Elementary music classroom essentials and must-haves will be determined by your teaching philosophy, teaching space, budget, and students. Let’s look at how these factor into your decision-making, some of the most common choices among music teachers, and then a basic list of must-haves!
The Playlist
What Factors In?
#1 Your Teaching Philosophy
The best essentials are the ones that match your teaching philosophy. If you’re a first-year or newer music teacher, this will change over time. If you student taught and used lots of rhythm stick learning and your classroom doesn’t have them, that’s a great resource to obtain. Here’s how to proceed.
- Make a list of what you know and want to use in your teaching. (i.e. folk songs, movement, barred instruments, non-pitched percussion, recorders, etc.)
- To your wishlist, add the equipment needed to teach them. (i.e. for movement-scarves, parachute)
- Write down what you want to learn about. (barred instruments, ukuleles, movement, curriculum)
- Add the equipment/resources needed for this new learning to your wishlist.
#2 Existing Equipment
Look at the existing items in your room and determine what you’d like to use in your teaching. For example, if you have a class set of ukuleles and have never played before, you need to research how to teach with them or store them for the next teacher. If you have a bunch of broken rhythm sticks and you want to use them, figure out a way to fix them or put them on your wishlist. Go through the entire room this way.
If you are a new (er) teacher and you inherit a room of what you think is not useable, I suggest Marie Kondo-ing the budget-minded music teacher way. Three piles: trash, not sure, keep.
Trash would be damaged beyond repair, worksheet copies that are for who knows what, and outdated equipment such as giant computer screens, etc. The “not sure” group might be your biggest and I’d take a year to digest these items. I’d suggest hopping on a Facebook music teacher group and running items by the members. You’ll get a consensus pretty quickly if it’s worthy.
Do not, I repeat DO NOT throw out all old textbook series with CDs. I’d keep one copy of each textbook and all the CDs. Yes, there are some really crappy songs on some of them but also some JEWELS! AND, they come with accompaniment tracks. If you want to get a song for a concert, you can buy the music and an accompaniment mp3 on a music site for $50 or more. But the textbooks may contain lots of songs with accompaniments for FREE! You will have to get an external CD drive to get them on your computer, but if the school doesn’t have one, they are less than $50 on Amazon.
#3 Your Teaching Space
The size, location, and hardware in your room matter SO much! You can’t buy a huge parachute in a long, narrow room. If you are on a stage by the gym or next to classrooms, I wouldn’t put drumming high on my list. If your room has no sound system, that might need to go to the top of your list. Your teaching space dictates a lot of your decisions.
#4 Your Budget and Fundraising
A yearly budget varies widely from school to school. It can go from $0 to hundreds of dollars. Sometimes schools will get a year of an extra bump or be renovating and get several thousand dollars.
Then there’s your decision to fundraise or not. The big national entity is DonorsChoose and then there are local and regional opportunities. No matter what, it takes time, persistence, and more time.
#5 The Students
What you need will depend on the grade levels you teach. K-8, K-5, Prek-2, 3-5. You want to offer a diversity of learning to ALL students but maybe a community has a particular cultural interest that you want to pull into your teaching. Your resources might reflect that interest. Perhaps you will be teaching a lot of students with special needs and accommodations so certain resources will provide better participation for those situations. The school environment can create situations where classroom management necessitates less student movement in the room. All of these situations and more can have an impact on what you need.
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Commonly Used Elementary Music Classroom Essentials
Here are the most common item choices you will find for music rooms.
The Room
Seating
My K-5 students sat on the floor in assigned seats and I never used sit spots. Some teachers always use sit spots. It’s up to you. Chairs were stacked along the side or in the hallway because I taught K-8 and I had them mainly for my middle school students. Stools (IKEA) were stacked against the wall and used for drumming, ukuleles, or sometimes learning centers. My goal was to keep things as open as possible for movement activities and to easily get out the barred instruments.
- Classroom chairs
- Stools
- Flipforms
- Rugs
- Sit Spots
Audio/Visual
- Teacher Computer
- Teacher Piano
- Speakers
- Whiteboard & Projection System
- Teacher microphone
Storage
- Small containers for un-pitched percussion, mallets, folders, basics (pencils, crayons)
- Instrument storage: for ukuleles (a cart, shelving), Boomwhackers (buckets, bins), recorders, etc.
