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 but here are my current favorites.

I used to do more singing and body percussion when I was waiting with a class, but in my current school, because of the location of my classroom and where we usually line up, we have to stay pretty quiet in line to avoid disrupting other classes. All of the ideas below are ones that can be done silently.

1. Mirroring

This is probably the simplest but also the most effective for all ages. I hold up my hand from the front of the line and tell them to mirror me. Depending on how well the students can see me at the back, I will either just do slow movements with my hands, held above me head, or (if they can see me) include my head/face/shoulders in the movements as well. I start off with simple movements, like counting on my fingers from 1 to 5, or clenching and unclenching my fist. Once they get the idea, are quiet and focused, and are just starting to think this might be too boring, I start throwing in some challenges: holding my pinky with my other fingers, moving only one finger, etc (this is admittedly a little easier for me because I'm double jointed!). I also use some silly motions, like the spiderman hand (when he is shooting spiderweb stuff out of his wrist), or pretending to pick my nose.

2. Silent Singing

If you've recently done a song in class with hand motions, start mouthing the words while doing the motions and have students do it with you! Not only do you get to review the song, but it's good steady beat practice and it's pretty hilarious. With older students it's even fun to bring back some of their favorites from kindergarten and 1st grade. Their faces light up when they recognize the song (and then I have to remind them not to sing out loud)!

3. Addition Game

This one has nothing to do with music but it is another option that works well and gives them some practice on their math facts (which no administrator or homeroom teacher will ever complain about!). I tell them I am going to hold up a certain number of fingers, and they have to hold up the number of fingers needed to add up to 5 (or 10). This is especially mind-stretching if you do it after the mirroring activity :)

I hope you found at least one new idea here to add to your "bag of tricks"! What are your favorite things to do when you'r stuck waiting in line?

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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 of the girls' toys. The new storage has been working out really well and has allowed the girls to play more independently, so today I wanted to share what I did!

I had this open space in my wall after taking out a giant china cabinet (that I moved to another room), and these Billy bookcases from IKEA fit perfectly! I already had the colored fabric bins (craigslist finds from years ago), but I also wanted to get some clear bins, especially for the higher shelves, so that the girls could see what was in the bins without taking them off the shelves. It may not look as clean and sleek, but I decided long ago that when it comes to toy storage, ease of access for the people using them is more important than how magazine-ready it looks!

I found these clear bins at IKEA to use on the shelves. Put sideways, they fit perfectly on the shelf. Turned longways, they stick out from the shelf a little bit, but they still stay just find and allow more room to put other bins and toys next to them. Also, they're a lot cheaper than most anything else I saw that was tall enough to maximize the shelf space!

I put all of the toys that the girls use the most (and that I'm comfortable with them using without supervision) on the bottom shelves, and gradually worked my way up to the items that I don't mind them playing with, but definitely require supervision. For now, that mostly includes things like big paint bottles, beads, and board games with lots of pieces that I don't want to lose :)

Although it's probably not ready for any home decorating magazine features, I do like that the girls can see everything clearly and access all of the toys that I want them to reach on their own, and I don't really mind the "eclectic" look of the fabric bins, clear bins, and loose toys mixed together on the shelves. Now that they know where everything is, the girls will quite often run down the stairs and start playing on their own without me even being in the same room (which is no small miracle for me!). Mission accomplished! ;)

You don't need big bookcases to utilize the concept of open shelf storage for toys at home. If you're interested, here is my previous post on how I organized the toys in our old apartment with the same principles:

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Sub Plan Organization for Elementary Music Teachers

OK, so we all know that putting together effective sub plans is a never-ending problem for music teachers. Besides the difficulties that all teachers face of trying to explain things clearly enough for substitute teachers who aren't familiar with your classroom, schedule, students, etc, music teachers have the added bonus of knowing that most substitutes aren't comfortable with music as a subject, and the complexity of communicating the basic information for the 6 (or more) grade levels, and hundreds (or more) students, that they will need to teach. To be honest, I have never been really happy with my sub plans that I've had the last decade of teaching. This year, I think I've found something that I (finally) like, so I had to share with you all!

