Are you wanting to get started with preschool writing journals in your classroom this school year? This post will walk you through...
Are you looking for writing activities for preschool students? This post will help you think about writing workshop with young authors and some ideas for writing…
Whether you are doing a homeschool preschool program or are a teacher in a preschool, having a plan is essential. Every year, I begin with an outline for what I plan to teach throughout the school year. I created this resourceful, editable preschool curriculum to keep organized and easily change what I teach from year
Enhance the learning environment with effective classroom decor! Learn how to create an ideal space for teaching, learning, and growing.
Here are some printable center signs for your Pre-K or Preschool classroom. I have a free set of signs available, but the set of center signs in my
How to set up the blocks center in your early childhood classroom (with ideas, tips, and book list) plus block center freebies!
...I was only 7 when that song came out, but either way, you're now reading this title with the tune to that song. #missionaccomplished I frequently get asked on comments or through messages what my daily routine looks like in the classroom. I love seeing daily schedules. When creating the perfect schedule and routine for your classroom, you need to bounce around some ideas and suggestions. And where else better to get those suggestions than from other teachers?! In most grade levels you might not have as much wiggle room when it comes to creating your daily routine as we do down in pre-school. Your reading and math RtI times are set by your administrators and you've got to include 'x' amount of time in this subject and that subject. Some of the decisions are already made for you. But for me, I have full flexibility with my schedule. Even for lunch I can pick whatever time I want since my kids eat in the classroom, not the cafeteria with kindergarten. I also am free to chose when I take my lunch and my paras take their lunch. It's awesome to have such flexibility! But that still doesn't make figuring out your schedule/daily routine any easier. I usually end up with a few rough drafts on paper with various times and arrangements before making a final decision. My final copy is then transferred over to the classroom schedule and individual student schedules. A copy of it is also included in my welcome packet for the parents. The next step is plugging in the students. I always, always, ALWAYS am tweaking our schedule after the kids start. Whether it's changing the order of something or adjusting the times, something is guaranteed to change. Usually by the third week, it's set in stone. Then I send home a revised copy to the parents. They probably toss it, but I like for them to have it just in case they have to pick their child up early one day, or make a doctors appointment-- they know what their child will miss. For the 2013-2014 school year, this was our schedule. I may have tweaked our times by 5-10 minutes here and there, but didn't make new cards to reflect that. As you can see I display it right by our carpet area. We re-group here following most transitions so it's a perfect location. You can also see on the job chart that there is a schedule helper. This person helps to move the clothespin down our schedule throughout the day. This pocket chart is so perfect for our schedule. I actually have 2 of them because I didn't think our full day schedule would fit. I was able to make it work though by combining some things (center time and clean up time) and doing just a dismissal picture for when it's time to get back packs. Because once they get their back pack, we don't come back to carpet, so we'd never move that clip down again. And yes, I FORGOT to put a lunch picture on the lunch/bathroom part of our day. I kid you not, I left it that way all year #teacherfail I did at some point realize the picture was missing, I just never took the time to fix it. Whoops. There is also a piece of velcro on top of the outside picture. This is for when it rains. I velcro a gross motor room picture on there. This is essentially a small gym right across the hall from our classroom. I'm sure if I ended this post here I'd be flooded with questions about what we do in each part of day so I'll go ahead and elaborate on that for you. If you didn't think this post was already long enough, it's about to get LONGER! Go grab yourself some coffee or a latte--maybe even a snack! I'm sure some of this self-explanatory, but everyone does things differently, so let's dive in! **Please note that outside and lunch should be flip flopped! I put the schedule back together just to snap these photos and just now noticed that mistake!