Classroom Theme - Oh, the Possibilities!

I have a great idea for a classroom theme that I will never get to use because I am not that sort of classroom teacher and my sister who is that type of classroom teacher would NEVER go for this type of theme!

(Sorry for the run-on sentence - it just seems to be how I'm going to write these days...) 

My classroom theme even has a theme song!! It popped into my head yesterday as I was looking at this great collection of clipart that I have purchased a license for - Scrappin Doodles. I stumbled upon the Detective art, and I am hooked! The song is all about solving puzzles by using the information that we know.

I think that a detective theme would be so wonderful, especially for fourth grade. I'm not sure why I've arrived at fourth grade, but I like that age of kids and they seem to be interested in learning about the hows and whys of the world. I think I could whip all this into an engaging classroom theme if I devoted some time to it. 

This is one of the greatest regrets that I have about being a music therapist. I don't have lots of bulletin boards to decorate or a classroom to theme up! My clinic has a common decorating theme - stars - but that's it.

I know that I would have ended up being a teacher of some sort if I had not heard about my life's passion. I think I probably would have been a special educator, probably in a middle school/junior high school somewhere. That seems to be the most comfortable of my fantasy parallel stories, so I'm sure I would have taken that route. I probably also would have changed up my themes every year. I'm that type of person as well. I have done some spy themes for day camps in the past, and I've totally enjoyed coming up with decorations, events, activities, and curricula for these themes. I think being detectives would be very fun to flesh out into a full-out classroom environment. 

In my head, I see a large magnifying glass display on the doorway, welcoming students into the room to solve the mysteries of learning. I see some areas where problems are displayed like crime scenes - places where students have to engage their critical thinking skills to figure out answers, using concepts taught in class lectures. I see mini crime scene investigation kits around the room, stocked with rulers, pencils, different types of tools - magnifying glasses, microscopes, dictionaries, all sorts of things. I see badges to indicate classroom jobs and attendance and to highlight important information. I can see kids who know a specific concept becoming "expert witnesses" for those who need more assistance. Oh, it is so perfect!

I wonder if I can make something like this work in my music therapy clinic. I'm not sure that I can, but I could definitely put some of these ideas into music therapy programming in my school therapy job. Maybe instead of having a full-out theme surrounding everything, I could do some mini theme kits for music therapists. We could have our theme song (of course!!), a box of music-themed puzzles and challenges, and then I could bring those out every once in a while. I even have the boxes that I could use for storage. Maybe it could be somewhat like an escape room-type thing - without the room. Hm.

Music Detectives...

I need to think this through a bit, and see what I can create. 

Time to dream a bit about something that I've never done before and may never fully realize, but that's what dreams are, right?

Off to solve this particular mystery!

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