Five years ago when I started in my current district there were a few elementary art openings. I thought, “wouldn’t it be so cool to get the brand new school opening that school year?”…and I did! The whole process was super exciting; all new everything, no one ever having been in my classroom—it was all me, no crazy stuff to find 2 years in that got shoved behind some other things. The second time I ever stepped foot in that classroom my counter was filled with boxes stacked to the ceiling (okay…maybe not all the way to the ceiling, but you get the point). I quickly realized how big of a feat I was facing despite all of the excitement. In this blog post, I am going to share some things that helped me get my room the way I wanted it.

Tip #1: Make a plan

As artists and teachers, we know you plan things out before jumping all in. Seeing all those boxes made me realize I need a plan to figure out how to make this work. Some things I did were visited an art teacher’s classroom to see how she had her room organized and made a map of where I wanted things to go. Think about does this cabinet make sense to have paint in if it’s easily accessible to kids? Do I want the students to access their own supplies? That’s not to say I haven’t moved stuff around since, but in 5 years, very little has changed in my room and I’m so happy I planned it out before unpacking all those boxes

Tip #2: Create a system

To go along with making a plan, try to have some systems in place for how those supplies will be organized or accessed. My personal favorite way to organize things in the art room is rainbow order; it’s familiar to students and aesthetically pleasing. Other times when I don’t have a large quantity of a supply or space, I will combine different color families. My go to is warm, cool and neutral colors. Although our youngest students may not know those families right away, the visual connectedness of the colors makes sense for them. Another system to think about as mentioned previously is do you want your students to be able to access this on your own? If the answer is yes, that space needs to be organized. I have tried manyyyyy systems for this over the years and think I finally narrowed down what works for my students. But what works in my room, may not in yours and vice versa.

Tip #3: Ask for help

Alllllllll those supplies, boxes, packing, etc is A LOT. Ask for help! My team was wonderful in offering to help me, but personally I wasn’t set on where I wanted things and hated the idea of asking new people to put something somewhere and then changing my mind. My mom used to work in education and helps me any time I need it in my classroom. For me, it was much easier to tell her to put something in a place and then go “nope, I don’t like that there” (sorry, Mom). 

Tip #4: “Rome wasn’t built in a day”

Something to keep in mind is, it may not be completely ready at the beginning of the year or exactly how you want it right away and that’s okay. Baby steps. Make a list of something to organize or put away every day and you’ll get there. Your students don’t care if your room is perfectly organized, they are just excited to be there and create. 

Tip #5: There’s no such thing as perfection

And last but not least, know there is no perfect way to organize your classroom. I can’t tell you how many times I think I’ve come up with the perfect system or plan and within a month it’s impossible to keep up with or implement with my students in and out every 45 minutes. Do what makes sense now and is easy for you to manage. Put some responsibility back on the students to take care of their space. I always tell my classes “I didn’t get that out and I’m not putting it away”. Now, of course I help with clean up, but I refuse to do everything for them. What works this year, may not work next year and that’s okay. 

BONUS TIP!

If you are taking over someone else’s classroom…know that you are more than likely going to find a million things you don’t know what they are, why they are there or why they are STILL there. As you organize each space, plan to clean those things out into piles of something you might want to use or definitely won’t use. Chances are, someone in your building might be interested in it too. One of my favorite things to do is send an email telling the staff I put stuff outside my room that I need to get rid of…it’s usually gone the next day. 

Hopefully these tips will help you get your new (or new to you) classroom up and organized!

Keep blending,

Hayley