Getting Organized for Back to School

Kendra Von Raesfeld
Jul 6, 2016
5 min read

It's Christmas in July!

Today I'm excited to team up with other I Teach K-2 bloggers to bring you lots of awesome ideas, freebies, and even a chance to win a Target, Clip Art, or Teachers Pay Teachers gift card! My entire Teachers Pay Teacher store will also be on sale July 6-9!

Check out my blog here, and see others' at the end of this post, along with a chance to win one of our giveaways! You'll leave with lots of new ideas to get you excited about the upcoming school year!

I taught kindergarten for 12 years and loved every minute. However, as the time came for my own son to start school, I knew it was time to get a job closer to home (I had a 30 mile commute). Luckily, I was able to get a job teaching first grade at the school he attends. Our first year there has just come to an end and we are both so happy!

I was reluctant to leave kindergarten, all my lessons I had worked so hard on, and my classroom that I had spent years making perfect. However, the idea of having a brand new classroom to decorate and organize made me happier than it probably should have :). I love labels, storage, and ideas that make a classroom functional AND adorable.

I spent a good part of last summer preparing my new classroom. Much of this prep occurred at home, as I was not able to enter the new classroom until August. However, with lots of prep and hard work, the move in went very smoothly.

One of the items I created at home was this chalkboard. I used paint pens to write the permanent parts of the board and throughout the year I used chalk to update the board each week.

The kids loved having their name written on the board when it was their week to be star person or their birthday week. They never let me forget to update the board. They also enjoyed counting down the days until exciting events.

In the blank space, I always included a seasonal drawing, such as a pumpkin, Christmas tree, etc.

I also big on organizing books. I have the students' readers organized by level and they use these for our Daily 5 Read to Self station. I also have a book shelf with fun picture books that they use for the Read to Someone station. There are those books, though, that you want to keep nice, and that I use only for when I read aloud to the class. I keep these in a few different places: read anytime books I keep on a shelf near my chair at circle time and I like to store the seasonal books separately. I have always stored my nice, seasonal books in wooden crates, either by month or season. These are the crates in my new classroom.

I got all of the supplies at Hobby Lobby and Michaels, including the wooden letters that made them super easy to label. Everything was plain wood, so I just painted everything they way I wanted.

I love these because it's usually super easy to find the book I need. I'll store holiday-themed books in these, as well as stories I know I will use for certain lessons during that season.

We have lots of bulletin board space in my new room and I wanted to make updating them throughout the year as easy as possible. On our longest board, I created a space for each student to display work. I backed each space with colorful card stock and made these awesome clips to hold their work. I cut the paper for the labels using my Cricut machine and wrote the students' names with white paint pen. I hot-glued a clothespin to each label and hot-glued a thumbtack to each clothes pin. Just stick the pin to the board and you're ready to go. This was a fun and EASY way to display student work.

I LOVED these leaf people/animals during November.

Our December board. This was so EASY but turned out great!

As I mentioned, we use Daily 5 in our class. I like that this gives the students the opportunity to move around the room and sit in different places, rather than spending too much time in their desks. For the Read to Someone station, I wanted them to be able to get comfy and enjoy the stories. I talked my mom into making these great floor cushions and the kids loved them. They sat on them, laid on their tummies on them, or leaned against the wall on them. They were a HUGE hit!

You can also see our behavior chart in the picture above. This was another make-ahead project. The students each had a clip with their number on it and they moved up and down the chart throughout the week based on behavior. Those on "prize box" or "good behavior award" were acknowledged at the end of the week. I sent emails to parents whose students were on "consequences". This turned out to be a huge motivation factor in our classroom.

To make the behavior chart, I purchased blank pieces of wood at Hobby Lobby. I used my Cricut to cut out the letters on card stock (but stickers would have worked too). I decoupaged the letters to the board and used a staple gun (and some painter's tape) to attach the string to the back.

I made sure the chart was accessible to the students so they were able to clip themselves up or down.

Our Word Wall was one of my favorite parts of the classroom. I loved how the black background made the colors pop.

I assembled the Word Wall using ribbon and push pins (to anchor the ribbon in place).

My word wall is FREE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Get yours here:

I really enjoyed setting up the new classroom and I think the layout and organization worked well. Here are a few more pics of the finished room...

My desk - I used the teal polka-dot contact paper to decorate my desk and the boring, white cabinets I wasn't allowed to paint.

I'm clearly a big fan of labels. I like to use clear, plastic storage containers for craft supplies (I got mine at the container store). These labels can be found in my store in my Classroom Decor Bundle:

Love this sign from Hobby Lobby. I bought theses wooden letters at Target and painted them to match.

It's always fun to start over with a brand new pack!

And, although getting your classroom organized (and cute!) is important, good teaching materials and lessons are the heart of a classroom. I really enjoyed making new resources for first grade this year. Grab my FREE First Grade Language Arts and Math Common Core Sample here:

Or grab the whole packet here:

This packet contains resources and activities for EVERY SINGLE first grade language arts and math common core standard!

I hope you enjoyed this post and can find some of these ideas useful as you get your classroom ready for a new year. But, don't forget to enjoy summer first!!