** Arrival/Bathroom: Students come in the classroom at 7:50. Upon entering they complete their arrival routine of hanging up their name tag, back pack, taking out their folder, signing in, and then completing the work box at their seat. After they finish their box, they put it away on the shelf. Then they are allowed to play at what we call "table time." These are specific toys and puzzles on 2 tables. This is the only area they can play in at this time. Or they can look at books on the book shelf, which is located in the same area. Students are sent to the bathroom one at a time after they finish their box and are at the table. At this time one adult will go the cafeteria to get our breakfast. Breakfast: The schedule says 8:00, but realistically this wound up being 8:30. By the time everyone uses the bathroom and we get back from the cafeteria, we sit down for breakfast. Each child has an assigned seat at the table and a placemat that they made. Everyone gets germ-x, we sing "open shut them" and then they are told the breakfast choices. Every child must ask before they can have anything --whether it's with words or pictures. Some students are even served bite by bite to make them request more. Communication is the goal! Anything to promote it! As they finish breakfast, they go back the table time toys. Anyone who still needs to use the bathroom will go after breakfast. When everyone is finished, we turn on the clean up song to put away our books and table time toys. Then students transition to the carpet. Greeting Time: This did not start at 8:30 either. More typically it was anywhere from 8:50-9:00 before we sat down. We do 3 things during greeting time and I have these 3 things on a small schedule that I move another clip down on so the students know the 3 tasks we do at that time. (Sorry I don't have a photo of this!) We start with our Hello Song. Each child is holding a name tag. We sing hello to each one and we practice spelling their name before they give me their name card. For some this might include the first letter, then gradually build up to their full name throughout the school year. Next, we do our message board. Messages are on the easel in our greeting area. Most often we have 2 messages, and on Thursday, 4 messages. Our standard 2 are "jobs" and "outside." We review who has what job, and then whether or not we will go to the playground that day. Following messages, we move on to the song book. Each day there is a child's name on the cover of the song book. That child gets to pick the song for us to sing as a group. They LOVE the song book! (That's another blog post in itself!) Earn/Gross Motor: Following greeting time we have earn time. It says gross motor because in the beginning of the year that's where we go for about 10 minutes instead of the students making a choice between 2 earn items. We do it this way just to make the correlation between the yellow star and special activity. After about 2-3 weeks we will start counting our happy sticks and making an earn choice. We'll be here for days if I elaborate on happy sticks. I have another post about it here, although that's also due for an update because a lot of things were adjusted/tweaked with those throughout the course of the year. Once everyone has made their choice we set a 3-5 minute timer. When the timer beeps, earn is over and we go back to our spot on the carpet. Earn choices are typically small sensory items that they can play with in their spot. If we have bubbles they might move around some, or some messy goop they'll transition to the table behind the carpet for that. Centers/Clean Up: Following earn time we are ready for centers. Halfway through the year I added task box schedules for the students before centers. I will probably adjust our schedule for this next year. (This is also another blog post in itself!) The students who have task schedules are given a picture to transition them to do their work. Following their work they can earn centers. Students choose a play center to go to at this time. During centers I may call students to work with me one on one on IEP goals, work on PECS exchanges with students, and all students use the bathroom again. Following a 5 minute warning, the song helper will turn on the clean up song when it's time to put away our toys. Earn/Gross Motor: Again, same as above. We count our sticks and get our earn. Large Group Time: This can be a variety of activities. It almost always starts with a story read aloud that's engaging. Students either have story boards to follow along with or a manipulative to hold on to and/or sequence along with our story. We may also sing a thematic song during this time too. While we are doing this one adult goes to get our lunches from the cafeteria. If we finish our large group plans before lunch arrives, then we turn on the smartboard for activities while we wait. Lunch: Once lunch is set up at the table students will transition there. We follow the same routine as breakfast. After they eat they use the bathroom and then play with table time toys again. Once everyone has finished lunch they should all be at table time. We will clean up table time to transition to outside time. Because an adult gets the lunches for the students, we make our choices using this lunch book. This is excellent for your non-verbal students, but I use this for all of mine. Outside: Weather permitting we go outside to the playground. We try to clean up our table time toys at 11:30am to line up for the playground. If we're running behind, we just