Hi all! I recently went to a technology conference. Generally during conferences one or two big ideas will stand out to me, and I will return to school eager to implement them. I was surprised, though, that this year the thing that excited me most was a session on classroom hacks. The session touched briefly on physical hacks and was mostly focused on engineering and technical stuff for older kids. Very cool stuff … but what I got out of it was that teachers are really interested in ways to transform and hack their physical space. So I’ve decided to add regular posts about various classroom hacks from my room and others’. (And maybe I’m using the term “hack” too loosely … really I’m just showing you cool stuff teachers have done in their rooms.)
Today’s post will show you three hacks from my own classroom. I hope you see something inspiring!
Hack 2: Use picture/book rails to hold themed books. I used to use the whiteboard “chalk” tray to display themed picture book libraries (usually these books tie to our science or social studies unit, but right now I have all my poetry books out). This was never ideal because it seems I always needed the space for something else. I installed these shelves with a space in between so that if I have two themes at once I can display both without confusing kids. For example, we study biographies at the same time we study the five senses, and I have great picture books for both, so this way they each get their own space. These shelves are very inexpensive and easy to install. I got mine at IKEA, but a quick Google search will show you that they’re everywhere. These would also work nicely in a cozy reading corner or classroom library.
