Classroom organization ideas to help create easy-to-use organizational systems for any classroom with Amazon classroom must haves.
The best ideas in classroom organization including organizing bookshelves, creating a teacher cart, plus create the perfect teacher space!
Get organized and set-up your classroom! Tons of back to school tips to organize teaching materials, student work, books, math supplies, and more. You won't want to miss the FREE student labels!
Back to school time is a great time to get organized in your classroom. In this post, I collected all of my favorite organization and storage tips and trick ...
Amazing classroom decoration ideas including how to add a class fireplace, a beautiful teacher space, a classroom fridge and more!
Do you use Kaboom! in your classroom? It has been my go-to center for the past few years, whether I'm teaching Firsties, or now third graders. If Kaboom! is new to you, or it is something you haven't yet tried in your classroom, here are some great reasons to give it a try:
The Perfect Storage Container Organization is music to a teacher’s soul. When things in our classroom have a designated home, students take better care of the resources, we know exactly where…
This year, I decided to make some modifications to my classroom decor, and I am thrilled to share this reveal with you all.
Amazon teacher favorites! If you are looking for some new classroom finds, gere are some to add to your wishlist.
This post shares 35 things you can throw away from your classroom to improve your classroom organization + a FREE decluttering checklist!
The best ideas in classroom organization including organizing bookshelves, creating a teacher cart, plus create the perfect teacher space!
Discover new classroom ideas for classroom management, decor, organization, storage, desk layouts, fun ideas and more!
Discover new classroom ideas for classroom management, decor, organization, storage, desk layouts, fun ideas and more!
My favorite part about getting ready for back to school is getting all of the bulletin boards set up around my classroom. Here are some of my favorite ideas.
Let these amazing spaces take you to your happy place.
Enhance the learning environment with effective classroom decor! Learn how to create an ideal space for teaching, learning, and growing.
Welcome to our class! I’ve changed some parts of my classroom this year and I have to say that I’m loving how everything turned out. Please note that this is my 12th year of teaching and I did not create this environment overnight. It’s taken years to accumulate and/or create everything that is in this ... Read More about Learning in Wonderland Classroom Tour
These teacher desk organization ideas for elementary teachers will help you get the workspace of your dreams. Get all of the tips here!
Organize your teaching resources with the Binder System. Learn how to set up monthly binders and have everything ready at your fingertips!
Enhance the learning environment with effective classroom decor! Learn how to create an ideal space for teaching, learning, and growing.
This is my kindergarten classroom for 2020. Come read about how I set up my classroom using a color scheme and having lots of space.
Inspiring and unique classroom setup ideas for middle and high school. Incorporate classroom decor, fun seating options, and purposeful organization.
Check out my new Pastel Classroom Decor full of bright soft colors that are the perfect combination between colorful and calming! Plus, you get a freebie :)
Amazon is a teacher's best friend! Each year my list of must haves for the classroom grows so I'm here to share more of my Amazon classroom finds!
This week was pre-planning and I really got almost nothing done. I just can't figure out what to do with my room. I don't like distraction and clutter and lots of stuff. Most of the other teachers have cute themes in their rooms but it's visual overload to me. So my room tends to look pretty plain and dare I say, boring, compared to everyone else's. So far this is what I've got... As you can see, I'm painting my walls light blue. (They're actually finished now.) I figure it's a nice calm color. But I have no idea where to go from here. I did make some things to hang on the walls... I also put up our schedule... And that's about it. School starts on Monday!!! How will I ever be ready? Is it ok to decorate later? Will the kids be sad about their plain room? Stay tuned...
Many teachers reach out to me with questions about how to minimize paper clutter in the classroom and keep their unit resources organized. When it comes to organizing your teaching resources, it’s helpful to find an organization system that will help you store the essentials and force you to tidy up routinely so paper clutter doesn’t build up in the first place. Here are my favorite organization tips for four categories in your classroom.
Don't let a messy, unorganized classroom take up all your time. Use these easy classroom organization hacks to make your whole school year easier!
Really Good Stuff classroom organization pieces have been a game changer for keeping my kindergarten classroom organized...
Ideas for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms.
Let's talk about classroom library organization using book spine labels! These labels with transform how you organize your classroom library!
This year, I decided to make some modifications to my classroom decor, and I am thrilled to share this reveal with you all.
I had so much fun creating this Modern Calm Colors Classroom decor theme and wanted to give you a closer look inside the decor bundle!