- Rolling carts-portability to take items to a stage, use in the room for centers, etc.
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Check out my favorite equipment, instruments, and resources with product details & buying information.
Instruments
Barred
Ask 10 teachers and you’ll get 10 different answers. The quantities are what I like-heavy on the woods. One metallophone is VERY loud. You don’t need bunches of them. Zimbabwe-style pieces (Walt Hampton) are fabulous and dependent on having lots of xylophones. I taught in many different types of schools and I never EVER had a student not LOVE these pieces. I went heavy on xylophones.
- Contra-bass bars (one set-C, D, E, F, G, A, B)
- Bass xylophones (2)
- Alto xylophones (8)
- Soprano xylophones (8)
- Alto/Soprano glockenspiels (8)
- Alto metallophone (2)
If I was starting from zero, I’d start with soprano xylophones, then glockenspiels, a bass xylophone, altos, then the rest. This would give me a combination of lower cost instruments to get more kids playing. Studio 49, Sonor, and Peripole are the best. Suzuki and Rhythm Band should be avoided. (However, I bought a Suzuki xylophone on ShopGoodwill so if it’s super cheap, go for it.)
Un-pitched Percussion
Class Sets
- Rhythm Sticks
- Egg Shakers
Need 2-4
These instruments are great for sound stories. In a class of 24, you could have 4 groups (6 to a group) for Goldilocks. The groups could be Daddy Bear (wood blocks & tone blocks), Momma Bear (maracas & egg shakers), Baby Bear (triangles & finger cymbals), Goldilocks (rhythm sticks).
- *Triangles
- Tambourines
- *Finger Cymbals
- *Claves
- *Maracas
- Tone Blocks
- Jingle Bells
- Wood Blocks
- *Guiros
- *Cow Bell
- Agogo Bells/Gonkogui
*My favorites & most used.
Just 1
- Rain Sticks
- Vibraslap
- Slap Stick
- Ratchet
- Cabasa
- Gong
- Slit/Tongue Drum
- Stir Drum
- Wind Chimes
- Shekere
Ukuleles
These are my favorite instruments in the music classroom. The learning can continue into adulthood. Kids can easily play along to songs they love. Here are all my buying recommendations AND an entire free ukulele curriculum based mainly on playing chords.
Drums
Hand Drums
Lots of teachers (me included) get a class set of the Remo tuneable tubano drums. They are sturdy, sound good, have feet and a hand grip. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten a mix of djembes, congas, etc. too. I like the diversity of sound better and they can be a bit cheaper. The problem with them is that they have to be tipped when you play them so that would be a challenge for the K-3 crowd. Whatever you get, don’t get anything that isn’t tuneable. They’ll eventually lose their resonance and sound awful.
Bucket Drums
They are fun because of the drumsticks and the variety of sounds you can get but if you have a class set of drums, I think you can skip bucket drumming. If you don’t have hand drums or a budget, this is the way to go! You can petition Lowes or Home Depot to donate them to you.
Frame Drums
These hand-held drums are so great. I had a class set but rarely used them as a set. I think you could get 10 in a couple of sizes and be fine. Use them in combination with rhythm sticks and other un-pitched percussion or as a B section to a barred instrument piece. (but then again you could use hand drums for that too) I got the Remo Pre-tuned Fiberskyn and they worked fine although some eventually lost their zing.
Cajon
Cajons are so useful because they’re small, provide a great sound, don’t need a chair/stool, and are super portable. Two is a great number to have, for the teacher to use but also for students to use in ensembles, small group work, and as an accompaniment to a class song.
Recorders
Your two choices are to buy recorders for each student and keep them in your room or let the kids purchase their own.
Boomwhackers
The instrument I love to hate! LOL. BWs are so fun and kids love them and they serve several worthy teaching purposes. They are the perfect low-cost class set option if you don’t have much of a budget. Here’s a table to help with how many you need to order.
Student Keyboards
I had student full-sized keyboards (2 students to a keyboard) mainly because I taught middle school. Because I had them, I ran a mini-unit in 4th and 5th grade. They require a lot of storage space and accessories. (power source, extension cords, splitters, headphones)
Check out my favorite equipment, instruments, and resources with product details & buying information.