extend our time once we get out there. We stay out for about 20-30 minutes. When we transition back inside we get right on our cots for quiet time. Typically a teacher has set up cots while students are eating lunch, or stays behind to set them up while we go outside. Quiet Time: Some of you may be shocked that we're doing quiet time and wondering how in the world we do it. Don't give me any gold stars yet because I have a trick. It's called the Smartboard. We play preferred tv shows via DVDs on the smartboard during quiet time. The students don't sleep anyway and this is so much more calm and manageable than when I tried "quiet time baskets" with quiet activities. We have to have a quiet time to allow all the staff in the room to get their lunches. This is what makes it the most manageable. Quiet time will last for 45 minutes. Before the students get up a staff sets up for snack. Snack: We turn the lights on to signal it's time to get up. Students put their pillows and blankets under their cot sheets and go to the snack table. A teacher puts away the cots. The snack helper passes out placemats and we proceed with snack the same as our other meals. However, now, when they finish snack they may go to any of the play centers. They do not have to play with table time toys. This is great since some students either do not want snack or finish snack early. Centers/Clean-Up: This is the same as above. In the afternoon centers will run for about 1 hour. Again, I can pull students to do one on one activities with me and some students will complete a second task schedule for the day. We follow the same procedure for clean up. Earn/Gross Motor: Again, same as above. We count our sticks and get our earn. Dismissal: After clean up from our final earn for the day it's time to pack up. Students are sent to the cubbies to follow their pack up routines (in visual form for most) and then we sit down in our cubby. Our busses come the pre-k wing door and we can see the busses as they pull up from our classroom. As a bus pulls up I call those students to line up and walk to their bus. We do this 1 bus at a time. On nice days we will go outside and play on a small playground until our bus is here. SHEW we made it to the end of the day! Are you exhausted yet? Teaching full day pre-k is LONG. I have done it for 2 years now and will start my 3rd year with all day in September. I LOVE it. I do have some students who will be with me for a half day though. They leave after AM centers. We will sing a goodbye song to that student(s) after we have cleaned up and a teacher will take that student to their bus and the other adult continues with the routine with the others. I mentioned 2 things in here that I could elaborate more on in other blog posts. If you want to know more about ANYTHING, just comment below! I will definitely be doing posts at some point this summer on our song book and an update on happy sticks---that is so overdue! I hope you got something helpful out of this! **Update: I have created {editable} schedule cards just for you! You can use these in a pocket chart like mine, or display them however you choose! Head to my TpT store to check them out!
When trouble is abound in your Preschool or Kindergarten classroom, Sandi is here to save the day! Sandi is an incredible, seasoned, and passionate Kindergarten teacher here to solve your preschool classroom management woes once and for all! Here are Sandi's 7 tips for making sure your Preschool classroom is running smooth and peaceful. Preschool
Want to create simple science areas for preschoolers? Learn how to create a fun science center to keep your kids engaged and learning!
What am I doing for Apple themed week in my preschool classroom? Oh, I am so happy you asked because I would love to tell you! I'm about to spill the beans on all the super-easy, super-fun activities that will light up your preschool classroom during Apple Week! Why Apple Week is Perfect for Preschool: Apple Week is a
Do you like to see other classrooms? Come take a look at these 7 different preschool classrooms!
Use classroom jobs to help develop independence, leadership skills, for classroom community, and as a behavior management tool too!
How to set up and organize a writing center in your pre-k, preschool, or kindergarten classroom. See pictures of my writing center and material suggestions.
How to set up the math center in your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten classroom. FREE path game!
Free set of printables to go along with Magnetic Tiles. Includes two levels of difficulty. Builds problem solving skills.
Table Time starts the day with success! Students will engage in the rotation of Table Time activities. Teachers will love how easy it is to plan and set up.
I know how much you LOVE FREEbies because I love them too! Make sure to share these free deals with all of your family and friends!
Printable classroom center signs can significantly streamline your teaching process and enhance organization in your learning environment. By clearly marking different areas of the classroom, you help students navigate and transition between activities efficiently..
