Today, I took a trip with my three-year-old to Five Below, and I've decided it's one of my favorite stores. There are SO many fun items to buy! Since it's almost August, I had Back to School on my mind, and saw tons of items that could work well in the music classroom, or any classroom!
A little disclaimer: I'm not getting any kickback from Five Below (although wouldn't that be nice?) You also might be able to find some of these items for cheaper elsewhere; I just wanted to give you some fun ideas! According to the Five Below website, there are 430 stores nationwide, across 27 states. If you don't have a Five Below near you (you can check if you do on the website), then you can likely find something similar at a dollar store, Target, or Amazon! Here goes!
Plush locker Rugs
I'm going to do flexible seating in my music classroom this year, which I'll blog more about soon. I bought 5 of the black rugs so students would have something soft to sit on during centers, group work, etc., instead of my hard linoleum!
Plastic milk crates
These were a good deal, at only $5 (I spent $6 each on Amazon.) I bought mine to make crate seats for my classroom; here's one of them:
Like I said, I'll blog more on that later. The great thing about these seats is they are cute, comfy, AND great for storing scarves, manipulatives, tennis balls for movement, and more!
Binders
These are pretty cute, especially if you love everything black and gold!
Pillows and rugs
Like the locker rugs above, any of these would be great for flexible seating! They could also work if you want your bass xylophone players to have something soft to kneel upon.
Dry erase markers with erasers
These are GREAT to either have on the board, or to have for student dictation. I have a set of class white boards and markers, but have tried different things for erasers, such as felt and even Kleenex. I love that these markers have the erasers on them...one less thing to pass out!
Containers
Hanging clipboard
This would be a really cute way to hang student work in your classroom! It could also work for hanging drawings and/or nice notes students bring you.
Colored Dice
I love these dice! I used them last year, when students worked in small groups with Cori Bloom's listening freebie. It was such a fun way to have them discuss different pieces of music in a small group and whole group setting!
Giant pufferball
This may be my favorite find at Five Below! This is a much bigger squishy ball than the one I use in my classroom. Here is another picture, with the ball next to my recorder, so you can see how big it is:
The kids (and I) are going to LOVE using this for SMART board games like this one, in which they throw the squishy ball and sing the pattern!
If you're looking for more organization ideas for your music room, I just created a set that helped me organize my recorders, manipulatives, and more! Click the picture below to see the set:
Here are some of the labels I created with this set:
Whether it be on TpT or at Five Below, happy shopping!
Only a music teacher would use a recorder too measure! LOL I have been wondering about those dice! I was told they had them set 5 below, but it's an hour trip for me, so thanks for confirming! Your organization set looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ideas! I'm looking to add some flex seating options for group work in the band room this year. Looks like I need to hit up 5 Below!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Heading there today actually. Thanks!
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