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Movement Props
Parachutes
A large class parachute is SO fun and you can pair movement with learning about high/low, pitch, form, and many music elements. I eventually got partner parachutes too and they are just magical. Here’s more about them.
Bean Bags
Bean bags are great for passing circle games, target games, and more.
Scarves
Scarves are magical for Prek-2 and maybe older depending on your students. They are great for using movement and hand/eye coordination, high/low, musical form, smooth/bumpy, beat/no beat, and much more. You can buy tulle or other light fabricd at JoAnn Fabric and cut it up into 2′ x 2′ squares or buy online at West Music or PE supply stores. I invested in some amazing, floating silk scarves.
Ribbon Wands
Kids love ribbon wands but I think they’re a pain in the patoot. They are always knotting up or flicking someone in the head. Did I have them? Yes. Did I use them? Yes. But I didn’t use them that often. They wouldn’t be at the top of my wishlist.
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Learning Materials
Children’s Books
Great children’s literature is very important to include in your teaching and there are so many options here. Many teachers buy their own books and then take them with them when they leave the school so classrooms may not have much that stays in-house. Use your local library to borrow books until you can acquire books you love and want to own. There are also many online versions of books on Libby and YouTube.
Curriculum
Your district may have a scope and sequence to use. Old textbook series usually have a really nice basic K-6 scope and sequence at the back of every teacher’s edition. Musicplay is the most affordable online option that is praised by many teachers. There are also curriculum purchase options from TPT and other music teacher content creators.
Sheet Music, mp3s, and Concert music
Finding music for classroom use and concert use can be a HUGE problem. Music with mp3s is costly to buy from sheet music companies. This is one of the most challenging elementary music classroom essentials.
Many teachers love Music K8 because you get lots of music (not all useable though) for not a lot of money. You can get a yearly subscription and then buy singles that come with the music and mp3s. The subscription by itself is not going to give you everything you need, though it will help.
Musicplay gives you tons of classroom curricular options and some concert options as well.
Dry Erase Boards/Pocket Sleeves
Dry-erase boards are so wonderful for quick assessments, composing and creating, and for use in learning centers. Pocket sleeves allow you to insert a paper for guided learning to be used multiple times.
HeadPhones
A couple of noise-cancelling earmuffs are great to have for kids who are noise-sensitive. Some kids will bring their own. Regular headphones are a must to have on hand for learning centers.
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Check out my favorite equipment, instruments, and resources with product details & buying information.
The BASIC List of Elementary Music Classroom Essentials
If I was starting with an empty room…
The Room
- Basic: Teacher computer, sound system, projection system, teacher piano, stools/chairs for drumming, storage for percussion and other items. (Dollar Tree or IKEA)
- Other Considerations & Next Steps: If you don’t have carpet, a large area rug is important. A teacher microphone can really save your voice.
Instruments
- Basic: class set of rhythm sticks and Boomwhackers, a few small percussion instruments (sets of 2-4)
- Next Steps: Barred instruments, drums, class set of egg shakers, ukuleles, recorders, more small percussion, cajon.
Movement Props
- Basic: class parachute, scarves
- Next Steps: partner parachutes, ribbon wands, bean bags
Learning Materials
- Basic: Musicplay (or similar) and a class set of dry-erase boards or sleeves.
- Next Steps: Children’s books, headphones, iPads
Final Thoughts
The biggest thing to remember is that it doesn’t matter what another music teacher is using, doing, or teaching. What matters is YOUR teaching philosophy and curriculum and what you need to implement them. As you gain experience, your teaching ideas will probably broaden and you can then add new items to your elementary music classroom essentials list.
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If you’ve made it to the bottom, congratulations! Even though this post took a lot of thought, I know it’s going to still need some editing as I think of items that I’ve missed along the way. Help me out! What do I need to add? Thanks for your help! Laura
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Author: lbbartolomeo
I'm a mom, wife, teacher, reader, gardener, trekkie, sci-fi fanatic, musician, dog lover, and a Christian. I hope my contributions bring some joy and happiness to your life!View all posts by lbbartolomeo
