Once August comes, we know what’s looming. Some of our Southern friends are already back, but if you are in the North like me, you know that it starts to feel real (even though school supplies have been in stores before some of us were even OUT for the summer)!
This means it’s time for my annual Music Teacher Back to School Guide!
This huge post has everything you need for back to school – curriculum, concerts, things to do, decor, preparing for situations and more.
Things To Do
- Create a list of procedures to teach. These make a huge difference in your classes running smoothly. Once students know what is expected, you can always refer to this pre-set standard operating procedure and it will guide them.
- Set your calendar before you put any school things in there. Anniversaries, birthdays, important dates. Personal calendar comes first!
- Plan school events backwards. If you have a deadline for a concert on the calendar, count backwards to find out when you need to do action items with enough time. Check out this post for a better explanation.
- Take a personal inventory of what you have that you actually need. This post is for “new teachers” but will apply to everyone!
- Reassess your boundaries. Do you need to be stricter with contacting you on nights and weekends? Do you need to not give out your personal number? Do you say yes to extra things too readily? Take a look at the boundaries you set last year and evaluate if you need to reset some. Check out this post to get more ideas on boundaries.
- Communicate important things to your admin and team. Do you stress really easily on ‘see me after school’ without a reason being given even when you know it’s probably nothing? Do you need help with concert crowd control? What about changes to your performances from last year. Communicate things you want to change while everyone is fresh.
- Make sure you have all the important documents ready to go. This checklist should help.
Curriculum
The number one back to school ACTUAL school thing to do is get your curriculum in order. I know it seems less obvious than an empty room, bare bulletin boards and some of the physically obvious stuff, but this is why we do what we do! Make sure that you set some time for yourself during your back to school weeks to do this undisturbed.
Take some serious time, sit down and get your curriculum in order. Plot out what needs to happen where, what you want students to know by the end of the year, and take inventory of what resources you have for planning.
Spend some time refreshing yourself on what you liked, didn’t like, wanted to add, wanted to remove, and wanted to adjust in your classroom, curriculum, and everything in between.
Check out this post to get more ideas for curriculum planning.
It’s also important to take the time to look over the things you might want to add or remove from your curriculum. Did you discover a song you use is culturally insensitive? Did you come across a great new game for practicing concepts? Take time to note these things now so you don’t forget in the midst of the school year.
While we’re talking about that, make sure you add things to your curriculum as you get them! If you’ve ever come back from a conference with a bunch of ideas that you’ve never implemented, I’d check out this post so you can remember to use them!
A few other posts:
Essentials
- Make sure all your emergency info is in good condition and displayed prominently.
- Check to make sure all your school provided technology works.
- Check inventory on school provided consumable supplies in your room (writing utensils, paper, etc) and see if you need something to get it ordered ASAP.
- Organize your teacher area, files, etc. and set up places for documentation, record keeping, and such. Check out this post about my favorite organization tool.
- Inventory your stuff. Make sure everything you personally own is listed in a document, and clearly marked with your name. Sharpie, and an engraving tool should cover most things!
- Get your class lists, set up your gradebook, update iDoceo, and create ensemble lists.
- Prep audition dates for extras like choir, performance roles, etc, school calendar dates and performances.
- Prep your emergency sub plans. Check out this Back to School Sub Tub Guide for lots of ideas.
- Set up your lockdown area and prepare for emergencies. Check out this post for some info on lockdown supplies.
Decor
- Print yourself a DND sign for your planning time.
- Decide what’s wall things are essential, what are your daily needs, temporary needs, and what’s just fluff.
Here’s my thoughts:
Essential: Legally necessary stuff
Daily: rules, things you will refer to (word wall or pocket charts for a less overwhelming word wall), etc
Temporary: Recorder fingerings if you only teach it part of the year, anchor charts that you refer to occasionally that don’t really need to be up every day. I’ve used an anchor chart stand so my room wasn’t overwhelmed with posters, and I still love it. Also – books – there are some gorgeous displays I’ve seen on Instagram, but unless you plan on actually using it during the month, it’s just more to look at that doesn’t necessarily need to be out on display, especially when you are displaying books for 6 grade levels.
