What's In the Box? April

Every month, I walk to my front closet and take out one of my monthly boxes. In these scrapbooking boxes, I store month-specific visual aids, books, songs, and TME ideas to use during the month. There are lots of things in some of the boxes, and less things in others, but this is a place where I can store holiday-related things until they are appropriate to use.

I opened April’s box towards the end of March to see what types of things were in it to use. It was pretty dismal to begin with – one Easter book, some empty animal eggs, and not much else to work with. My March box, on the other hand, had lots of books and visuals for St. Patrick’s Day and Spring things. That’s the way this storage goes – sometimes there are lots of things to use and other times there is just lots of space.

I looked around me for some things I could include in the box for this upcoming month. As you know, I have recently reacquired some storage space in my music therapy clinic that had originally had a different purpose. I am now figuring out what I can take from my home storage and put back into use at work. These boxes are some of the things that will be transferring to the work storage space as they are needed.

There are some problems with this type of system. Mainly, I forget what I have from year to year and either make duplicates or ignore the boxes completely. In the interest of full disclosure here, I often forget that I have those boxes. That is going to change this year, though! I AM GOING TO USE MY BOXES!!

The other problem with storing holiday stuff in boxes is that some holidays (like Easter) change dates. Well, Easter is the major holiday that jumps from month to month, so I guess that’s not all that big of a deal. Nevermind.

In the near future, I will be opening up and sharing the contents of each month’s box as close to the first Friday of the month as possible. I will include pictures and reviews of the materials (with links for purchase, if I can find them), and some general therapeutic music experience (TME) ideas to go along with the materials that are in each box. 

Here's the actual box that I have for April. I love these scrapbook paper boxes - they are 3 inches deep by 13 inches wide and 13 inches long, and they hold so many things and take up only a bit of room on my shelves. I love them and buy them every time they are on sale. I like paying about 4 dollars for these boxes - usually they are 10 dollars - TOO MUCH for me! I label the front of each box with the month and a short list of what is represented inside.

***NOTE: I do not have any sort of affiliate agreements with any type of company or brand, so if I recommend something, it is because I use it with clients. Anything that you purchase from links (other than those that link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store or my own products) support the companies that produce the products and do not generate any sort of income for me. If that ever changes (which I doubt it will), I will let you know.***

April’s box is now full to the brim with things that I can use with a variety of client populations and clinical treatment goals.

Would you like to see what's inside??

When I first opened this box, it was pretty sparse, but I was able to fill it up with resources that I had sitting around, so now it is full! The first things that you see when you open the box are the animal eggs. I have tons of eggs in my collection, but I included these in April's box because they are animals - they work pretty well with both Easter (if clients celebrate - not everyone does) and Earth Day. The eggs are still in their packaging because I have another set that are in use in my music therapy clinic, so I haven't had to open these up yet.

What would theme be without books? Here is a sample of books that I felt worked well with either Earth Day or Spring or Easter. These are not books that I would sing - they are books to use to supplement the music therapy experiences that I present to my clients. I may use these stories to supplement a part of the theme - for example, one of my favorites, The Story of Ferdinand, exemplifies a bull who chooses his own path rather than the one pushed onto him. This works in well with the coping skill focus of the month - strategic ignoring. So, after we sing about our coping skill, we can hear about Ferdinand who chooses to ignore the angry crowds around him to do what he knows is best for him. The books include some talking about being caretakers of our planet, animals, poetry on a variety of topics, and celebrations from around the world - religious and not.

The next set of books are the music-specific books. Some of these are singable and some are technique or project based. During April, I want to get my students focused on original compositions so the Read and Rap book is my first introduction to our topic. The concept of specific topics is still pretty new to my clinical train of thought, so including this in my box of materials helps me to focus my own thought process in a way that encourages me to step out of my comfort zones and into a world of learning for me as well as for my clients.

I also just love books, so having lots of them in my box is a plus for me!!

I also have some notes, TME outlines, and visuals in my box. The best thing about these scrapbooking boxes is that I can use Velcro to attach a plastic envelope to the lid to maximize the space that I have available. Anything type of visual aid or note that I include goes into that envelope. It is very handy! I have my line drawn animal icons that I got from Microsoft clipart many years ago - I cannot share these as they are not my art. I will be working on a collection of animals for use in my clinic that I can share this weekend. I'll post a link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store with the animal collection and an original song as well as soon as I get it finished! Stay tuned for that.

I also have my jukebox included in this month. The jukebox therapeutic music experience offers my clients a chance to work on money concepts, math, music preference, social awareness through sharing music, and impulse control, so it is a favorite of mine! I love this visual (this jukebox is available for purchase in my TPT store, only $2.00!) and my students love the chance to listen to their own music! I can also use it as an incentive program where students are earning money for their purchases.

Here's a closer look at the animal eggs that I have purchased over the years from the Dollar Tree. Now, one of the things that frustrates me greatly about posts that say, "Look what I found at the ____ (insert name of store here)" is that I rush over to my version of the same store and can't find ANY OF IT! So, just so you know, my Dollar Tree has variations of these eggs around this time of year every year, but I do not guarantee that they all will have the same stuff. I love the variety of animals in these sets - there are felines of some sort, koalas, monkeys, giraffes, hippos, elephants, apes, tigers, and some animals I can't really recognize in egg form. We use these to make temporary shakers, we match the fronts to the backs, we look for the animals. The animals sometimes go into sensory boxes. I love using plastic eggs for sensory boxes. I have several of these sets at work, and we use them occasionally in centers. I may do a animal scavenger hunt placing animal-specific clues to direct them to the next clue. I could even have each clue include a note name that would end up notating the Earth Day or animal song.

When I have these types of collections of things to do, my creativity starts going. I now have lots of new ideas to write up and put onto my cards in my envelope in my April box.

This box is heading to work with me today so I can implement these ideas into my session strategizing for the month. If you are interested in more information about the therapeutic music experiences that I will be using, please comment below.

See you in about a month for a glimpse into May’s box!