This week, I started my ninth year of teaching. I’m at a new school in a new district, so of course I have a new room to set up. Classroom decor is a lot of fun for me, so I was excited to get in and start setting up! I went with a beach themed music classroom.
The posters and labels I used in my classroom are from my Beach Theme Music Room Decor Kit. All of the decor was done on a tight budget. In the summer, beach gear and decor are easy to find at the dollar store. I bought fish nets, inner tubes, beach balls, and more for a dollar each. I made a beach ball garland by printing and laminating beach ball clipart, and hot gluing them to string. Decorating this beach themed music classroom did not break the bank!
BACK WALL: REST SPOT, EXPECTATIONS, AND DESK
In the corner near the door is the rest spot. This is where students will go if they need a minute to calm down or reflect on their behavior. The school-wide PBIS expectations are on the back wall. I’ll soon place my consequences on this wall as well. My desk is in the corner, as out-of-the-way as I could get it. My district has docking stations for our laptops, so I needed to keep my desk in this general area. I think it works! I printed out clipart seashells and starfish, and used sticky tac to decorate the front of my desk.
LEFT WALL: WORD WALL AND SO MANY SINKS!
My classroom has FOUR SINKS. No, it was not an art room, so I have no clue why, but I’ll take it! I placed my word wall on this wall. The cabinets hold my rhythm instruments. Under the sinks, curtains cover the clutter (and Boomwhacker storage). I can’t sew, so I bought pillowcases, cut them along the seam, and this made my curtains. I placed them on a tension rod, and they’re ready to go.
CORNER: DYNAMICS, PALM TREE, AND PASSES
This second door goes toward the student bathrooms, so this is where I placed the bathroom passes. I also posted my dynamics posters on this door for easy reference. The palm tree wasn’t that hard to make. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found this tutorial to make a palm tree out of pool noodles and brown paper bags.
MAIN WALL
I didn’t want a lot of distraction near the SMART Board, so I tried to keep this area simple. I have my Curwen hand sign posters above the board, and my Visual Schedule Cards magnetized to the whiteboard. On my office door, I hung an inner tube like a wreath, just for some cheer.
RIGHT WALL: OBJECTIVES AND INSTRUMENTS
The daily objectives for each level are displayed in dry erase sleeves that I stuck to the wall with Command strips. A piece of paper with “I can…” is slipped inside so that I can write directly on the pouch.
Most of my Orff instruments are laid out here so that they are as out-of-the-way as possible. The last thing any music teacher wants is a singing game turning into a xylophone crash! My Orff instrument expectations are posted above the instruments for easy reference.
This area is where I keep all the supplies, like pencils, dry erase markers, clipboards, etc. The three pencil buckets are from Target in the party section. Clipboards are in baskets from the Dollar Tree. The Sterilite drawers are holding the dry erase materials, and an materials I might need for specific grade levels (i.e. recorder music in the third grade drawer). Above the counter are my instrument families posters.
ENTRANCE DECOR
I also thought I’d share my door decor and window display. On the entrance to my internal door, I kept it simple. The surf board is just butcher paper with a floor tape stripe down the middle. Dollar Tree has some great fishing nets, so I cut a piece of one, and attached it to the wall with a few clear Command hooks. 
A really cool feature in every classroom at my new school is the window display. I made a pennant banner that says “Dive into music,” and placed seashells, a shovel and pail, and more beach-themed decorations. Sorry for the glare in the pictures. That Arizona sun is no joke!
And that’s all of it! I think this is my favorite classroom setup yet. When you spend so much of your time in your classroom, it’s worth it to make it feel like home. I can’t wait to share all of the music-making we do in this room this school year!
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