KIZZ DANIEL

On the outside of my classroom door I used some paper plates that had a wood finish.  I picked them up at Walmart last year as they were closing out some of their fall merchandise.  I used these letters and attached them to the plates with tape.  I taped the plates to a long piece of ribbon before hanging it on my door.  The burlap canvas below contains a greeting for all of my students.

I store small instruments, scarves, tennis balls, flashlights and other movement props at the front of the room.  I do this so that they are accessible but they are not easy for students to walk by and touch. 

Yep.  That's my sub tub!  I'll try to talk about it in another post.

This bulletin board features the cool wooden backdrop paper (available at Michael's) and metal file holders and letters (Hobby Lobby).  The big clip is from a set of Bold and Bright Clip It cut outs from Creative Teaching Press.  The black polka dot border and the colorful spots border are also from CTP.  I'll use this space to post flyers, pictures and other reminders and mementos from the year.

I was fortunate to grab some storage containers (Target) and a rolling cart (Michael's) on sale and have organized some of the things I kept in or on my desk in them.  The rolling cart has paper, file folders, sheet protectors, etc... and the other containers have some books and resources that I use often.  The metal contain at the bottom has markers sorted by color.  We don't use markers that often in class, but I like how pretty they look when they are organized.

These are flower pots that I painted years ago.  They still kind of go with my classroom theme so they are out again this year.  I used a paint pen to create the keyboard design around the top.

This rainbow scalloped border is the same as I used on the front bulletin board as is the black and white striped border.  The posters are the Music Symbols Farmhouse Theme available in my TpT store.  They come in several colors, but I chose white because I have a LOT going on in my room already.

The canvas pictures above were created by my daughter and I.  You can see how we did it in THIS blogpost.  The Listen, Sing, Play posters are from a set that I have in my store.  You can download it HERE.  I also have one for "Move" but I've found that I don't refer to it very often so I left it out this year.

The piano has been glammed up a little this year.  In the background you can see my steady beat swords.  Find out how I use them in this blog post: Steady Beat Swords.  The black poofy flowers were from Dollar Tree.  Although I like the way they look, they were quite a pain to poof!  The flat flowers are BW Designer Flower Cut Outs.

I use my cabinet doors as display areas too.  I use packing tape to secure them and group posters by topic.  The tempo posters and ensemble posters are included in my Farmhouse Music Decor Bundle and are also available individually.  I love the pop of color and interest they give to a plain, ole cabinet door.

This is the part of my classroom that I look at the most.  It also houses some instruments and is where we line up to head into the hall.

I've sectioned off one large bulletin board to create three smaller area to post displays.  Let's Read MOOsic is one that will be up most of the year.  The treble staff display was designed to coordinate with the rest of my farmhouse style music decor but could really work with many different themes.

I'm so excited to start teaching ukulele this year!  I created an inexpensive storage area for this with an expandable shoe rack.  I padded the bars with pool noodles and added sticker numbers on each of the ukes.  I used Bold and Bright Student Numbers to label the shelves so that students will know exactly where to return their ukuleles.

We are required to have students sign out of our classroom if they leave to go to the restroom, office or nurse.  This year I have set up the sign out area near the door with a cute chalkboard, a metal bucket filled with chalk and a few metal accents (Hobby Lobby).  I love the way it turned out!

During workstation rotations, I've been implementing various seating options.  This year students can choose from these cool cushions and pillows.  The log pillows are from Five Below and the fruit and vegetable cushions are from various sellers on Amazon.

More poofs.  Did I mention what a pain they were?   On the right side of the picture you can see my magnetic set of Note Knacks.  They are AWESOME!  You can order these bad boys from Rhythm Band Instruments here:  Note Knacks Magnet Set

I LOVE my Song of the Month display this year!  I used the month signs from the CTP Bold and Bright Calendar set.  Then I used letters and letter stickers from the same line to create the title.  The sticky note border and sticky note cut outs tie it all together.  Each month I will write the song of the month on the sticky note cut out.  You can read more about how I do songs of the month in my classroom in this blog post:  Songs of the Month.

The little buckets on the shelf hold pencils and erasers.  The wooden container on the shelf holds my crayon boxes.  I use travel soap boxes for this.  You can see a closer view of them in THIS blog post.

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I'm partnering with Creative Teaching Press to bless one of my followers with their ENTIRE LINE of Bold and Bright products!  Nope!  Not kidding!  Interested in getting a great big box of goodies?  Enter below!

