My October Theme Box is Overflowing

The upper portion of the closet

Earlier this year, I transformed my front hall closet into a storage area for my music therapy materials. I have instruments, visual aids, and monthly theme boxes stored in there at the moment, and I am often getting in there to put stuff into the theme boxes. Since Halloween just finished, I found some 75% off children's books and went into the closet to put them away.

What I found was astounding.

Look at those theme boxes!!

My library

My October box is full up to the brim, and most of the stuff in there is Halloween-based. This is actually pretty interesting to me since I do not try to "celebrate" or "highlight" Halloween in my music therapy space - it just seems to hype my students up SO very much! There is just so much out there for Halloween that it makes it easy to fill up a box!

Inside that box, I found lots of books, several copies of Halloween carols (that are not my work, so I can't share them), my visuals for choosing carols (also not my work), some ideas that came from Music Therapy Mailings, and some of the files that I uploaded to Teachers Pay Teachers, fleshed out and ready to go! In addition, there are about ten children's books ready to be read and enjoyed by my students.

Gonna Carve a Pumpkin - Teachers Pay Teachers

October is not just for Halloween, though. I will be working on putting more non-Halloween stuff into that box for this next year. For now, though, here are my October resources.

So, I've got this resource at my fingertips, but how do I use it?

Stuff from Music Therapy Mailings

That's a GREAT question. This is my "what do I do now?" box. At the moment, it is primarily a source of inspiration for a new project/product that I'm developing. More on that later, but having these things corralled in one place helps me organize my thoughts. (I'm currently working on March's launch - stay tuned in January for more!) It also means that all my materials are in one location - easy to find and easier to coordinate for sessions.

My theme focus for October

I know that I can pull out my October box and have enough resources in there to run all the sessions that I need to run during the month (and more!). I can read any or all of the books, use the pumpkin visuals to reinforce emotional recognition, run silly songs, and challenge my students to use their academic knowledge to finish up the Mad-Libs. Add in all the Halloween-themed TMEs that my interns have written over the years, and I have SO much to include that it is almost embarrassing! (That reminds me, I need to get some candy pictures and some skeletons for the most recent TMEs from interns - I can get some small ones and store them in the box for next year. Most of those things will be on clearance right now...)

Halloween Carols and Visuals

It's time to start looking at my meager November box and begin to fill it up with visuals and books and TMEs and ideas. I think I'll finish up my Thanksgiving lapbook and get all those TMEs fleshed out for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Lots of things lend themselves well to November-themes - Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Time Changes, Election Day - so I have lots of inspiration for writing TMEs and getting materials pulled together. Come to think of it, I already have quite a few songs about the Bill of Rights, Voting Rights, and it won't take long to whip up something about the Electoral College and how we choose our representatives.

As I am already knee-deep in March for my next product launch, I may not complete my thoughts for this October until next year in about August, but that's okay. I'll slip in one of my index cards with any ideas that form over the next several months, and then I will bring them to life before launching the October product.

Time to go to work on this cold, somewhat snow-covered morning. Happy November, all!