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There is really nothing fancy about my sub plans, but I think it is about as streamlined and effective as I can make it. I have a folder, which contains all of the information the subs need (more on that below), and then three scrapbook boxes containing the materials for the different lesson plan options I have in the sub plans. I got mine on sale at Michaels, but you can get the exact same ones on Amazon here. The scrapbook cases are nice because they are 12in x 12in, so they hold things letter size and even slightly larger, and they are deep enough to store thick stacks of paper as well (which you will need if you're going to have enough copies for all of your hundreds of students).

I labeled each case on the side with some masking tape to show which lessons the materials correspond to:

First, let's talk about what kind of information I've included in the folder. I currently have:

• General information (which classes get dropped off/picked up/need to be taken to gym class, basic behavior management strategies, where the bathrooms are, etc)
• Helpful contacts (the names and locations of my colleagues who know how to use everything in my room, plus the secretary and nurse)
• Emergency information (where my evacuation route is posted and my emergency folder is hanging, where to find nurse and detention forms are)
• My class schedule
• Hallway and bus duty information
• Class lists (student names)
• Student information of note (notes in individual students that need specific attention, such as medical conditions or behavioral challenges)
• Lesson plans (I have 4 options: two that can be used for K-6, one for K-3, and one for 4-6), with a spot to note which classes have completed the lesson (with the date)
• Notes section for the teacher to fill in for each class they teach

I've learned over the years, from talking to some of my favorite substitute teachers, that too much information is overwhelming (and subs end up just giving up on trying to read through it all), but they do appreciate having enough information to be able to get through the day successfully without having to ask for help too much.

So let's talk about the lesson plans! I'm really happy with the ones I've put together for this year. All but one are ones that I've used in past years successfully, but I like the set of lessons that I've put together- I think they are all easy enough to implement, but offer enough variety to allow substitute teachers to choose something that they are comfortable with, and allow students to stay engaged and doing something musically meaningful.

As I mentioned, lessons 1 and 2 are ones that can be done with any grade K-6. Lesson 3 is specifically for grades 4-6, and lesson 4 is for grades K-3.

Lesson 1 is simple: I have a template with 12 numbered boxes (6 on each side of a double-sided paper). I have put a recording of The Carnival of the Animals onto a CD. For the lesson, students listen to each movement / animal and draw something they imagine (I ask the teacher to clarify that they should NOT draw the instruments they hear, but rather something they think of when they hear the music). This piece is great for this because the movements are all very different from each other and they are very distinctive and descriptive.

Lesson 2 is Instrument Bingo. I don't know what it is but students and substitute teachers love this lesson time after time. Plus it's a great way for students to practice identifying the instruments visually and aurally.

Lesson 3 is something new I found on TeachersPayTeachers recently: composer social media profiles by Music with Miss W. I was looking for a way to include a little more music history in my sub plans, because I frankly don't spend very much time on it in my curriculum, and this seemed like the perfect way to do it easily and get students engaged as well. The premise is simple: students create Facebook - style profiles for different famous composers, including basic information and even status updates. I included copies for them to make the profile along with simple biographies that I found online. I also have a giant Music Encyclopedia that someone gave me years ago when I first started teaching, so I bookmarked the corresponding pages there with a note to the substitute to look further information up there if students have more specific questions.

Lesson 4 is for K-3 and is great for those subs who don't want the kids sitting around all day, or for when the kids come in and they are Just.That.Crazy. Basically the directions are to use the same Carnival of the Animals CD but instead of drawing, have them "show the music" with movement. I've given specific directions for how the teacher can encourage appropriate movements by pointing out when students move up for high notes, or faster for fast tempi, etc.

