Decorating the Classroom

School begins next week, and with "open house" fast approaching, Elijah asked Claye for some help in decorating his elementary music classroom. He had one poster of musical instruments that she had drawn for him last year, but with four bulletin boards and a blackboard to fill with something interesting, he was a little short on time.

Last week, Claye drew a ninja figure for him--It represents classroom hall behavior. Each class earns different colored belts for how well they follow the ninja code: I will move quickly; I will move quietly; I will not be separated from the other ninja. He still has to post the code and hang the ribbon belts on the other side of the front chalkboard.





Yesterday, we left the house early so Claye could have the entire day in Elijah's classroom, creating a musical scene for the blackboard. It was supposed to be a normal, light, music filled landscape, but, since the blackboard was black, the colors were difficult to achieve, and a light sky nearly impossible. We turned it into a moonlit extravaganza and it began to look surreal. Claye worked on the original gazebo and all the characters, while I tried to help by coloring the background, and cleaning the classroom. Elijah and Marie were in and out, sorting, organizing, vacuuming and destroying spider webs.





I don't know why the spiders enjoy hanging out in that room, since there are as many as 60 children in there at one time--singing or playing on simple instruments. Elijah teaches, using the accordion, trumpet, trombone, violin, various guitars, drums, and even a set of harmonicas. It's a noisy place--right across the hall from the library, oddly enough.

Anyway, the room looked great--well almost great. That huge bulletin board above the piano could have used a few more drawings, and the map of the world needed to be hung yet, but we all called it a day around 8:30 in the evening. Elijah and Marie took us out to the little local cafe for a very good pizza supper. Bearing chalk smudges on our faces like commandos, we visited quietly, ate quickly, and and drove home towards a pile of lightning in the Northern sky.