My Music Room Set-Up

Welcome back to school! I had an active summer with my family. We were happy to stay in Colorado this summer; I often forget how lucky we are to have so many beautiful places nearby. We took a fun road trip to Mesa Verde, Aspen, and Glenwood Springs and even tried white water rafting for the first time! (My 4 year old daughter loved rafting and enjoyed pretending that she controlled the rapids by conducting the water!)

School starts tomorrow for my family, (eek!), and I have been busy getting everything ready. I'm happy to link up with Mrs. Miracle's Room's My Music Room Set-Up Linky Party, (even if it is bit later then many other "beginning of the year set-up posts"!) Here are a couple of things I'm excited about!

My cabinets that hold all of my small percussions have been in need of a makeover. I also keep the boomwhackers near the orange cabinets in paint buckets, which take up too much valuable floor space. The small percussion signs were just a bit dark for my windowless music room.

"Before" Small Percussion Area

I spruced those up with new signs, (thanks to Aileen Miracle for the fun frame from her freebie Cover Page Starter Kit.)

Then there's those boomwhackers and their cumbersome buckets!

I adore the colorful "boomwhackers velcroed to the wall" idea, beautifully displayed here from Jena at Sew Much Music.

Love it! Unfortunately, I know my students will peel off the bits of velcro from each boomwhacker. I know this because I have several "naked" boomwhackers where the clear labels have been stripped off completely by students. The naked boomwhackers don't bother me too much because I use moveable do. I'm not crazy about students seeing boomwhackers labeled in solfege that is usually wrong for the song we're playing and singing. (C major is not a great key for kids to sing in!) I simply write the letter name of the boomwhacker directly on the tube with a sharpie.

I was very excited to try a new boomwhacker storage solution that my friend, Carrie Nicholas, shared with me last May. I purchased thirteen plastic bag dispensers from IKEA and attached them to the cabinets, and voilà!

"After" Small Percussion Area

I placed the IKEA containers to the bottom left of each cabinet so that the boomwhackers would not get in the way of the cabinet door handle. The containers come with sticky tape to attach to a surface and that's what I used. You could screw them into a wall or cabinet if needed. 

Maps!

Like many music teachers, I display maps in my room. It's wonderful to be able to point out the countries and states of where our classroom songs originate. I've had these maps on the wall for several years.

"Before" maps. OK, but a little small and drab.

A JoAnn's store recently opened near my school and I was excited to find world map fabric and US map fabric! It's sold by the panel and it's very large and colorful.

"After" US Map

"After" World Map: colorful fabric!

Here are both maps on the back wall of my room. The students will be adding descriptions to the music elements board during the school year. 

Music Elements and Maps

I hope to share other pictures of my music room set-up later this week, so please check back. Have a great week whether you're already teaching or getting things ready for your school year!