I am always on the lookout for inexpensive and crafty ways to decorate my home and classroom.  Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite ideas!  I guess I somehow aspire to be an artist of sorts and I definitely want my kids to have plenty of experience with art.  I picked up a several packages of blank canvas a couple of months ago when Joann's had it marked ridiculously low.  I didn't really have a specific idea for them but I figured that I would end up needing more!

I am still working on my classroom theme for next year but I know for sure that it will be colorful.  I love mixing rainbow patterns with black and white patterns and am sure that will show up in my classroom.  I took three 12x12 canvases and drew a curvy staff on them with a permanent marker.  If you were decorating another classroom you could add numbers, the alphabet, equations, beakers, various sports equipment, etc....really anything you want. 

I went over my lines a couple of times so that they were quite dark.  I may use a black paint pen next time to see if that makes a difference.  Next?  Color!

Just take crayons to the canvas and color whatever you want.  My daughter is also a big fan of rainbows so she helped me complete the canvases.  We put books under the canvas for a firmer coloring surface.  After I photographed the canvases, I went back and colored the edges black.  I think that makes them look a little more finished and will look better hanging on the wall.

It was a really long box that some specialty paper I ordered came in.  When it was barely full, this was a great and inexpensive solution.  Well...it was great for about 2 weeks.   I just kind of laid the borders in after I pulled them down and dug through them to find what I needed.  It created a beautiful mess.

Look at that!  Isn't it beautiful?  Can you see the bright colors, the brilliant designs, the clever, realistic images, the wavy scrolls of happiness?

I wanted a way to organize my borders by theme.  I considered a large under the bed plastic container, but the ones that I found wouldn't accommodate my longest borders and they did not have a flat bottom. This meant that if I used it, the borders would still be a little messy.

My local teacher had a solution that worked with how I wanted to organize them.  I bought 4 long border boxes and one set of dividers for these boxes.  Then the real work started.  In the picture about you can see some of my sorting.  I decided to put the borders in four different categories: Music (because I teach music), Rainbows/Patterns, Seasonal and Solids, Everything Else

This worked for my collection and worked with how I think about bulletin board displays.  You may need to choose a different way to organize based on your classroom needs.  For example your categories might be: Reading, Math, Nature, Solid and Patterns 

I must admit.  It is a little weird to see my wild, curly, colorful borders all lined up and standing at attention.  It is also wonderful!  I can flip through my categories and find what I need or just be inspired.  Yep.  That's right I let the borders inspire me!

Another confession:  I threw away old, yucky borders.  I threw away those little plastic sleeves that held one bulletin board border from ten years ago.  I threw away pieces of borders that had been cut to size, because seriously...what size was that board?  I'll never remember.  I threw away my old, beloved box.  I actually found fifty cents at the bottom of the box, so I bought myself a soda when I was finished.  That was nice.

Look at the pretty home my borders live in now!  Now that they are organized I have room to buy MORE borders.  That makes me happy.

Now that my borders are organized I have to do something with all of my other bulletin board goodies.  How do I store tablecloths, paper plates in lovely designs, notepads, recorders, posters...I think I've even got a pair of overalls in there.  I think this will have to be a project for another school year.

At one of the first schools I taught at I was inspired greatly by the elementary secretary.  Each quarter she designed a bulletin board that featured the names of every student in the elementary building.  I loved her creativity and I loved that she worked to make every student feel special.  Students would search for their names, the names of their friends and brothers and sisters.  It was truly a way to multiply joy in the building.

This colorful bulletin board is my attempt to do the very same thing.  Although that creative secretary worked with about 100 names, I took on around 450 students plus teachers and staff.  I used the message "Music inspires our minds to bloom."  This incorporates Nafme's "Music Inspires" theme and speaks to our outrageously warm March.  It feels like spring around here!

The tree is created with hundreds of small paper flowers.  I created the trunk to look like a person, inspired by the Nafme promo image.  I made time during each class period to talk about Music In Our Schools Month and to lead a discussion about the power of music in our lives.  Students them wrote their names on a flower and I put them up as time allowed.  

I used the Fiskars 3 inch Punch Pretty Scallop paper punch to make all of the flowers.  This would be fun to do with a music note punch too!

You could take this same idea and have students write not only their name, but something that music inspires them to do.  Run faster, dream bigger, dance, laugh.....I bet the answers would truly be inspiring!

Students and staff have enjoyed finding their names and this display is a huge explosion of color in the hall. I love that!

