster this year. Yay color. Yay having time to color things! And also, I researched the correct height for conga drums (apparently the head should be at elbow height when you arms are at your sides), because last year when I was doing major drumming, I got the beginnings of tendonitis, and I knew I had to be doing something wrong. I’m hoping these congas will take me to new heights (get it, because I raised them higher, haha!).
Vocabulary Posters
Check out these cool posters for vocabulary. They don’t replace my vocabulary wall. That’s up all year, but this area will be for vocabulary they should know during this specific unit. Sometimes they have to hunt a little to find the vocab on the big vocab wall. This will be a quicker reference. And they were SO EASY to make.
And now zooming to the other side:
Teacher Station
I love all the storage space in the storage unit I got from Facebook marketplace. I’ve seen several of them pop up in my area for around $15 – what a steal!
Kagan Magnets
Last year I took a training on Kagan learning strategies (more on that in another post). But if you aren’t familiar with Kagan, one of the main things it does is group kids in structures for better engagement. Usually kids are A/B or 1, 2, 3, 4. I don’t have desks, so marking A/B or numbering would be complicated.
However, my students do sit on 4 different dot colors, so I incorporated that into the Kagan structures, and I will use these magnets to help with grouping. So for example I might say that purples and reds are person A and blue and green are person B for an activity. I’m excited to see how my Kagan structures play out this year, and I will update you guys in a later post, so keep watching!
Schedule Magnet
I found these cool picture magnetic frames (that’s what I used on the Kagan color squares too). I’ve always had my schedule taped on my board, but now I’m fancy – it’s a magnet – oooh!
New Name Sign!
And of course, I can’t forget my new name sign. Now that I have officially switched from Miss Hemond to Mrs. Tabler, it’s time to make the switch in my room too.
Side #1
Hidden Tubanos
I was able to kill two birds (or pet peeves) with one stone on this one! I got annoyed with students playing the drums as they walked by them. I also didn’t like having students going underneath my counter. It became a competition to see who could get under there first and some students found an inappropriate word written underneath there. Just NO.
So I was going to buy a bunch of storage and put it all underneath there, but guess what? My tubanos fit perfectly underneath, so I tucked them right under there! Now they are protected from straying hands AND the undercounter space is blocked. Win-Win!
Recorder Storage
And speaking of winning, check out these recorders I got from a grant. Now I have enough for each fifth grade student to have their own recorder. They are color coded by class (I’ll do a post with more details later – including how you can get your hands on these awesome and inexpensive mailboxes for storage).
Paper Tray Sign
I used another picture frame for creating a sign to turn in papers. Somehow my kids never know where to turn in papers unless I have a sign … Maybe it’s because we spend most of our time moving and singing and playing?
Side #2
Nothing to report here. Same behavior chart. Same beginning of the year bulletin board. Everything is the same (except for the tubanos being moved to the other side of the room).
Back of the Room
Not different here. But you can see the different colored dots that I was talking about. Checkout the post from last year if you want to know more about them – I love them! Also, you can see the Orff instrument labels that I added this year (still waiting for three labels to be laminated). And, of course, my good old vocabulary wall.
The Piece de Resistance – My Door!
That’s right my friends. I went all out this year and decorated my door. I found an (almost) identical door on Pinterest, but I had to adapt it because my door has a much larger window. But I love the message and I love the way it turned out.
And that’s my room. What are you doing with your room? Share a pic on the Facebook Page! We’d love to see it.
Have a great start to the year!
Other Music Decor Blog Posts
Music Classroom Decor: What You Need For a Great Classroom Environment
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