Fluff: Cute stuff like banners, welcome signs, non-functional decor (things that don’t teach a concept). Keep these to a minimum or pick only a few to accent your room. They may be adorable but don’t let this stuff overwhelm your room!! If you really want all of them, rotate so it doesn’t become too much. - Pick what you need and start there. It’s always easier to add throughout the year rather than spend all your time during BTS prep to over decorate and let it be overwhelming.
- Think about any sort of mood makers you want in your room. Lamps, filters for UV lights, and plants all help make your room feel calmer and less industrial.
- Think about a calm corner, or a peace table. Read about peace tables here.
- Check out a few helpful posts about decor:
- Four Things to Know About Music Classroom Decor – considerations about what you put up and why
- Must Have Requirements for Music Classroom Decor – some important things to include and not include!
Classroom Tools
Think about things you wish you had last year while you still have a budget…if you get one… (raise your hand no budget friends 🙋🏻♀️). Create an Amazon wishlist or a Donor’s Choose project to get some tools you’ve been eyeing for a while. Looking for inspo? Check out my Amazon Storefront here.
Check out this post for a toolkit you might want to have for all those during the year repairs.
Check out this post for ideas for materials you may want to add this year. Inventory what you really want in your classroom that might get used immediately if you spend some budget money. Word to the wise – save yourself some money for later in the year if you need materials!
Manipulatives are a common and often used tool in the classroom. Check out these posts for info on options and setting them up.
- Check out this post for manipulatives to cover a whole ton of things for under $30.
- Five Staff Manipulatives to Use in the Music Classroom
- Look at an easy way to set up Rhythm Manipulatives here.
Paperwork
- Parent volunteer forms (check out this post for a good list of things they can do for you!)
- Calendar
- First week documents – student surveys, info sheets, parent forms.
- Back to school night/open house materials
- Emergency forms
- Pre-tests for necessary assessments, student learning objectives, growth goals, etc
Things to Review
- Classroom Management! The number one thing that can make or break your class. Review your policies, what works, what isn’t working, and what you may want to adjust. Read about some classroom management tips here.
- Social Media – This is a great time of year to go through and clear out things. Remove people you don’t want to see all your things. If you have an account for your school music program or you as a music teacher, prep student release forms if you use student pictures. Check out this post for some guides on social media for teachers to protect you and your students.
- Take a look at any book ideas you may have saved over the summer. Did you see a new children’s lit book that you know will be perfect for a lesson? Save yourself middle of the school year time and order it now. Need inspo? Check out The Ultimate Music Ed Book List to see some of the new books that came out.
- Take some time to reflect on your practices in the classroom. Are your students who have special needs having those needs met? This post from my friend Eric can definitely help you reflect on that. Check it out for some ideas on serving your special needs students.
- Your bathroom plan for students.
- Your student dress code for performances.
- Consider your non-negotiables for what you want your students to know by the end of the school year.
- Set a professional goal that will help have a smoother year. Check out some ideas in this post.
- How inclusive is your classroom? Is there language you can use instead of your current norms? Here’s some tips.
- Google Drive – set it up now so you have order all year
- How are you setting up your organization?
- Do you have the 9 habits of successful music teachers?
First Week Things
- Learning names is super important. Pronouncing them correctly should have the exact same importance. Here’s a blog post with some books to help students feel comfortable with their names, correcting people, and embracing names that aren’t in the cultural norm of your school.
- Here’s even MORE books with names!
- Check out this post with six things to do the first week of school
- Not sure how to get started? Here’s what to include in Back to School lessons.
- Sometimes you just need a book to take away the back to school nerves. Check out this post with some good ones
- Beginning of the Year assessments sneak up quickly. This post will help you plan them out.
