Center Space

Personally, I think having as little to no dead space in a classroom would be ideal. My classroom was built in 1950 and was not set up to house as many items or children as it does today. With this, I knew that something had to give in order to provide my students with the learning opportunities that I had in mind for them.

To maximize space, I build my classroom around the focus of our learning centers. I teach kindergarten and center time is crucial during the day. My students get the majority of their hands on practice during reading and math rotations, so I want them to be comfortable and enjoy this time. I’ve utilized the four corners of my room for centers and use furniture to create dividers as much as possible.

My center locations do not move – they’re labeled areas and my center buckets correspond with the location. Within these areas, I’ve implemented flexible seating because the majority of our learning minutes are around the room in centers or at the small group table (which also houses flex seating options). For word work, I was able to give this small area an affordable facelift this year, and I’m beyond thrilled with the outcome.

If you’re looking to add on or enhance your word work center, I highly recommend grabbing an oil drip pan and some industrial strength velcro from Walmart and attaching them to a solid surface or old furniture. The oil drip pan is pretty large and hangs easily with this velcro. The velcro package claims to hold the weight of 10lbs so the pan should not move or fall down easily.  To learn more about the oil drip pan from Walmart – visit this link.