If you’re midway through your summer break, I hope this finds you with a cocktail or mocktail in hand! But if you’re anything like me, you’re probably also starting to dream about what next year will look like. So today I’m sharing five of the best classroom themes you need on your Pinterest board. And don’t worry if it hasn’t crossed your mind yet, I’ve got you covered! Start With a Colour Scheme There are endless options when it comes to choosing a theme - but I see themes a little differently than some of the ideas you see on Pinterest. Rather than choosing an alliterative theme based on my name, like ‘Miss Jacobs’ Giraffes’ or ‘Chantelle’s Sharks’ I tend to start with an overall colour palette. It all starts with colour! Starting with a colour palette in mind means your theme is broad and can flex with the seasons throughout the school year. You can easily carry a colour palette through your different lessons, occasions, communications and displays, without having to hunt too hard for niche graphics and decor. (Thank goodness too - I’m sure there’s no such thing as good giraffe decor!). Take Cues From Home Decor Once I’ve chosen a colour palette, I then enable my Target addiction and have a little scroll through what’s new in their homewares section. It’s like a sampling platter of the latest trends and I find it sparks all kinds of ideas. (Tell me I’m not the only person to find Target inspiring!). Bigger home decor items help embed a theme with little effort - consider rugs, storage carts and bulletin boards for displaying student work. While I try not to buy too much, each year I grab a few things that I’d be happy to bring home after the school year is out. 1. Neutrals Classroom Theme Pinterest-Worthy Classroom Theme 1 The first Pinterest-worthy classroom theme is all about neutrals - think taupes, beige tones and lots of organic textures. This palette would pair best with my Spotty Neutrals, Boho Vibes, Earthy Rainbow and Boho Plants ranges. Here’s a perfect example of pinterest-worthy neutrals mixed with Boho Vibes lettering display and editable posters from @miss_grosse_! Products that will help you achieve this look: 2. Plant and Greenery Classroom Theme Pinterest-Worthy Classroom Theme 2 Next up - we have a green and neutral palette. Plants are huge right now - which feels like a funny thing to say, but it’s true! Mixing natural green tones with earthy neutrals feel fresh, modern and relaxing. This colour palette pairs best with my Boho Plants and Botanical ranges. Here’s a gorgeous example of earthy goodness from @teachingwithmissblechynden. Stunning! Products that will help you achieve this look: 3. Pastels Classroom Theme Pinterest-Worthy Classroom Theme 3 A pastel theme is always popular and for good reason! It’s calming, pretty and there are so many sweet office supplies and decor items available in pastels. If you want to be pedantic (*cough* like me), aim for pastels with a cool base or a warm base, rather than mixing both. It just ties everything together. The best MJLL items for a pastel theme are definitely the Spotty Pastels and Modern Rainbow ranges. A fantastic illustration of how pastel themes come to life with decor, from @teachingwithmissburford. Products that will help you achieve this look: 4. Rainbow Classroom Theme Pinterest-Worthy Classroom Theme 4 Rainbow themes are pure fun - almost anything goes! My tips is to choose a select number of colours so it’s not too overwhelming. And embrace clashing patterns! Modern hues of navy, mustard and burgundy are fun, but then again, classic primary colours always will work too! I’d recommend my Spotty Brights or Tropical ranges for a rainbow theme. Check out this stunning Rainbow theme created using my Spotty Brights Affirmation Station and vibrant rainbow classroom decor, from @missj_primary_teacher. Products that will help you achieve this look: 5. Earthy Classroom Theme Pinterest-Worthy Classroom Theme 5 And finally - an earthy palette with rich berry hues, mustards, brick colours and emeralds gives a lovely lush aesthetic. And you’ll have plenty of MJLL themes to pair it with - my Spotty Neutrals, Boho Vibes, Earthy Rainbow and Boho Plants ranges all work with this colourway. How good are the earthy vibes in @teachingwithmissamanda’s dreamy classroom? Products that will help you achieve this look: One Last Thought Now I’m the first to admit that Pinterest doesn’t always represent the reality of our classrooms. In fact, it rarely does! So BFFs, let’s just agree to take Pinterest for what it is - a huge collection of ideas and inspiration. Our classrooms will always be busier, noisier and messier than those perfect pins we see, and that’s more than okay. If our students are happy, safe and learning - that’s all that matters! There are thousands of ideas on my Pinterest, so I humbly recommend you make the most of my addiction! And once you’ve landed on the colour scheme for you next classroom, make sure you head to my website to see which of my collections and resources will compliment it best. If you have any questions - I’m always here to help!
These classroom organization ideas & hacks will help your classroom run more smoothly and save you a bunch of time this school year!
Discover new classroom ideas for classroom management, decor, organization, storage, desk layouts, fun ideas and more!
If you are looking to up your classroom organization game, here are few products that might lead you in the right direction.
