Make the music center attractive to toddlers with brightly displayed items and a well organized area. Keep small items in clearly marked bins. Label shelves with pictures of where items belong. Ensure that all items are within a toddler's reach and geared to small hands.
Provide a listening area within the music center. Have a CD player equipped with multiple sets of child-sized headphones. Stock the center with a selection of music geared to children as well as classical, folk and music from various different countries and cultures.
Display posters of musical instruments with labels. Introduce children to the various sounds musical instruments make with a special CD or a game so children can learn to match the sound to the instrument.
Keep an ever-rotating supply of books out with rhymes, songs and fingerplays for children to look through and share with teachers and helpers. A good option is to have a stock of books with accompanying CDs that have a musical or rhythmic theme.
Musical instruments are a mainstay and typically the most enticing part of a music center to toddlers. Keep a wide variety of commercially purchased instruments but also provide the materials to make instruments such as handmade drums from oatmeal cylinders, kazoos from clean combs and wax paper, cymbals from aluminum pie plates and so forth.