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I am in a new classroom this year and would LOVE to take you on a tour of my new space.  This year I'll be teaching 3rd through 5th grade music.  My room is much smaller than all of the rooms that I have taught in before, so I've had to reconsider what things are the most important to me and arrange my room accordingly.

On many of the storage cabinets I have placed sets of posters.  To some, it may look like there is just TOO much stuff up, but I have a plan.  I am a big fan of workstations and I plan to set workstations up near the posters sets so that students will be able to use them as a reference.  For example, this awesome set of elements of music posters (by Sara Bibee) would be a great place for students work if they are completing listening journals.

I'm using a rock star theme in my classroom as our school theme is "stars".  This is a set of tempo posters (love that glitter!) and below are some notation posters.  They are part of my music symbols set.  This would be a great place for a workstation that focuses on rhythm or composition.  The notation posters will be a great reference.

Also on the storage cabinets is a set of dynamics posters and these ensemble posters in a rock star theme.  The kids generally giggle at "sextet" and open house even a few parents!  This is a great reference for students as we discuss vocal and instrumental ensembles.  Get the dynamics posters HERE and the ensemble posters HERE.

I'm loving this set of Rockin' the Standards posters using the new national standards.  They are color coordinated so that even if I didn't place this in these obvious columns that you would be able to see which "I Can" statements go with each action.  These may be more of a reminder for me. than my students at first, but I am okay with that.  These are near my teacher's corner so they will be a great reference for me as I do my lesson planning.  I'll also use this area to set up workstations so students will have more of an opportunity to read them then.

This is my teacher corner.  The bookshelf that has the rainbow material covering stores my office supplies (paper, binders, blank CDs, etc...) as well as a few teaching resources.  The open part of it is where I have some supplies that students will use occasionally like bean bags, hole punches, scissors, etc...  I don't want to put them in my writing center unless they need them to keep that area tidy.  On my desk are two large rockers.  These are from a set of clipart from Melonheadz.  I used BlockPosters.com to create them at this size thanks to a great tutorial by Jena at Sew Much Music.

Around my windows are some framed watercolor quotes about music.  They were created by Melody Payne.  The frames are inexpensive frames from the dollar store and are attached with Command Strips.

On the side of my tall filing cabinet I attached some textured wrapping paper.  The flower pots are a Pinterest project and are filled with fake flowers because I have a brown thumb.  My collection of flyswatters is stored in a coffee can that I've covered in contact paper.  We only use them occasionally so I didn't want them to be in a prominent place in the classroom.  It is hard for kids to resist touching them.  Okay...me too.  

Also in my teacher corner is a mini-fridge and microwave. All the comforts of home!  I keep lots of water and Diet Mt. Dew in there.  It is also night for evenings when I have to stay late for events.

This is the front of my classroom.  "Think Like a Musician" is a growth mindset bulletin board with a music twist.  The other bulletin board is "In Music We Rock" which could double as classroom rules.

This big pink flower was created with pink, paper bags and a bit of hot glue.  

Near this bulletin board is where I keep some of my more frequently used props, pointers, scarves, etc...  The pool noodles are my steady beat swords.

My daily points and performance assessments in music all use 3-4 point rubrics.  These posters have the descriptions of what I'm looking for.  Right now they are in the corner of the room, but I think I may end up moving them to a position that is a little closer to the students so that they can read them from their seats.  You can get the small versions of these posters HERE.

This is the first classroom that I have had that has had one of those long, skinny bulletin boards above the whiteboard/chalkboard area.  Turns out that my music symbol posters look great there! They are also in a great position for me to use when teaching.

A close up of those posters.  The cool, black, disco looking balls are actually a border that I found at the teacher store.

This is my PAWS corner.  PBS expectation posters and my PAWsitive Effects of Music bulletin board go here.  This will also be one of the areas that I use for setting up centers.  

This is one of my favorite bulletin boards!  This is Music Rocks and is basically a music advocacy bulletin board.  I used some pink, zebra striped wrapping paper as part of the background to add more interest.  The sparkles that you see here and in other parts of the room were all part of a collection of 70s themed decorations I found at the teacher store.  

Outside my door is this cute little sign.  It is created with disco ball paper plates (from the party store), some purple mesh (the kind that crafters use to make wreaths), letters I printed from my computer and tape.  Simple, but eye catching!

I hope that you've enjoyed this classroom tour.  Share your classroom tour below!