Transform your classroom into an engaging learning space with these classroom organization ideas! Get inspired to create an organized space for students to thrive.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I obsess over keeping things organized. I am by no means a Type A person, but organization is necessary for my sanity. My third year teaching, I started a new job at a charter school that rented its space from a church. The church uses our classrooms on Wednesday nights and Sundays, so we have to break down our rooms twice a week. This wasn’t too much of a challenge my first year there as I was in a big room with lots of storage space. The next year, however, I moved to 2nd grade — and a smaller classroom with little storage. Needless to say, I had to get pretty creative with my space in order to store everything I needed! One crucial thing – storage with WHEELS. I have to move things around constantly so having wheels is mandatory. I’m not really a huge fan of heavy lifting, so things need to ROLL. That’s pretty unique to my classroom, though – certainly static rooms don’t require that. BUT, I have learned a thing or two about keeping things organized in a small classroom with little space for storage. I’ve actually had several teachers (as well as substitutes) comment on my organization or come to me for ideas. It can be really challenging to keep things neat and tidy when you’re tight on space, but I promise you — it can be done! You just have to get a little creative. And no – it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg! Keep reading, and I’ll share with you my 7 best tips for small classroom organization! 7 Tips for Classroom Organization 1. Come up with a filing system for all. the. papers. If there’s one thing that teachers use more of than any other profession, it’s paper. Handouts, copies, homework, tests, things to grade, parent forms, PD notes, fliers…the paper stacks are never ending. If you don’t come up with a solid system (or systems) for keeping your papers organized, you will never find that one student’s form they handed you last week that needs to be turned into the office TODAY. It’s gone. Getting the paper clutter under control is key. I actually have several systems in my room for keeping papers organized. I have hanging file folders inside my black box (basically a mobile closet) where I keep all the copies I’ve made for the week. I also have a small two-drawer filing cabinet where I keep my master copies organized by topic, and my student cumulative folders. I also keep a file box which I use as my mailboxes where I sort handouts and graded papers to return to students. My math curriculum papers are divided by unit and put in binders. Lastly, I have a file organizer on my shelf with six folders – To Copy, To File, Math, Science, and then two for grading because I teach two classes. All the papers that don’t belong in one of the other places fit into one of these 6 folders. 2. Label all the things. I would never find anything if I didn’t label everything. I label my drawers, my bins, my folders — everything. That way I don’t have to dig through ALL the drawers if I know I put that one thing in a drawer but don’t know which one. Also, labeling just looks nicer. It’s visually pleasing. Sometimes you have a drawer that just doesn’t have any rhyme or reason to what’s in it — I get it! And I have labels for those too. I have these labels for the 10-drawer carts in my TpT store for free, as well as these “All the Things” Sterilite drawer labels. Both are editable so you can label them with whatever you need. 3. Get some quality storage items. Most classrooms don’t come with a ton of built in classroom storage. If you’re lucky, you might have some cabinets, a closet, or shelves. But most likely, you will need more than that! My room came with one wall of shelves. As an elementary teacher, I needed way more space than that to store all my stuff. I have 3 sets of 10-drawer rolling carts, a 3-tier rolling cart, 2 sets of both medium and large Sterilite drawers, a filing cabinet, and so many bins. Keep reading to see what I use each of these items for! And by the way, you don’t have to take out a second mortgage on your house to afford these things! Trust me, I am as cheap as they come and always looking for deals. I’ll talk about where I got all of these items later in this post. 4. Less is more. If you have a teeny tiny classroom like me, then you understand that there just isn’t room for a bunch of stuff. Sadly, that means that you may have to leave your lucky ficus at home. You will fare FAR better if everything that goes in your room has a purpose — or better yet, multi purposes. Finding organization tools that can hold a variety of things (in an organized way — we’re not talkin’ about a junk drawer, here) will save your life. For example: Desk caddies can hold a variety of tools in one handy place! In mine, I keep pencils, dry erase markers, erasers, math toolboxes, colored pencils and crayons, and any manipulatives students may need at the time. Tiered carts and drawers can hold SO MUCH! The more tiers/drawers, the more they can hold. I use drawers for school supplies (one item type per drawer), manipulatives, and math centers. I have my class library organized on a 3-tier cart, but I’ve also used it as an art cart before. Filing cabinets can hold SO MUCH PAPER, and we all know that paper can get a little out of hand (see tip #1). You can dedicate one drawer to each subject you teach, or you can split it up by date taught or type of item you’re filing. Thinking of ways you can consolidate several different items into ONE convenient place will change everything. And if you can’t find a place for it, ask yourself – is this REALLY necessary in my classroom? If it is, then obviously, keep it. But if not (or maybe if it isn’t necessary