All summer I think about it. My empty room back at the school.... Nothing fun on the walls, all of the books have been packed away, and somehow, someway you have to put it all back. Whether you have to pack everything up, you get to leave it as is, or if it is just your very first year, no worries! I have some helpful tips to share with you that I have learned the HARD way. Tip #1- Have a plan Duh right? Seriously though, have a plan and write it down. I love that my Erin Condren LifePlanner has the dotted pages in the back so I can jot down what I want to arrange before I get there. It is also SUPER helpful to take a friend that doesn't mind moving furniture 2 or 3 or 100 times on the day you want to arrange furniture. Also have a plan in place to take that friend to lunch. Tip #2- What are your MUST HAVES on the first day? Do you need to have your cubbies labeled? Are you assigning jobs the first day? What do you need to have access to in order to set up your classroom routines and procedures? Those are what you should be focusing on. NOT the cute border in the hallway. Sorry, I said that way too loud! But honestly, I have wasted so much valuable time making something cute out in the hallway that was inviting, yes, but necessary, no. I am giving you permission to skip the cute and go for the necessary. Some of my must haves for the first day: labeled cubbies nametags on pencil boxes (these stay in our assigned seats to start so it helps us find our spot) nametags for students job chart water bottles (I label mine and they keep them all year) homework folders ready for the first day calendar space/ morning meeting space designated and set up turn in box with a designated space focus wall for objectives (I'm required to have a spot for this) IB Interactive Wall (also a requirement for me) I have highlighted any of the items that have a freebie attached or I have written another blog post on if you are interested in checking them out! If I have all of these things in place then I am ready for the first day of school. The rest will fall into place. That bulletin board in the hallway? I cover it with name activities that we do on the second day of school. It is totally blank on the first day of school when my families roll in. Once I hang up those names it and stays up ALL year long! Tip #3 Decorate with the things you need I do a lot of "decorating" in my classroom but you won't find any unnecessary objects floating around my room just because they go with my "theme". Of course all of my posters match but I would hardly call that a theme. If you NEED that to make your classroom a happy place, go for it! If you are only decorating in shabby chic because your neighbor down the hall is then just STOP! It doesn't have to be that difficult! Here are a couple examples of sets I have used over the years. I print out everything I need, laminate it, and then start hanging it up. Once I get a welcome banner and an alphabet up on the wall BAM! Instant classroom decorations. These have everything I need for a functional classroom. Calendar, job chart, alphabet, numbers, and labels for all of the stuff. Having a "theme" helps pull everything together but I don't spend my summers at Target and TJ Maxx looking for the perfect items for my thematic classroom. Want a theme? Lots of my friends have also so I have created a few different fun ones for them. These serve the same purpose though, print and go and done! Click on any of the pictures to see them in my TPT store. Thanks for stopping by today. Here is your FREE SET OF ALPHABET POSTERS to get you started on a stress free decorating session. Want to save this for later? Pin it here! P.S. Get a FREE ALPHABET ACTIVITY when you sign up for my newsletter HERE!
Setting up an IEP work bin system can feel overwhelming! Here are some easy ways to do it so that your students can quickly work on goals!
Looking for ways to create more classroom organization? Try our Preschool Labels for the Classroom! These preschool center signs are free, functional, and fun to use for kids!
A new school year usually means a new teacher, new expectations, and new routines, so our students sometimes don't respond as we'd hoped when we try to get
Discover the perfect All About Me preschool activity designed for young kids! Get a free printable worksheet that's simple, engaging, and ideal for emergent readers. Download now!
Setting up a kindergarten classroom at the beginning of the year can be an exciting, yet overwhelming. Whether you are a student teacher, or this is your last year teaching elementary school, I'm here to share
Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable comes with eight editable pages, containing two pencils. Each pencil has pieces for two letter names up to nine letter names. Getting Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable
The Art center is a place where students can go to express their feelings, ideas, and be creative! Every child is an artist in the Art center! It is a place that promotes high-level thinking, problem-solving, and is rich in vocabulary. Students can learn and develop skills in all learning domains (language, literacy, math, science, social studies, fine motor, gross motor, and social skills) through art. It is an amazing place in your classroom if you are intentional with the materials and experiences you plan and set up for your students.This post contains affiliate links.
