Planner Tour 2016-2017

I'm so excited to be sharing my new 2016-2017 teacher planner with you! If you missed it, check out yesterday's post on my planner setup. Today's post is a tour of the insides! And be sure to read all the way to the end for an awesome giveaway!

A lot of things are the same as last year, but I've made quite a few changes to actually slim down the number of pages! Let me know what you think in the comments below :)

If you're interested, click here to see all of the planners in my store.

Want more? Subscribe here to the Organized Chaos newsletter and get music teacher ideas and resources sent straight to your inbox!

*Update: this post was featured on the TeachersPayTeachers blog as well- click here to see the post!

And now it's time for a giveaway! This is a MASSIVE giveaway- I'm so excited for the winners! I would enter it myself if I could! :P There will be three winners: 

3rd prize is your choice of one of my planner "extras": summer organizer, holidays organizer, inspirational quotes printables, covers and spines set, or perpetual calendar templates. Click on the pictures to see each one:

        

                               

2nd prize is an Entire Life Planner in the format of your choice. And guess what? I now have ink-friendly AND full-color options for each of the six lesson planning formats! 

        

        

        

        

And the 1st prize is your choice of one of the Entire Life Planners listed above, PLUS all of these goodies:

This is seriously everything you need to set up your planner exactly like mine! There is an Arc notebook, folder, discbound hole punch, a single-sided laminating sheet and a laminating pouch, Arc zippered pouch, paper tabs (4 each of 12 colors), adhesive pockets (I didn't use these this year but I did the last two years- see last year's setup post for how I used them), adhesive pen loop, 3 magnetic clips, 4 spiral paper clips, Avery label stickers (I make my own planner stickers with these- see this post for details), flag and quote stickers, sticky notes, page flags, a small notepad, washi tape (samples of 19 different kinds), wet erase marker, Sharpie pen (for writing on washi tape), and 3 of the most awesome erasable pens ever. Guys, this is HUGE! 

Enter as many times as you like below (each option is a separate entry). The giveaway is open for 2 weeks until June 14th. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Planner Setup 2016-2017

Squeeeee! It's that time of year again: I've got my 2016-2017 teacher / home / everything planner set up! A lot of my setup is the same as last year, but there are a few changes that I'm really excited about. ALSO there is a huge giveaway at the end of this post, so make sure you read to the very end!

I'm using my Arc notebook again for the outer hard plastic covers (although I am contemplating a change- still discbound, just a different cover... I'll let you know if I change my mind!), but I did upgrade my discs (the binding on the spine) to larger, silver ones. I got into decorating my planner quite a bit this year, and I found that the smaller discs just aren't big enough anymore with the added bulk from stickers, paper, and extra pens. Plus the silver looks so pretty!

I also went ahead and made a new dashboard to hold my sticky notes:

To be honest, my old one is still my favorite, but it's nice to have a fresh change and the colors are perfect for summer. I'll probably go back to my old one in the fall. If you want to see that one and read how I made it (super easy!), go to this post (click on the picture):

One thing I learned and improved this time around: I like to have a nice, big dashboard so I can keep wider sticky notes on there. I also left some extra laminate around the paper- my old one is starting to split at the top from all the wear and tear. 

I also changed up my tabs this year. My first 3 are "curriculum", "month", and "week":

My other tabs are "school", "TPT/blog", and "home":

I'll be sharing the pages I have in each of those sections tomorrow in my planner tour (update: click here to see the tour!), so stay tuned! If you want to see how I laminated the tabs to make them last all year, check out my setup post from last year:

I am using my magnetic clip (which I got on clearance at Walmart a couple of years ago) to hold all of the future weekly pages together (and serve as a bookmark for the current week) and my elastic pen loop for my main pen again:

In the back I have the same zippered pouch I have used the past two years and a new DIY back pocket made from a folder:

It's quite simple to make- just cut the folder in half and hold punch- but if you want some visuals of how I made it go to last year's setup post (linked above).

That's about it for this year's setup. I'm so excited to start using it soon! Check back tomorrow if you want to see the inside pages, which I've changed a good bit since last year as well. I've got a video tour for you to show you the entire inside :)

If you're interested, click here to see all of the teacher planners in my store.

Want more? Subscribe here to the Organized Chaos newsletter and get music teacher ideas and resources, including tons of lesson plan content to put in those planners, sent straight to your inbox!

And now it's time for a giveaway! This is a MASSIVE giveaway- I'm so excited for the winners! I would enter it myself if I could! :P There will be three winners: 

3rd prize is your choice of one of my planner "extras": summer organizer, holidays organizer, inspirational quotes printables, covers and spines set, or perpetual calendar templates. Click on the pictures to see each one:

        

                               

2nd prize is an Entire Life Planner in the format of your choice. And guess what? I now have ink-friendly AND full-color options for each of the six lesson planning formats! 

