Do you know the saying, “It gets worse before it gets better?” I always remember this as I start back and prepare for the new school year.  After weeks of sitting in boxes and storage, it’s time to pull everything back out and start fresh.  It can get messy, unorganized, and sometimes chaotic, but keep reminding yourself, “It gets worse before it gets better.” Ultimately, the result will be worth every second of stress and sweat.  

Below are tips to help you organize your classroom space and set up the room’s physical structure.

Organizing and Labeling Materials

Remember back in May when we were ready for that break and started shoveling things into cabinets? You know what I am talking about; we have all done it. 

If you haven’t already created a system to stay organized throughout the school year, you will want to. Keep materials contained in storage bins and label everything! Everything needs to have its place in your room. It will be easier a few months later when you look for the activity you created early in the year.

Benefits of organization in the classroom:

• Students and adults can easily find items
• Having a system of organization allows for student independence  
• It is a life skill and teaches students (and adults) how to stay organized 
• An organized classroom = a successful classroom

Physical Structure: Designing Your Classroom Layout

When we create physical structure in the classroom, we support our students by improving their learning environment to ensure maximum learning, increasing communication skills, ensuring academic progress, and promoting student independence.  We can add cues (such as clear visual and physical boundaries) in each area to provide classroom expectations, reduce stimulation, and minimize visual and auditory distractions.  By adding structure to our classrooms, we are helping students make sense of their environment and allowing them to focus on its important details.

• Start by sketching your classroom and adding the different areas you will incorporate.
• Use furniture to create boundaries within the classroom
• Provide students with visual instructions, visual clarity, and visual organization within the environment and work or tasks
• Sometimes, it takes moving furniture around multiple times to make the environment make the most sense.

Areas to consider when planning your classroom layout:

• 1:1 instruction 
• Small-group instruction 
• Independent work 
• Large-group
• Transition area
• Sensory area
• Technology 
• Teacher Space