this year), it may be time to take it home or donate it. 5. Vertical space is your best friend. Vertical space is EVERYTHING in a small space, because most rooms are lacking more horizontally than floor-to-ceiling. I am very fortunate because my room came with almost an entire wall of shelving already installed. You may not have that, and I get it. If installing shelves is an option, it may be worth the investment depending on your room. But, even if it isn’t, there are still many other ways you can make good use of the vertical space in your room! First of all, you can buy shelving units for fairly cheap! I’ve seen them at home improvement stores in a variety of sizes. If it’s in your budget, I would highly suggest investing in one. Many of them come with wheels, too, so you can move it around easily if needed. I’ve also talked about my tiered cart and my rolling drawers. These are a GREAT use of vertical space! They are fairly narrow but 10-drawers high. (The tiered cart has 3 tiers and is slightly wider). I can store SO MUCH STUFF in these! If you have a closet or cabinets, utilize that space as best as you can by filling the shelves all the way to the top. You can buy stackable locker shelves to maximize the vertical space; instead of piling things on top of each other (causing an avalanche when you try to get something down), you can use the locker shelves to basically add another level between two existing shelves. These stacking shelves are typically super cheap, too! 6. If you don’t need it, donate it! This may be a given, but it can be surprisingly hard as a teacher to let go of the extra school supplies laying around, or that math game you used once three years ago. My best advice here is to trust your instinct. You know your class, your schedule, and your needs. Maybe construction paper always ends up on your supply list but you still have stacks of construction paper sitting in a cabinet from previous years because you rarely use it in your class. Keep a few reams for those once-in-a-blue-moon construction paper activities, then find something else to do with the rest. Give it to a coworker who is always running out of construction paper, put it in the office for anyone to grab, or find a local organization that collects unwanted school supplies. The point is, it’s so easy to hold on to extra supplies “just in case.” But if you’ve never used it before, you aren’t likely to start using it now. Keep just what you might need to get you through the year, and if you run out, put it on the supply list for next year! And that math game you used once three years ago? Ask yourself WHY you only used it once in three years. Did something change with your curriculum? Did your schedule change and now you don’t have time? Did you simply just forget about it? Thinking about the WHY can help you decide if this is something you really should keep, or something you will likely never use again. If you can’t think of a good reason to keep it around, don’t. At the very least, if your storage situation is better at home than at school, take it home for awhile and you can always bring it to school later if you do end up needing it. 7. Reach out for help, and watch for deals! Like I mentioned earlier, it does not have to cost you a fortune to keep your space organized! Is having quality storage crucial? Yes! Can you get quality storage on a budget? Absolutely! Reach out to family and friends, shop thrift stores and garage sales, check Facebook marketplace, start a Donor’s Choose, work with local non-profits that support teachers…and if all else fails, Dollar Tree and the Target Dollar Spot are your best friends! Here’s where I got all of the things (and how much I paid) I’ve detailed in this post: 2 rainbow 10-drawer carts: These are from Amazon, but I didn’t pay a dime for them as I received them through a Donor’s Choose. 1 black 10-drawer cart: I got this from a teacher at my school who was retiring. She was selling all her teaching stuff for basically whatever we wanted to pay. I got that cart and a few other things for $20. I probably paid around $7 for it. Teal 3-tier cart: This is also from Amazon and was part of the same Donor’s Choose package above. Large Sterilite Drawers: Okay, one of them isn’t Sterilite – it’s Iris. I got that one for free from my grandma when she moved into an assisted living home. The other one I purchased myself from Target I believe – about $10 or $15 (it was several years ago). Medium Sterilite Drawers: I purchased these from Target, also years ago. I think they are around $8-$10 each. 2-drawer filing cabinet: I got this for free from a local non-profit that collects items from schools, businesses, and individuals, and then donates them back to teachers. File box: I got this from Target. I think it was around $10. I also have a plastic one that I’m not currently using for around the same price. Bins and baskets: I have a million and two bins and most of them are from Dollar Tree. I find Dollar Tree bins to be pretty sturdy and you can’t beat the price!...
Check out these classroom organization systems for a clutter-free classroom even during a chaotic school year!
Add these classroom supplies from Ikea to your shopping list! Get your classroom organized/decorated for this school year with this list.
The best ideas in classroom organization including organizing bookshelves, creating a teacher cart, plus create the perfect teacher space!
Looking to turn your classroom into a farmhouse masterpiece? Checkout the 8 farmhouse essentials that every farmhouse classroom needs!
There are few places that students don't have access to and teacher desk decor is chance to make your space feel more like your home away from home.
These classroom organization ideas & hacks will help your classroom run more smoothly and save you a bunch of time this school year!