- Name Games – because we always need some!
Long Term Prep
I KNOW, it’s AUGUST. But, in reality, we need to start planning early. Don’t ignore it until October.
- The Elementary Music Concert Guide
- How to Plan a Concert Backward
- Concert Etiquette and Communicating it to Families
- There’s More to Life than Concerts
- Using Holiday and Concert Music to Teach Concepts
- Alternatives to Elementary Music Performances
2026 Back to School Guide Round Up
Here are some of my favs for BTS 2026! You can also find all of it in one place here. Full disclosure, some affiliate links. No pressure!
New Children’s Literature
- This is Hip Hop and Other Street Dances
- Raven’s Ribbons
- Beat of a Nation, The: How Hip-Hop Shaped American Culture and Inspired the World
- Blues Boy: The BBKing Story
- Music of the Bells
- Sounds of Trash
- Rap It Up!
- Charley’s Honky-Tonk Mission: The Story of America’s First Black Country Music Superstar
- Two Brothers One Song
- If you are looking for more books, make sure you check out The Ultimate Music Ed Book List. You can sort by year to look for newer books!
Song Collections
- Philippines Children’s Songs, Spoken Rhymes, and Games for Teaching
- Shadows in the Moonlight
- El Patio de Mi Casa
- The Rhythm of Somalia
- Roots and Branches: A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children
- First, We Sing! 100 Little Songs and Rhymes
- First We Sing! 101 Songs and Games for Singing , PLaying and More!
- Songs of the Sun
- Folk Songs North America Sings
Teacher Materials
- Festive Music Teacher Planner and Organizer – All the documents you need as a teacher including several variations of lesson planning pages
- Sub Tub Starter Set – All the paperwork you need for an organized sub tub
- Music Class Essential Rubrics – Over 300 rubrics already made for you
- Essential Music Teacher Checklists Editable – Keep yourself organized with easy checklists as well as editable templates
- The Music Teacher Curriculum Planner – If you are constantly looking for a way to get your curriculum in order but what’s out there is so overwhelming.
- Visual Schedule – An important tool for all your students, this one has 3 ways to display and over 110 different activities that may be on your lesson plan.
- 32 Weeks of Listening – 192 musicians/composers total that represent a variety of cultures and genres.
- Music of the Philippines – If you want to include music from the Philippines in your music classes, this set is for you. With more than enough info for several classes, this large set includes information about the islands, listening links to both traditional Filipino genres and for 9 famous Filipino composers and musicians, folk dance video links, a tinikling tutorial, video links for 4 more dances, and sheet music for 6 Filipino folk songs.
- Folk Dance Formation Posters – top down views of formations have been a game changer for me! You can also get these pre-printed for you on Etsy.
Teacher Tools
- Student Praise Notes – EVERY student deserves some good contact home. These are totally free because cost shouldn’t be a barrier.
- Loop Earplugs – Take the sting off some of those louder sounds with something to protect your hearing. These switch ones are great because they can allow you to change how much you let in. The difference isn’t huge but you can easily switch it while in the middle of class.
- Reusable silverware – keep it at school. No worries if you packed one and no using plastic all the time. No accidentally throwing out silverware from home *facepalm*
- Clipboard – with storage, and a topi, dry erase pocket. All your daily checks, need to do, etc, can be at your fingertips.
- Pencil case – I’ve had this pencil case 7 years (according to my Amazon history, and another color for 8) and store my chargers, external hard drive and adapters in it in my book bag. I use the other for colored pencils. It has truly stood the test of time. It also has pencil slots so if you want to carry everything in one place, this is perfect. It’s also pretty smooshy so it slides into smaller spaces nicely.
- This pencil is great for writing in small spaces. I got this when I needed a slimmer pencil for my analysis pages from a store in Portland in 2018 and I actually replaced it last year after mine walked off at a conference. It’s actually the only pencil I use anymore and it’s got a nice weight to it.
