This week, our project group dedicated a lot of time and effort to working on a prototype model for the new junior music wall. Within our larger team, Stephanie and I took on the specific task of creating the main A-frame frame design. We used wooden popsicle sticks as our main building material and carefully stuck them all together using a hot glue gun. Building this small model by hand was a really helpful step for us because it allowed us to check our measurements, test how strong the joints were, and see exactly what the final music wall would look like.
One of our main goals for this project was to create plenty of extra storage space without making the music wall too big or bulky. To solve this problem, Stephanie and I decided to build a set of flat shelves right inside the open middle part of the A-frame structure. This creates a great dual-purpose setup where the big outside walls are left clear for hanging up larger instruments, while the hidden inside shelves act as a tidy storage area. These shelves are just the right size to hold plastic storage boxes, which will safely keep smaller, fragile, or oddly shaped instruments that cannot be hung up on hooks, ensuring the whole collection stays clean and organised for the teachers.
We also wanted to make absolutely sure that the music wall is completely safe and easy to move around different areas of the school. Because a large, double-sided music wall loaded with heavy instruments can easily become top-heavy, we plan to put four strong wheels on the very bottom, ensuring there are wheels on each side to create a wide base. This wide placement keeps the music wall very steady so it will not tip over or wobble when young children are playing with it enthusiastically. Having these wheels also means teachers can easily roll the entire music wall to different parts of the classroom, or even take it outside to the covered play areas, before locking the wheels tightly in place.
Music Wall Action Plan
- Term 1 – Week 6 Discussing as a class how we are going to create it
- Term 1 – Week 7 Getting ideas to prepare a music wall for Juniors/Seniors
- Term 1 – Week 8 to 9 Making models in tinkercad in groups or by yourself
- Term 2 – Week 1 to 2 We continued making our tinkercad models, and made slides showcasing room 9’s planning and designs
- Term 2 – Week 3 to 4 Slowly, we continued to work on our planning slides, such as finding ideas from other people’s slides.
- Term 2 – Week 5 We formed a group of 8 combining our ideas to make 1 or 2 official wall models
- Term 2 – Week 6 to 7 We collaborated with the junior classes in order to get their opinions on the music wall. We have also started to work on finances and what materials we might need.
- Term 2 – Week 8 to 10 Gathering materials
