Feeling Organized!

Well...here they are - the after pictures! It took a lot of organizing, but it feels so good, and I feel really ready to kick the year off now. 

The instrument closet...look at all those great Orff instruments! I can't wait to put them to use!!

The "music" closet...ok - this picture makes me feel LOTS better than the before one! 

More instruments...and they are all together by kind! Hooray! 

Even the Boomwhackers have a home now! What are Boomwhackers?...Well - they are lots of FUN, that's what they are! haha And full of color! (Plastic tubes that make up the notes of a musical scale and can be "whacked" on things to make music!)

I have my own office now too! :) 

My desk...we'll see how long it stays this organized! haha That's usually my one downfall...

Here's a big view of the room - I love, love, love bright colors! And it made me feel extra good when a little girl came in on Friday and said, "Wow! This is so much brighter than last year...and so organized! It's....gorgeous!" (She was in first grade...lol...I bet she lives in a really structured/organized home environment!) Also super glad the carpet from my room at Pick fit into the space in the new classroom!

The front of the room...

The far side/back of the room...I brought my "tempo cats" with me from Pick, and....check out my NEW drums from my AOSA grant I wrote last year....I am SO excited about using those this year!

The other side of the room - with my office, the instrument closet, and the music closet

One of my favorite places in the room - My "World Music" display! Not as much space as I had at Pick for that, but just enough, I think! I plan to put some pictures and post cards from my trip on the bulletin board, and when I find the box my letters are packed in, I'll put "Music Takes You Places" above the map! :) The instruments are from my trips to Africa, Brazil, Okinawa Japan, Mexico, Austria, Italy, and France, and a few are from friends who have traveled to Indonesia, Spain, and Thailand!

Another of my favorite spots - the book area! I love to use children's books and literature to correlate with music through rhythm, rhyming, songs, and information from the books! 

The entrance stairs...I don't have a lot of bulletin boards this year like I used to, so I just have to creatively use the wall space...oh well! And we have to display our objectives every week somehow, so I figured I might as well make them colorful too! :) 

And...here they are close up!! My fabulous new tubano, djembe, and buffalo drums, thanks to the grant I wrote to the American Orff Schulwerk Association!! Hooray! This picture just makes my heart happy!

We've had two days of school so far...and I'm not going to lie. They were a challenge. This whole year is going to be full of challenges. But not any that I can't overcome with God's strength, and that the school can't overcome with the great teachers there. We have 28-32 students in each class, with 24 being my lowest number because they allowed the principal to hire a fourth kindergarten teacher so that there wouldn't be 34 kindergarteners in each class! Yikes! It has been SO good to see my kids from Pick there - as good for me to see them as it has been for them to see familiar faces in their new school, I think. I admit, I got a little teary eyed on Thursday when they jumped off the bus and ran to me, excited to see me and give me hugs. I needed their little hugs! I'll tell you more about the first few days when there's time, but for now...I just wanted to give you a tour of my new room (which I'm excited about being so large!) So...welcome to Miss Whitaker's music class 2010-2011!!