- Rolling staff stamp – great for hand making worksheets which we KNOW takes less time than digital!
- A perfect pencil cup/tape holder for a music teacher
- A small tote bag when you need an extra hand.
Classroom Tools
- Sports Stacking Cups
- Adaptive Grip Tool for holding mallets, sticks, pencils, etc.
- Guitar Pick Tuner – Because you can buy one tool instead of 2 to tune and pluck. Even if you don’t use it for all your students, this is a game changer for tuning!
- 1000 pack of bingo chips – perfect for solfege manipulatives, this set is super inexpensive and will cover your whole class. I really recommend 1 color because otherwise some students will get hung up on certain notes certain colors, or try to pick all the same color, etc.
- I will never not advocate for silicone wristbands for students to find a partner. (If you have green, you need a partner who is also wearing green or is wearing blue, etc.) Let’s students have choice but you can also control who that choice includes. And it’s easy to wash them in a dishpan or wipe them down after classes.
- These dry erase folders are perfect so you don’t need to have 100 copies of worksheets and can reuse them.
- Pocket charts – great for word walls that don’t cover the entire wall, displaying pattern cards, and other things like visual schedules.
- Pencil Grips – Having a few options is great for younger students or students who may need an adaptive hold. Option 1, Option 2
- Etching tool – these are amazing for marking recorders and last much longer than maker
- Doorbell – I love a doorbell to be used as an actual doorbell. I could never hear students knocking when we were making music and this was a game changer.
- Timer – These timers, cube timers, etc, are SO easy for students to set.
Decor
- Fluorescent Light Covers – No on loves fluorescent lights. These are perfect to block some of that harsh light and I love that this set has tree and cloud variations to change it up. .
- Carbon Monoxide Detector – Hear me out. We have them at home, why not have one where we spend another 8+ hours a day with a bunch of children? This is a “travel” one and is pretty inexpensive.
- Festive Elements of Music Anchor Charts and Classroom Signs
- Musical Months of the Year Poster – Because this is the best way to remember which months have 31 days.
- Festive I Can Statements and National Standards
- Festive Music Rules
- Twinkle Lights – if you’ve been using overhead lamps less, these twinkle lights are a VERY cute way of adding a little ambient lighting to your room.
- Festive Chromatic Hand Sign Posters – A great diverse set for your classroom. Now with solfege in lowercase as well.
- Visual Choral Guide (Blue & Grey version)
Resources
- Music Education for Social Change
- Universal Design for Learning in Music Education
- Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education
- Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities: A Label-Free Approach
- Responsive Classroom for Music, Art, PE, and Other Special Areas
- Your First Year as an Elementary Music Teacher: A Practical Guide for New Educators
- Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-Free Approach
- Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches
- Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers
- Spanish for Music Teachers
- For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education
- Music Education and Social Emotional Learning
Lockdown Supplies
- Barracuda Door Defense – A way to help your door from being opened outside of a lock. There are also options for inward swinging doors.
- A window cover – An easy way to cover up that window.
- Water bottles – if you are locked down for a while, these can come in clutch.
- Dum Dum Suckers – if you need something small to keep students mouths from talking.
- Portable Toilet – If you are locked down for a very long time, this may be a necessity.
- Portable CPR Mask – If you really need one, this is a small, pocket friendly option.
- Silent Fidgets – Keep students occupied
- First Aid Kit – Because a Kindergartner will find a way to get a scrape even if they are locked down and not moving.
- These bandages – Absolute Worst Case Scenario
Splurges
- Personal Laminator – These are so wonderful for a quick lamination. If you are doing only a few pieces of paper, this is SO much easier than turning on the huge school laminator. The pockets are also nice and thick so papers hold up really well.
- External Hard Drive – I keep all of my stuff backed up here and it’s worth it for the peace of mind!
- Cricut – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Cut your letters for bulletin boards this way.