        

        

        

        

And the 1st prize is your choice of one of the Entire Life Planners listed above, PLUS all of these goodies:

This is seriously everything you need to set up your planner exactly like mine! There is an Arc notebook, folder, discbound hole punch, a single-sided laminating sheet and a laminating pouch, Arc zippered pouch, paper tabs (4 each of 12 colors), adhesive pockets (I didn't use these this year but I did the last two years- see last year's setup post for how I used them), adhesive pen loop, 3 magnetic clips, 4 spiral paper clips, Avery label stickers (I make my own planner stickers with these- see this post for details), flag and quote stickers, sticky notes, page flags, a small notepad, washi tape (samples of 19 different kinds), wet erase marker, Sharpie pen (for writing on washi tape), and 3 of the most awesome erasable pens ever. Guys, this is HUGE! 

Enter as many times as you like below (each option is a separate entry). The giveaway is open for 2 weeks until June 14th. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read more "Planner Setup 2016-2017"

Fermata Friday: May 27, 2016

Welcome to this week's installment of my weekly linky party, Fermata Fridays! This is a chance for music education bloggers to share blog posts with readers and bloggers alike, so we can all mingle and learn from each other. Readers, you are going to love all of the awesome blog posts that are out there- I hope you discover some new blogs to follow and get some new inspiration for your teaching! Bloggers, make sure you read the directions carefully before linking up to make sure we keep the party fun for everyone. Thanks! :)

Here are the rules for the linky party:

1. Add the linky image to your blog post, blog sidebar, linky party roundup, or other similar location on your blog and link it back to the party. Copy and paste the code for this button, or use the image above and link to the label "Fermata Fridays".

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://caldwellorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/search/label/Fermata%20Fridays"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5AShYQiAk-NC2PM5EMpGrK31c3bfaUO7qbi6cCVXVIW-ySfO3xfYbJOj0WAbRcl11hVrCCWLIiqFjqs2cV8Yu8Zw-HEdtId-jZRpwv-W6p9VwBWQZvreaxjOfVBwlw-YdvMr_BbR3M0/s1600/fermata+friday+button.jpg" /></a></div><br />

2. Add up to two blog post links to the linky. The posts can be old or new (but no posts that have already been linked up to Fermata Fridays in the past), on any topic related to music teaching, but must not be primarily featuring a product. It's fine to have a link to a relevant product within a post, but that should not be the primary focus of the post. I reserve the right to delete a link that is too product-focused. If you're not sure, just ask! :)

3. Leave a thoughtful comment on at least two other links, including the one right before yours. Add #fermatafridays to your comment so bloggers know where you found them!

4. Pin at least one post to one of your Pinterest boards.

5. Make sure you are following me on Pinterest. I will be pinning every link to the Fermata Fridays board each week.

6. Make sure you are following me on Facebook and check back next Friday- I will be featuring one of the links from the previous week's linky on my Facebook page each Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

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new ideas for kindergarten lessons

Although I have my tried-and-true lessons that I've gathered over the years, I love finding new material and ideas to mix things up. Some don't work out the way I had hoped, but most end up being a lot of fun and bring a fresh spark to my lessons! Today I wanted to share some of the new material and lessons I tried with kindergarten this year that I loved.

I never have enough songs and material for kindergarten and early childhood. It's just the nature of the beast I guess- with such active bodies and short attention spans, you need a lot of material just for one 30 minute lesson! So when I found this book back in the fall I was so excited:

This "Preschool Songbook" by Rebecca Donaldson is full of little gems that are great for kindergarten and younger. There are several songs about winter, fall, fruit, and more. My favorite is the "Pomegranate Song". There's even a short little ditty about losing a tooth! There are ideas included for expanding the songs within a lesson as well, by adding verses, changing lyrics, and so on. Here is a full list of the songs and speech pieces included in the book:

I loved having new material to throw into my lessons to fit the seasons. The fall songs were a big hit with my kids, as was the snow song.

If you're interested, you can check out the book here.

Another new idea I loved this year was this song that I came across on Pinterest:

I modified it slightly by singing instead of speaking the "up, down" part (and singing the whole song in a higher key for little voices!), but I ended up using this song as the opener for every.single.lesson. this school year with kindergarten. It was a perfect way to start the lesson singing right away, get them seated, let them move a little, and reinforce left and right all at the same time! Loved it. I will definitely be using it again next year!

My other favorite new idea for kindergarten this year was the "Pass the Pumpkin" song I used at Halloween. I got the idea from Aimee at "O for Tuna Orff", and my kids absolutely loved the game to accompany the song!

I love that it's in a minor key and has a nice clear steady beat. I just did the simple passing game with the song, but Aimee has tons of ideas to go with the song, including instruments and notation. Check out her blog post here.

Did you try any new ideas with your kindergarten or early childhood classes? I'd love to hear about them! Leave a comment below, or link up your own blog post if you're a blogger.

An InLinkz Link-up

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