7 Music Room Decorating Tips

It’s beginning to be that time of year again: I am starting to, reluctantly, ease myself into thinking about school again. Are you there, too? One way to prepare for the new year is to start decorating your room. I’ve spent weeks decorating my room before, and I’ve also had an exciting experience (that I never want to repeat) of moving rooms and setting up a new room in a total of 3 hours. Here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way.

Tip #1: Know your fire code

This is a biggie because it varies from state, to city, to district, to school. I see all these wonderful things on Pinterest: things hanging from the ceiling, bulletin board with fabric and triple border, and doors decorated to the max. All of those things are a no-go at my school. We have restrictions on how much paper we can have on the walls, where the paper can be, and NOTHING is allowed on our doors. I learned this the hard way when we changed fire inspectors and I found the new one at my painstakingly decorated door, crumpling up decorations and throwing them away. I was furious! But at the end of the day, even though the policy was a new one I hadn’t known I was breaking, I was guilty of breaking fire code and the door had to stay completely bare. Know what your restrictions are BEFORE you spend your precious time making and hanging decorations/boards.

If you aren't sure what the codes are, check with your building engineer or janitor. It's a good idea to check with them anyway before you do something big like paint furniture or use tape on something in the room. I have friends who didn't consult with their people before they used duct tape on the floor- HUGE mistake. The residue never comes off. Some schools allow you to paint school furniture like shelves or filing cabinets, and some don't. It's always best to check, you have little to lose and being on the building staff's bad side is definitely something to avoid. 

R.I.P. epic and awesome meme door.

Tip #2: Consider functionality vs. aesthetics

There are varying theories on how “cute” a room should be. Some find cute decor necessary to be homey and/or organized, and some find it offensively distracting. Think about where you fall on the spectrum. I am solidly in the middle: everything in my room in functional, but I made sure it looks good too. I color-coordinate everything according to grade and group displays according to musical element, so students know to zoom in on anything that is their color and can zone out any information they don’t need. That helps to counteract the distracting aspect of having stuff around the room. Consider your curriculum and how often you meet with your kids. If you see them for only a short amount of time and they are expected to memorize a lot of vocabulary, visuals of frequently-used concepts could really help your instruction. Room size and wall space can also impact what you do. A huge room could have enough room for a display that is “just for fun” to help the room be inviting to students. But you may want to consider before you wallpaper your room in cute clipart you found on Teachers Pay Teachers, or before you leave your room completely bare: How is this helping my instruction?

An example of my color-coded dynamic display. Cute, but useful!

Tip #3: If you’re going to do something, do it well

I was 100% guilty of sloppy, handwritten decor my first year of teaching. That may have been acceptable if I had great handwriting, but I really don’t. Anchor Charts or a small bit of hand-writing is one thing, but I did entire displays with my wonky writing. Taking the time to create a poster on the computer was totally worth it, because it was legible and will look professional. Especially if you have a large population of at-risk kids, a sloppy room gives the impression that you have no intention to stay. Now if your edges are slightly off center, that’s not a big deal. But certain amounts of polish to your room helps to set your classroom environment, which in turn helps set classroom management.

Tip #4: Post your rules

This is hugely helpful for classroom management. When a kid is making silly choices, a raised eyebrow and a finger pointing to the rules is often enough to quell the behavior. Yay for non-verbal cues!

Make a good choice, kiddo.

Tip # 5: Hiding Places

Sooner or later, a kid will be having a very bad day and will break down in your class. Many, especially kinder kids at the beginning of the year, immediately want to find a hiding place. Look over your set-up and see if you have any. Maybe you don’t want to have any, or maybe you do. (Perhaps you want a hiding place to be a cool-down area, or you want one for a game. Perhaps you want nothing but open space.) But if they are there, make sure you know where they are.

Tip #6: Cool-down Spaces

Related to hiding spaces are cool-down spaces. Have a designated space where kids go if they need a second to re-group. What that looks like is up to you: a desk with a think-sheet, a carpet square outside of the circle or rows where they can still watch, or maybe a chair with a glitter bottle. Sometimes schools will dictate what they want cool-down spaces to look like so they are consistent throughout the building. Whatever your cool-down space looks like, make sure it is clearly labeled and communicated to the students so instruction time isn’t wasted when a student needs to go there.

Tip #7: Materials

Consider how you will get materials to your students quickly. How are your instruments going to be set up? Will certain ones be out all the time? Where will the rest go? I leave my tone bars out at the back of the room in three long rows, and have my non-pitched percussion in bins along one wall. All of my instrument bins are labeled with the instrument name as well as a picture of the instrument. This helps primary and ELL kiddos put away instruments quickly. My instrument bins are also organized by category sound: click, scrape, jingle, rattle, and ring. (I got that idea from Barbara Grenoble, and it is SUPER helpful when getting kids to analyze non-pitched percussion sounds.) 

Most elementary music rooms don’t have desks, so that means writing projects like composition can be a bit of a pain to manage. I love my open room, but when I first started I lost a lot of instruction time to handing out pencils and paper. How are your writing materials stored, and how are they handed out? I have shower caddies from the dollar tree (I love the dollar tree. I love that place so much!) that I use to store any materials like pencils and paper. Everything is sectioned out into groups of 6, so when I am preparing for the next class I can just grab a chunk of paper and plunk it into a caddy. 6 boards go under the caddy because they are too big to fit inside. The caddies are also handy for handing out baggies of manipulatives like rhythm kits or for small non-pitched percussion.

It really helps to be purposeful about setting up your room. Keeping things in mind like décor, functionality, and specific spaces in your room can help your class run smoothly and ultimately improve your instruction.

Have fun setting up the perfect classroom for a great year!