It’s back to school week for us! I thought that as I prep my classroom, I would write a little blog post about some of my classroom must-haves. Of course, I have collected/purchased most of these things over the years and inherited or thrifted a lot of things along the way as well!
The first few years I set up my classroom, I really wanted it to be Pinterest perfect. I wanted a theme and I wanted to make sure that everything fit in that theme. Some teachers do this, and they do it so well! And then there is me. I realized after a few years that while I need to do my best, my best probably won’t be Pinterest worthy. And that is ok. I also read somewhere that sometimes these classrooms are SO visually overstimulating, especially for kids who have ADHD or struggle to focus. Hearing that gave me a lot of freedom to leave some blank space on my walls and spend my time building better lessons and not worrying about matching everything.
That being said, there are a couple of things that I use in my classroom every single day and I thought I would share those here:
- Books. I have lots of books and I love having so many books at my students fingertips! The key here is training the students to put the books on the shelf properly and in the right place. We are working hard on rebuilding our reading curriculum/strategies this year, so I have also had to reorganize my reading shelves and strategize how to get the right books into each students hands.
- Puzzles! In my reading groups, we do one group that just does puzzles! Puzzles are so great because it feels like playing, but it’s really using brainpower to solve problems, work together, and accomplish a goal! The other nice thing about puzzles is that they are usually pretty easily sourced from thrift stores, garage sales or just by sending out an email and asking my class parents if they have any old puzzles laying around.
- Calendar, Job List and Weather Graph. Calendar time is my favorite time in the morning! We sit together and do calendar, weather, prayer requests, and read a book together. It’s always a fun time to chat with my students and really connect with them.
- Alexa. Someone gave me an Amazon Alexa one year as a teacher gift. I don’t use it at home, but I use it ALL DAY LONG in my classroom. I play music, use it as a bluetooth speaker, set alarms/timers, and we ask it questions- sometimes silly (Alexa, tell me a knock knock joke) and sometimes to check our work (Alexa, what’s 24 plus 32?).
- Visual Timer. A visual timer is really helpful at this age because it gives kids the chance to see how long 10 minutes really is and how much time they have left. This also cuts down on the “when will the timer go off?” question.
- Name Sticks. I also use these all day long to help me make decisions on who to pick for any job that has popped up. For example, if there are only 5 chances to answer a question or complete a task, I will draw 5 name sticks. Lots of teachers use these creatively. If it’s reading out loud or answering a question, I always tell my students that if I call their name they can say “pass”, they don’t have to read or answer. But I still want them engaged and part of the class 🙂
- Bandaids. I just keep a pack of 500 in my classroom. Haha.
Of course, I always hang the whole alphabet, number line and word wall to help everyone “use their resources”. There are SO MANY other things that are helpful and useful in a classroom, but these are my “must-haves” for managing my classroom on a daily basis!
If you are a classroom teacher, what would you add to this list? If you are a parent and want to give a gift to a teacher, I am sure they would be happy to be gifted any of these things! In fact, someone gave me the Alexa as a Christmas gift and five years later it’s still one of my most used classroom items. Don’t be afraid to gift teachers gifts for their classrooms!
Whenever I go to a friend’s house with an Alexa, I say, “Alexa, please tell me a cannibal joke!”