This is my first time blogging, please excuse the dust. My plan is to post here some of my favorite lesson plans, resources and procedures that have worked exceptionally well for me. To begin, I'd like to introduce you to my space. It's a medium sized room (not too big and not too small...) with a fantastically awkward 5th corner (imagine the type of post-it arrow you would find on a document you needed to sign).
It has recently been re-carpeted and repainted and they let me have my whimsical way: I have yellow and orange walls! How fun, right? I have a few bulletin boards (too few in my opinion, I think they are great! Even if one is virtually unusable because it's behind my desk) and one chalk board.
I have a pull down projector screen but it takes up too much of my precious blackboard space so I turned my projector around and use the glossy paint, this let's me use the most of my space.
I have a few desks for a listening & writing station, (hey check out my sing-a-ma-jig collection! Gift from a student!)
some tables (currently for storage, hopefully will be used for student/group work),
and two bookshelves.
One bookshelf is completely devoted to housing student folders- the folders hold students worksheets and notes from our lessons, in the older grades the also have recorder/ukulele music and their Listening Journals.
The other bookshelf holds my Music Library (depressingly unorganized and tiny to boot), games, Cd's & videos, and student text books.
I have a puppet theater with which I'm still not sure what to do, and 12 "cubbies" to hold the lunchboxes & book bags that some grade levels bring with them. I use the top sections of these to hold crafting supplies like crayons, markers, student scissors, etc.
I keep my cart for station rotations next to my nifty dehumidifier (my instruments are grateful, especially the ukuleles).
My larger instruments sit on the floor or under the tables,
my smaller instruments are kept in baskets on a "step" I made out of my risers. (The sheets actually make it look better... when their neat and tidy... oops!)
My piano is used more than it looks like it is,
I just need more storage for all the stuff that is supposed to go behind my desk... we won't go back there!
The horror!
I use the fabric covered tiles near the ceiling for my word wall words, my rules, and informational posters, I plan on making content clouds and pinning them directly to the ceiling if I can. (I think I just need to laminate it in order to get by the fire-marshal.)
I keep all recorder related things in the "Recorder Dojo." This is where students that want to work on recorder instead of centers will find all of their supplies.
I have my rewards system up on one bulletin board (I got the system from Rhythm & Glues)
and my "Fist-to-Five" (courtesy of Classroom Collective) up on the other.
I may be able to change the second one later on, once students have become more comfortable with the procedure. I'll go more in-depth into my procedures in future posts. For now I leave you. It's been grand! I hope the pictures work out!
It has recently been re-carpeted and repainted and they let me have my whimsical way: I have yellow and orange walls! How fun, right? I have a few bulletin boards (too few in my opinion, I think they are great! Even if one is virtually unusable because it's behind my desk) and one chalk board.
I have a pull down projector screen but it takes up too much of my precious blackboard space so I turned my projector around and use the glossy paint, this let's me use the most of my space.
I have a few desks for a listening & writing station, (hey check out my sing-a-ma-jig collection! Gift from a student!)
some tables (currently for storage, hopefully will be used for student/group work),
and two bookshelves.
One bookshelf is completely devoted to housing student folders- the folders hold students worksheets and notes from our lessons, in the older grades the also have recorder/ukulele music and their Listening Journals.
The other bookshelf holds my Music Library (depressingly unorganized and tiny to boot), games, Cd's & videos, and student text books.
I have a puppet theater with which I'm still not sure what to do, and 12 "cubbies" to hold the lunchboxes & book bags that some grade levels bring with them. I use the top sections of these to hold crafting supplies like crayons, markers, student scissors, etc.
I keep my cart for station rotations next to my nifty dehumidifier (my instruments are grateful, especially the ukuleles).
My larger instruments sit on the floor or under the tables,
my smaller instruments are kept in baskets on a "step" I made out of my risers. (The sheets actually make it look better... when their neat and tidy... oops!)
My piano is used more than it looks like it is,
I just need more storage for all the stuff that is supposed to go behind my desk... we won't go back there!
The horror!
I use the fabric covered tiles near the ceiling for my word wall words, my rules, and informational posters, I plan on making content clouds and pinning them directly to the ceiling if I can. (I think I just need to laminate it in order to get by the fire-marshal.)
I keep all recorder related things in the "Recorder Dojo." This is where students that want to work on recorder instead of centers will find all of their supplies.
I have my rewards system up on one bulletin board (I got the system from Rhythm & Glues)
and my "Fist-to-Five" (courtesy of Classroom Collective) up on the other.
I may be able to change the second one later on, once students have become more comfortable with the procedure. I'll go more in-depth into my procedures in future posts. For now I leave you. It's been grand! I hope the pictures work out!
Woot!
