Creating our classroom is like crafting our second home. We spend the majority of our week there, after all. It should seamlessly blend functionality, fostering an environment conducive to our student’s success while exuding a sense of fun and invitation.
Less is more when it comes to your classroom. You want the bare minimum.
Display primarily what your program requires to help avoid overstimulation. I promise you that having a picture-perfect classroom with all the decor does more harm than good. You want your students to be attending to you, not the various butterfly posters you have hanging on the walls.
That said, you can still make it welcoming and aesthetically pleasing. If you hang something on the wall, make it functional. For example, add a felt board to put thematic pieces on it. Bare wall; turn it into a sensory wall. Here are some ideas of how I transformed my walls
- Felt board
- Sensory wall
- AAC
- Family Board
Just like we want to keep the walls minimal, we want to do the same with our storage. Most classrooms have some sort of open shelving units that hold accessible materials for students.
- Limit what is on the shelf – the more stuff that is out, the more things students can become overstimulated with. Instead, rotate toys in and out. I liked to align this with whatever our unit was
- It is helpful to keep shelves covered when they are not in use. If you do not have shelves that rotate closed or have a door, I suggest creating shelf covers.
- I have a step-by-step video on how to create these shelf covers, which is linked HERE.
