Reflections of Classroom Setup

Hours, hours, hours are spent setting up a classroom (in the summer on our own time--right?)

This summer our school is having renovations so we have no access to work, change, clear, organize--you get the picture. So my planning is done in the back--very back of my mind.

Last year I changed the decor to chevron and I still love that part.

The desks arrangement were a trial and error. I must have moved those desks 1,000 times at least. The issue was accelerated by a larger number of kids than I expected.

16 became 21 and with that came little bodies and more chairs and more desks.

This original plan was to use the end of the groups of desks to house their book baskets, water bottles, etc. Those baskets tipped over...constantly...many times the contents made a domino effect. So I tried a different approach: 

I purchased the inexpensive bookcases at WalMart and used Chevron fabric on the back. The problem with this was that the book baskets were too tall to place on both of the bottom and top shelves.

Finally I just shoved the bookcases against the wall and the kids had to actually walk TO the bookcase to gather their things. I could put four, five, or six desks together in table groups. Win, Win.

I set up a nice area for the kids to choose their Daily 5 station. Epic fail. The way the district was setting time requirements made lead me to set up a streamline approach to moving the kids due to RTI changes. Next year it will change again so maybe this would work.

Then there was the issue of a meeting area:  

1: No rug--kids were everywhere.

 2: One 5 X 7 rug--too small.

 3: Back to my uncoordinated colors of square foam tiles--too big!

 4: Just right--I found this awesome rug on a discount and it was 8 X 10. Worked out wonderfully!

So, I'll keep thinking in the deep spaces of my mind as July moves along!