Hello Readers! Last year I showed off my cool new set of recorders that I got through a grant so that I could loan out recorders to students who did not have their own. First, if you are interested in starting a recorder rental program at your school, check out the link above, and also here’s a helpful hint.
Obviously grants are an awesome way to get money for your program, but if you can’t get a grant, another suggestion would be to start with getting enough for your 5th grade, then build up to having enough for 4th grade and then 3rd grade. And just to be clear, you are only providing recorders for those that don’t own one, not for every child in the grade level. The recorders are really pretty cheap (but still good quality) so it’s doable.
Working Out the Kinks from Last Year
So here’s the update after trying this for a year. It mostly worked great! However, every once in a while, a kid would lose track of which recorder was theirs after they had taken it out of the case. Or I had kids turn them back in at the end of the year and the sticker had fallen off, so I couldn’t really tell which kids had returned them and which had not.
The first thing I did to solve the problem for this year was to wrap packing tape around each of the stickers, to prevent it from coming off (hopefully). Next, I went online an purchased this nifty engraver:
Then I engraved the number of each recorder right into the back, so there is never any confusion which one is which. And if some kid theoretically shows up at school claiming one of my recorders as his or her own, it’s easy for me to see the engraved number on the back and confirm that it is one of mine.
How It’s Organized
After students have had the opportunity to purchase a recorder of their own, we have a day in class where we assign recorders to any students who do not own a recorder (NOT to those who own one and forgot it). I have a master list where I put the students name next to their recorder number (and also which class they are in). I also print out a list to post above the recorders, so kids can look by class and check their recorder number if they forget.
Whenever it is time for recorders, students with rentals will go to the storage wall if they left their recorder at school:
Then they will grab the recorder that matches their number:
At the end of the year (a couple of weeks beforehand, to leave time to deal with any stragglers), we turn back in our recorders and I make sure they are all accounted for and hunt down the ones that are missing.
What About Kids That Forget Theirs?
If kids forget their recorders, I have a bunch that have no mouthpiece on them. Students must finger along, but don’t get to play that day. Hopefully that motivates them to remember next time …
What About Kids That Have Their Own?
I reward the kids that remember to bring their recorder from home by letting them earn recorder beads (little pony beads like you might in some girls hair). I even do specialty beads for holidays or other special events.
