I have been living in my current house for 6 years, yet there was nothing on the walls, really, until about 3 weeks ago. My sister and a dear friend of mine were coming to visit from Rhode Island (where I am from), so I thought it was time I decorated…. at least the first floor 😊!! After I was finished, I was astounded at how my mood about keeping it clean and working in the space has changed. I don’t mind straightening up as much and I am more motivated to accomplish those mundane tasks in the rest of my life, as well. This surprised me a great deal!

With this new found knowledge, I was determined to set up my “third teacher” to be both aesthetically pleasing and functional! Just like my home, I know it will provoke thoughtful learning and wonderous creativity…..and to kick this off, I created a  Music Room Scavenger Hunt for my students so that they could both take a tour of the new set up and learn about what information was available to them.

First Stop ~ Literacy Center

This space is complete with Note Knacks blocks, magnets, dice and cushions (of course!!), the Rhythm Clock, staff paper, pencils, crayons, sentence strips and magnetic staves.

I wanted the kids to create the anchor charts on the walls, but because I see them only once a week for 30 minutes, it didn’t seem like a good use of our time….just yet. I might get to it at some point!! Here are some close ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Stop ~ Non-Pitched Percussion Center

I wanted to separate the pitched from the non-pitched. This will make it easier to send kids to choose an instrument that will not include xylophones, as well as making the distinction between these types of instruments. I still need to label the buckets, but you get the idea!

Third Stop ~ Pitched Percussion and Instrument Families

I thought it made sense to keep the pitched near the instrument families, as most orchestral instruments have pitch….and that is where I had room for them :-). As I said in a previous post, I removed all of the Orff instrument stands, as they were taking up too much room, we didn’t have enough of them and they didn’t all work properly. We will see in the coming months as to whether or not this was a good decision. I also included Boomwhackers and extra recorders in this section. An unfortunate side effect of this was that when the kids were exploring to find out answers, a couple of them blew in a recorder or 2. ….I didn’t think that one through ~ of course they were going to do this!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fourth Stop ~ My Most Used Materials and Small Instruments

I went to Target and purchased 2 three drawer rolling carts for $10 each. As I teach kids as young as 18 months, these are the most used items ~ egg shakers, jingle bells, scarves, bean bags, random small non-pitched percussion and rhythm sticks for all of the grade levels! This is also where I keep “Fishy” and other teaching aids (including my own personal tubano!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With this new set up, the room feels larger! I look forward to the coming months teaching in it!