One thing that I started last year and found really helpful was to have substitutes mark which classes did which lesson. Although I keep track of that information in my own planner as well, I realized that when sickness hits with twin preschoolers, it usually takes more than 1 day to get over it, and dragging my sorry self into school to clean up the previous day's mess, figure out what they did, and get everything set up for the next day is not my idea of a good time. I included a table to have teachers mark down which classes they did each lesson with at the top of each lesson plan, and I included a note asking them to try to choose lessons the classes haven't done recently when they are deciding which ones to use. This makes it a lot easier to figure out what happened on which day when I get back from a multi-day absence!

The final component of my sub plan organization is that I now place the pile of scrapbook cases, with the bright, neon green folder marked "substitute", right at the front of my classroom before I leave each evening. This way I don't have to worry about coming in to set anything up in the morning if I have to be out- everything is already set up and ready to go in an emergency!

I hope this helps you to get some effective and simple sub plans together for your own classroom! If you don't want to recreate the wheel for yourself, I've put the word document templates for my information documents and lesson plans, plus a copy of the listening template for lesson 1, in my store here:

I hope this gives you some ideas to organize your sub plans more effectively- I'm pretty excited about my set up this year! Hopefully it will make sickness (my own and my daughters') less stressful, and make my substitute teachers' jobs a little easier as well.

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Easy, Healthy, Kid-Friendly Lunchbox Meal Ideas

Now that school is in full swing, I thought this would be a good time to share a few of the lunches I have been packing for my preschool-age daughters over the past few weeks. Anyone who has experience packing lunches for young children knows that it can be really hard sometimes to come up with good lunch ideas, so hopefully you will find some inspiration to make your life a little easier, and your lunchboxes a little healthier and more exciting!

*this post contains affiliate links*

In my daughters' school, I have several guidelines to keep in mind when I'm packing lunches:
1. No nuts
2. No pretzels, popcorn, or candy
3. Hot dogs and grapes must be cut length-wise
4. Nothing that needs to be heated up for more than a minute or so

In addition to the school's guidelines, I am trying to pack lunches that:
1. Are filling
2. Contain lots of fruits and veggies plus some protein, since most of their snacks at school are crackers and other carbs/grains
3. Are enticing enough for the girls to actually eat (which, in my case, means they need to be colorful, and non-repetitive)
4. Can be prepared/packed quickly

I know most parents in the United States are working with similar guidelines, and it can be tricky to come up with new ideas for lunches (because we all know how young children feel about eating the same lunch that they just had, like, last week!). Here are some of the lunches I've been packing so far (please excuse the poor lighting- I pack the lunches in the wee hours of the morning when it's still dark outside!);

Amongst all of them, though, my favorite trick is the "rainbow lunch":

This is not the only menu with which you can do the rainbow colors, obviously. I usually don't plan these things out in advance to be rainbow, but occasionally when I start pulling things out for lunch I realize that I have all of the colors and a rainbow lunch is born ;)

Of course one of the factors that makes packing these types of lunches easier is the lunchbox itself. You really need lots of different compartments or containers for young kids' lunches- we all know how atrocious it is for most kids if different foods touch each other (gasp!). I use these lunchboxes, which I love, but you could use any bento-style lunchbox, or even different tupperware containers or baggies, and get the same effect.

The other thing that makes it easier for me to pack the lunches is my menu board. I put together a list of foods that I can easily pack and separated them up into categories. Each week when I make my grocery shopping list, I check off a few items from each category to add to my list, avoiding the things I bought the week before. You can download a free copy of my menu board (in 2 different designs) to print for yourself here.

I actually took all of these lunchbox photos straight from my Instagram account. If you want to get more lunch inspiration, head over there to follow me! I've been posting my lunchbox creations once or twice a week (along with plenty of other photos from random snippets of my life).

What are your favorite simple and healthy lunchbox meals? Share your ideas below so we can all get some fresh inspiration! Want more? Subscribe here to the Organized Chaos newsletter and get ideas and resources for home and school sent straight to your inbox.

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