Playful Sounds - How to set up a meaningful music space in your classroom

Tara Delve
2 days ago
4 min read

Rationale

Continuous provision allows learners to explore, investigate and create independently. This is vitally

important in music as it allows children space to process ideas, combine sounds and test musical

theories. However, for this to be effective, as practitioners, we need to ensure the following conditions are met:

● The resources on offer are high-quality (less is more)

● They are presented in an inviting and purposeful manner

● They are readily available

● The children are given time to revisit what they did yesterday, last week, or even a few weeks ago.

Physical Set-Up: A clearly defined but flexible space that sparks curiosity and encourages children to get involved.

Things to consider:

Soft flooring or a rug absorbs acoustic noise and prevents it from spilling into other areas.
Material on walls or cover painting canvas with material and hang it on the wall for decoration and absorption.
A designated performing space could be a round rug, a little stage or something that demarcates itself as a performance area. This can be moved around to make room for movement-based activities.
A quiet corner with cushions and a small keyboard. Headphones for individual listening, soft chime bars, Wah Wah tubes, rainmakers, ocean drums or any other gentle sounds.
Position noisy activities away from quiet spaces. Create natural pathways between areas and allow space for movement between zones.
Ensure all areas are visible for supervision.

Flexible Suggestions:

Mobile storage units that can define spaces, Removable dividers such as display boards on wheels, Easily changeable display areas, Modular layout (think Ikea!)

Additional (nice to have but not essential)

Mirror panels (non-glass) for movement and dance,
Height-appropriate instrument storage
Visual Timetables and music-related displays
Digital Technology Integration

Example Layouts

All of the layouts that follow are actual examples that I have used throughout my teaching career. These templates can be adaptable depending on the setting, resources, and space available. They will give you an idea and something to start with.

Layout 1

(Simple) Perfect for small areas, particularly in an open-plan environment. Ideally, this will be situated in a corner or against a wall.

Layout 2

This layout requires a little more space and was the actual layout of one of my music teaching spaces. It worked well and allowed a flexible, quick turnaround for group activities, performances, movement-based learning, and circle time.

Layout 3

It would be great to have a designated music classroom or a specific teaching room. I know it's the dream! Again, I have used this layout in my music classroom, where young children come to me for their music time. This layout can comfortably manage a class with groups transitioning from one area to another. It is also very easy to configure the space into a performance area, small group work areas and free-flow collaborative projects.

Zone Overview

Quiet Zone

This zone will feature comfy cushions, mood lighting and tactile materials. This area aims to encourage reflection, careful listening and focus. Try to buffer this zone where possible with acoustic panels, material, curtains, or other sound-dampening objects.

Equipment and Activity Ideas

● A sound exploration table with soft percussive instruments

● Sound sorting boxes

● Sound matching cards

● Composition work using cards derived from focus songs

● Play-dough for making graphic representations

● Musical journey maps

● Wipe clean writing materials

● Drawing and colouring materials

● Headphones with Yoto player.

● A choice of 3 Yoto soundcards loaded with current curriculum songs, selected pieces from various cultures and a reflective soundtrack

Performance Space

This zone will feature an area that is free from equipment. The open space will encourage creative movement, collaborative music making, individual performance, small group activities and circle time.

Activity Ideas

● Hello Song

● Musical Cues

● Tidy up jingle

● Focus song activities

● Prop activities

● Movement to music

Tech Station

In this zone, children are encouraged to be hands-on with technology and express their musical

preferences.

Activity Ideas

● iPads loaded with compositional apps

● Child-friendly microphones with a basic recording interface

● Speakers with volume control

● 2-way splitter headphones for collaborative work

Safety Considerations: Volume controls, cable management and screen time monitoring.

Creation Station

In this zone, children create musical ideas, explore and test theories, visually represent their work and combine sounds within a given framework.

Composition Station

At this station, children create and realise their ideas using a framework. They write these ideas down and refine them through performance.

● Picture symbol cards to match instruments

● Instruments

● Wipe clean boards and pens

Pattern-making Area

Music is a series of patterns, and children can create and follow patterns using different materials and sounds. These can be simple one-line or more complex two or more-part patterns.

●Patterned grid boards

● Rhythm cards familiar rhythms

● Coloured chime bars

● Coloured cards to represent chime bar colours

● Simple percussion

● Counting and numeracy resources

Sound Exploration Area

Children experiment with a mixture of textures, timbres and techniques. Children can be encouraged to take a well-known story and provide sound effects or create their own sound journey.

● Found objects from nature

● Common kitchen utensils

● Simple percussion

● Sorting trays