Costume Wall Display: an invitation to play

Over the last few months I've shared bits and pieces of some updates I've recently made to what is now the play room down in our finished basement. Today I wanted to show you a quick update that I did to store and organize all of the dress up costumes that the girls have. I love how playful it looks, but I love how accessible it is for the girls, and...

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October Favorites 2016

Can you believe October is coming to an end? I'm here to chat with you about some things I loved this past month- I'd love to hear what you've been up to in the comments! Pour yourself a nice cup of tea, take a deep breath, and let's take a minute to reflect on the wonderful things we enjoyed in October :) October seems to be a popular month...

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Music Note Races: the fun way to practice dictation

I've recently become slightly obsessed with a game I'm calling Music Note Races (and my students love it just as much as I do). There's nothing revolutionary about the concept but it has been so successful with all of my students from 1st grade through 6th grade that I had to share! If you're looking for a new way to practice music dictation, whether...

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Chai Tea Recipe

Fall has started to settle in around here- the leaves are gorgeous! One of my favorite things to do in the fall is make chai tea. Not only is it delicious to drink when it's cold outside, but it soothes the inevitable sore throat I get AND makes the entire house smell like heaven! The great thing about making your own chai at home is that you can make...

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Organizing Your Teacher Closet on a Budget (part 1: small items)

How many teachers have impeccably clean, organized, streamlined classrooms, but have mountains of disorganized junk just behind their closet doors? It's hard to keep a classroom closet organized. As elementary teachers we have so many little things that we need to have on hand but don't use year-round, and we often need to get them out of sight quickly...

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Managing All Your Kids' Artwork

If you have young children at home, you know that there seems to be an endless supply of artwork floating around, and no matter how many times you organize and purge more appears almost instantly! I always struggle with staying on top of the mountain of drawings because I want to appreciate the pictures my girls are making, and I want to make sure...

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Classroom Jobs in Elementary Music: an update

I wrote last year about the classroom jobs that I implemented in my elementary general music classes (you can read more details on what jobs I used, how I implement them with hundreds of students to teach between kindergarten and 6th grade, and why I use them, here in my last post). Today I want to introduce you to the new job I added this year: Peace...

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A Journey Through Pain, Healing, and Living: my story told through music

Every now and then I have shared parts of my difficult journey through marriage, divorce, and co-parenting on this blog. I have always been amazed and gratified to see the response to these posts- going through this kind of experience is often an extremely isolating experience, and if sharing my experience can help one person feel they are not alone,...

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Small Goals: October 2016

I'm linking up with Jennifer over at The Yellow Brick Road to share my small goals for the month of October! If you haven't ever checked out the Small Goals monthly link-up, you really should head over to Jennifer's post (just click on the image below) and read through the posts. I always find it entertaining and insightful to read about what others...

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Things to do While Students are Waiting in Line

For one reason or another, I often find myself with a class ready to transition to the next teacher, but with that next teacher nowhere in sight. What do you do when that happens? It can be difficult to keep students quiet and orderly while standing in line, but ready for the next teacher whenever they arrive. I've used different ideas over the years...

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Open Shelf Toy Storage to Foster Independent Play

My biggest home improvement project since moving into our new home almost a year ago has been the finished basement. I've gradually been transforming it from a dark TV room into a bright, happy kid's playroom. One of the biggest changes to the space, besides painting the dark wood paneling white, was putting in some new white shelves to hold a lot...

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