Cleaning Out and organizing

I spent today going through all my stuff.  In the picture below is my activity cart.  There were six playground balls on top, but I really only need 30 playground balls.  I deflated the extra six and I will be taking them home to store.  I will be getting two plastic boxes to put the medium and large parachutes and stretchy bands.  I will also put the scarves in one of the boxes. 
I discovered that I need to purchase a couple of new hula hoops a few of them have kinks.  I will be ordering them from a P.E catalog because they have the ones that won't kink.

This table wasn't too bad yesterday.  Today I just took everything off and wiped it down.  I did move the notebook paper since I don't need it everyday.  I also decided to put the cubby that I store the classroom popscile sticks on top of the smaller shelf.  Now it's easier to see the class names and to see inside the cubbies.  No more bending over or squatting down to get to the bottom ones.  I have a digital atomic clock on the top.  I know that I should have an analog clock, but this year I will need the digital because our specials are running on strange times (e.g 9:24-10:13,11:02-11:51).  I won't have to waste time looking behind me at my analog clock to figure out how much time we have left.  I also like this atomic clock because it has what day it is, the date, and the temperature of the room.
The shelf under the cubby has my hacky sacks that we use for beat passing activities, in the the purple box is our rhythm folders (each student gets one), and the box in the bottom shelf has my cups for the cup passing game.

I cleaned off and dusted my tech cart.  I have the visualizer set up and it's ready to plug into my computer. The box with the sunflowers on it is our "Magic Music Box".  I put things in it that we will be using for the lesson.  Right now it has my man barbie doll, a stuff animal of a goose, and a foam letter O.  I will be using them to teach the students my name, Ms. Mangusso.  My computer will go on the purple towel.
Above my tech cart I hung up a paper organizer.  This is where I store the printed music, listening maps, and beat charts that we need for the day's lesson.   I have the fan on top because my Promethean Projector likes to overheat because my room is often very warm so it can't get any cool air without the fan on.  We are on construction calendar this year.  We will be putting in longer days so we can get out early (April 30.)  They will be redoing our roof because it leaks and they will put in a new air system.  I am hoping it will help keep my room cooler than it is now.  The tweety cup has some dry erase markers it will be moving to a new location.
  I also hung up my power strip today.  When you have a lot of tech things you need a lot of outlets.  I also hung up my 13 slot USB adapter.  I will be plugging in the Promethean board, my printer, the Activotes, the ActivExpression, and my presentation mouse.  

Here is cabinet under my Computer monitor/TV.  The picture on the left is how it looked yesterday.  The picture on the right is how it looks today.  The empty spot is where I put my teacher manuals and resource books I need for the lesson,  Then there is a paper tray.  In the bottom is the extra paper for the printer.  I will be putting my laminated music staff and blank beat charts in the empty paper trays.  Next to the paper tray is my box of dry erase markers that the students use.  Then I have all my makers, visa-via pens, scissors, tape, and a stapler.  On the bottom shelf in the black basket is where I keep my small play dough containers that we use to make play dough notes.  Next to the play dough basket is the John Feierabend's pitch exploration box. The pitch exploration cards are on the other side of the black basket.  I bought them from West Music.  In the colored boxes are my manipulatives.  One box has my beat chips that I made. Each student gets a bag with 16 beat chips.  I glued hearts to plastic counting tokens.  Another box has my note value cards that I made.  The whole note is the longest and the cards get smaller and smaller for each note.  Each student gets one set.  The last box has plastic sleeves that you can slip a piece a paper into and the students use the dry erase markers to write on them.  I bought them from an educational site, but I forgot which one it is.  They are a heavy plastic and work really well with the dry erase markers.  The black tire box is full of cars.  We draw different kinds of lines (e.g straight, zig-zag, curly, etc.) and then we drive our car on the line while making car sounds.  It's a fun pitch exploration activity.  Next to the cars are the rhythm flash cards from Conversational Solfege by John Feierabend.

The last thing I worked on today was the book case that had the tweety sheet and the gray shelves next to the bookcase.  I forgot to take a before picture of the bookcase, but here is what it looks like after I went through everything and I dusted everything.

I still have some work, but I am waiting on my baskets that I ordered from Really Good Stuff.  Most of these things will go in the baskets.  You can see I have a large Mr. Potatoe Head.  He has a family inside of him.  I use him with the students to work on singing voice.  I will sing and ask "Who has the eyes?" and the student who has them will sing back "I have the eyes" we sing it on So Mi and La.  The shark I bought because it looked cute.  I am planning on using it for rhythms.   Students can read a card with a rhythm on it and then feed it to the shark.  There is also a red cootie.  When students complain about "cooties" I tell them I am the only one with the "cooties" and I have several of them, but you have to find them.  I have 3 that I move around the room.   They love to try to find where they move to. 

Below is the picture of the gray shelves.  I almost forgot to take a before picture.  I already cleaned out the middle shelf before I took the picture.  It was a real mess things were just stuffed on this shelf.   This is all the curriculum materials for the Making Music by Silver Burdette.  I have all the CD's uploaded to my computer so I don't really use them, but I keep them for a backup.  Then there are all the resource books that come with the series (e.g piano accompaniment books, the multicultural book, and there is an Activity book for subs.)
The bottom shelf has all my tools and things I need.  I store my screwdrivers, wrenches , drills, Velcro, electric tape, duct tape, Recorder Karate belts, Recorder cleaning chemical, and there are two drawers with my VHS tapes.  As you can see the top shelf has my games, but it's still messy.  In the next picture you will see what it looks like after I cleaned it.

Below is how the shelf looks after I cleaned it.  A lot of the games that were on this shelf went in my centers cabinet.  The only thing left is the Ker Plunk game and some foam dice.  They might stay there or I might move them.  I think I will put some plastic boxes up there to store things in. 
I went through all the drawers where I keep my supplies and tools.  I took everything out and wiped out each drawer and then put the stuff back.  I did throw out some things that I forgot what they were for or I couldn't figure out what to use it with.
  Tomorrow I will be going through the blue file cabinets.  Inside are things I use for various activities.  There is no paper in these file cabinets.  It's just a bunch of stuff and things that I need to go through and decide what stays and what goes.  I also need to organize them because things have been just thrown in them. 

Today I made two trips to the dumpster with old beat up stuff that I no longer want.  I also made a trip to the car with stuff to take to Good Will.  Tomorrow I will continue to go through things.  I will make a pile of things that are trash and things that can go to Good Will.  We have a Good Will very close by that you just drive up to it and they take everything out of your car.  You don't even have to get out of the car. 
  I ended up donating my stereo system.  It was hard to get rid of it because I kept thinking I will need it, but I haven't used it in two years.  I use my computer and Promethean Board to play all my music.  I also use my iPod to play music so there really wasn't a reason to keep it.  I thought maybe I should keep it for when I have a sub, but I decided it wasn't worth trying to store just for that.  I will just have the subs use my computer.  I will create a special account on my computer that they will log onto and everything they need will be on the desktop.  I don't plan on having my sub us the computer a lot because when I am out I will just have the subs do centers with the students or a planned activity that doesn't require recorded music. 

I will continue tomorrow with my journey to clean and organize my room.
Tami