Who has spent countless hours writing thoughtful, detailed sub plans for your music classroom, only to have the sub ignore them and do their own thing? Yes. You too? The reality is that subbing for music makes some substitutes very uncomfortable. The thought of having to do anything with singing strikes fear in many a sub. Building a Sub Tub is a great way to give your sub a choice in what they teach your students, and helps create a variety of emergency plans for those unexpected times you have to be away from your classroom.
Getting Started
You’ll need a few materials to get you started. I’m sharing what I used, but feel free to substitute items to fit your classroom or personal style.
- Portable File Box (this is one I bought)
- Hanging file folders
- File folders
- 1/2 Avery Binder or Levenger Discs (1/2″) and cover
Once you have these materials, the next step is figuring out what you want to put in your sub tub and how to organize it.
Organizing Your Sub Tub
I decided early on that I was going to organize my sub into a few sections. Many of the lessons I chose could be used for multiple grade levels, making it easier for a sub to choose 1-2 plans to run with for the entire day. My sub tub is broken up into 4 sections:
- Substitute Information
- K-2 Plans
- 3-5 Plans
- Movies/DVDs
Substitute Information
This is perhaps the most important section of my sub tub. It holds the binder with ALL of the information about my classroom. I use a Levenger Disc system for my binder, but a 1/2 binder would work equally well. In my binder, I include everything a sub would need to know about my classroom. Here are some the informational sections included in my sub binder:
- Personal welcome from me
- Important building phone numbers
- Daily schedule
- Where to find items in my room
- Things they should know about my room
- Classroom management tips
- Emergency procedures
- All school assembly information
- Seating charts/class lists for each class
- Substitue reports
You can see a copy of my Substitute Binder here. You can download a FREE template here for your own classroom!
K-2 Materials
For the K-2 section of the sub tub, I tried to offer a variety of activities for the sub.
- Coloring sheets for songs
- Coloring sheets for instruments (check out my A-Z Instruments)
- Storybook lessons like
- The Jazz Fly (see I <3 Teaching Music’s resource)
- The Remarkable Farkle McBride
- Tiptoe Joe
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
- Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!
I print the worksheets, game cards, and directions for each one of the resources and included a copy of the book in the file, so the the sub wouldn’t have to go searching for the book. I also mark the originals and ask the sub to return them to the original file in the sub tub. If there is a great supplemental video that can be used (e.g. John Lithgow reading The Remarkable Farkle McBride on YouTube), then I download the video onto a thumb drive and leave directions on how to access the movie via my computer.
3-5 Materials
My grade 3-5 Materials are organized much in the same way. It’s broken down into these sections:
- Instrument family worksheets
- Carnival of the Animals Listening lessons & book
- Composer worksheets (e.g. Tracy King’s composer sets)
- Ukulele worksheets
- Recorder worksheets
- Notation Notebook worksheets
Again, I print the worksheets, game cards, and directions for each one of the resources and included a copy of the book or CD in the file, so the the sub wouldn’t have to go searching for the book. I also mark the originals and ask the sub to return them to the original file in the sub tub.
Movie & DVD Section
No matter what I leave for a sub, there are simply going to be those subs who choose to show a video. In that case, I would prefer to have a little say in what is shown. Here are some of the DVDs available in my sub tub as well as the grade levels I feel they are appropriate for.
- Lomax, the Hound of the Music (K-1)
- Wee Sing in Sillyville (K-2)
- Jill Trinka: Bass Hall Children’s Concerts (K-2)
- Gemini Fancy That DVD (K-2)
- Stomp Out Loud DVD (3-5)
- Blast! (3-5)
These are just a few of the resources I put in my sub tub for any and all occassions. Do you have a tried and true sub tub resource? Leave me your favorites in the comments! I’d love to hear about it!
These are just a few of the resources I put in my sub tub for any and all occassions. Do you have a tried and true sub tub resource? Leave me your favorites in the comments! I’d love to hear about it!
Related Resources
Connect with me!