- Mini Label Maker – While this is inexpensive, I count it as a splurge since your school probably has a label maker. But you can print from your phone. From your couch while you binge watch shows instead of tethered to the school machine.
- iPad – Goodnotes, and iDoceo – editable notebooks, seating charts, easy grading lists. Worth it for this. If you digitize more of your work you will have WAY less to carry! I did all my notes for Level 3 on Goodnotes because they even have staff paper options. Worth it to have less to carry! You don’t need the fancy version and unless you have a hobby that justifies it, the basic version will do just fine. Or save even more money with a refurbished version. Yes splurge for the pencil as well so you have a good writing tool.
- The Magic Keyboard for the iPad has been a game changer for me. I actually use my iPad, don’t mind when I don’t have my laptop for big note taking, and it is so much better for my back to not lug my laptop around all the time. This has really been worth the money for me.
- Q Ball – the throwable, wireless microphone. Pass the ball and get audio recordings of your students. I don’t have one. I want one. Eventually.
Teacher Treats
- Eye Mask – I am high maintenance and this is probably one of the best things I’ve done to help me sleep better. Even though my room is usually dark, it’s a great mental tool to help me just feel ready for sleep. When my neighbors do have their lights on, it’s even more of a necessity! I HAVE splurged and gotten fancy ones. For me they are worth it because I use them so regularly.
- Theragun Mini – I know I’ve talked about this before but my shoulders and neck have always been my problem spots and lately it’s to the point my shoulder is giving me headaches daily. This is a great little tool to help get some of those spots.
- A water bottle you love (that you don’t have to replace to be trendy!!) – I am definitely a drink girl and I’ve been known to carry more than 1 drink into a room. I’ve talked before about how much my Stanley came in clutch when I was pregnant because it can fit 3 cans of LaCroix (which helped me with the little bit of nausea I had), and I’m a butterfingers but this has a handle which has definitely saved me a few times. Either way, make sure you have a water bottle you love because we know how important it is for you, and your voice, to be hydrated! I also advocate for keeping the same bottle once you have one! I’ve had this one now around 4ish years.
- Snacks you love – Keep a few in your drawer because it’s way better than resorting to nothing, or some questionable food when you are in a pinch. I’m a huge fan of Made Good granola bites.
- Ember Mug – I love mine. I know I’ve highlighted it before but I’m a slow coffee drinker and this has saved me many a days of having to resort to cold coffee.
- Cloud Socks – Just for sleeping. I actually do sleep in these pretty much every night no matter the season. I need socks to fall asleep, even in the summer, and these keep my feet warm enough but don’t pinch my toes. Plus they are easy to slide off when I need to get them off in the middle of the night. If you check my amazon purchase history, I’ve bought this set multiple times and will probably replace some worn out ones this fall.
- White Noise Machine – because as I said I’m high maintenance. When my son was a newborn in our room I slept better with that machine than I had in years. When we moved him to his own room, I bought another for me. Yes, I have a travel one that I’ve used at conferences the last few years as well too.
- Scheduled Time for Movement – A walk, a trip to pilates/yoga/cardio drumming, or an episode of the Golden Girls while you’re on the bike (*raises hand). Whatever it is you do for movement, schedule some time for you to get some movement this year. Our body and mental health will thanks us. I have a variation on this bike but without the desk. It’s great because I fold it up and get it out of the way when I need to! I seriously want to upgrade so I have a spot to put my laptop for that Golden Girls episode but mine still works so I’ll have to wait.
- Dyson portable fan – I’ve gone through bunches of portable fans. I can count at least 5 other cheapie portable fans I’ve had in the last few years. I had some serious hot flashes when I was pregnant and unfortunately I seem to run that way now. Here’s the deal on this one. It fits in my purse, it’s significantly more air than the other ones that do. It has a neck strap, it is rechargeable, and it has a stand if I want it on the table in front of me. I’m done buying fans.