Setting up a classroom family photo display is a great way to build a positive classroom community. Today, I'm going to share a letter you can send home requesting a family photo, as well as some
Sharing activity inspired by Should I Share My Ice Cream by Mo Willems! Perfect for homeschool, classrooms, or family fun. Includes a free printable!
Do you want to kick off the kindergarten school year the right way? Get the full list of the top 8 do's and don'ts
Take Home Folders/Homework Folders... Let's talk about how to set up, label, organize, and manage Take Home Folders. Getting my folders set up is always a huge priority during summer break. I NEVER wait for students to bring their supplies to school on Meet the Teacher night because I want to have my folders set up and ready to go for the first week of school. I also want all students to have THE SAME FOLDER. I always choose green for my Take Home Folders because green means go. These are the only folders that go home. All the other folders stay at school. If you start shopping the Back to School sales in July, you can get a class set of folders for a couple bucks. In fact, do yourself a favor, and buy about 10-15 extra folders because undoubtedly you will get a few new students during the year or some folders will be lost or damaged. Some years I've bought the cheap folders (without the prongs) and laminated them. I used an X-Acto knife to slice open the pocket openings. This worked fine, but I would usually replace the entire class set around Christmas. Other years, I've found awesome deals on the poly/plastic/vinyl thick, sturdy folders. Those really hold up a lot better in my opinion. Maybe your principal will even splurge and buy a class set of nice folders for you?!?! ::Fingers crossed:: Once you've found a class set of awesome folders, it's time to get them labeled. I put the kiddos name (and number) on the front of the folder. If you don't have your class list yet, just skip this step. On the inside of the folder, I put two sticker labels. The left side says “Keep at Home” and the right pocket says “Return to School.” Print these on 2x4 inch standard shipping labels. On the back of the folder, I have a label with my name and room number on it incase another teacher or student finds it in the hallway or on the bus. I also put my e-mail or phone number. This part is totally optional, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to have it on there. As I mentioned before, some years I've bought the folders with the prongs so I could use a sheet protector to hold the students' reading log and behavior chart. Other years, I didn't buy the pronged folders and just slid these papers inside. :) Insert behavior chart and reading log inside the sheet protector so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Here is an example of the reading log and behavior log to communicate with parents. Even if you don't use a color chart in your classroom, this behavior log could still work for you. Simply jot down a quick note about the child's day: "Great effort today!" "Don't forget to raise your hand before talking out." "Had some trouble in the cafeteria but otherwise AWESOME day." "Thanks for being a leader today!" Realistically, a teacher doesn't have time to write a personalized note to 25 students every day. That's when STICKERS come to the rescue. I can pass out a sticker to every student who earned one in less than 60 seconds. I don't want anything super time consuming, but I do like a way to keep in touch with parents. I think it also holds kiddos accountable for their day. #oldschool With that being said, if there has been a bigger issue at school, I would definitely call or e-mail the parents to touch base. To learn more about the 5-Step System I use for Take Home Folders, check out Part 2 of this series. Please also check out my Take Home Folder VIDEO to get more ideas and details on setting up, organizing, and managing folders in the primary classroom. Download the labels and forms in my TpT store.
For a Forest or Camping themed classroom: Find activities, crafts, snacks, and more ideas than you can use for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade class and students. Plus FREE DOWNLOADS!
I have been CRAZY excited to share my classroom with ya'll this year. This is my third year in this classroom, and I'm in love with how it turned out it this school year. I kept a lot of the same centers from last year, and added a few new fun ones (Magnet Center,
We invite you to come in and take a tour of our Play to Learn Preschool Classroom! See pictures of the room, and read about how we organize our day.
From a therapy standpoint, inclusion means “pushing into” classrooms to deliver services rather than pulling kids out for therapy sessions.
The science center in my classroom is always a busy place. Students can observe, experiment, create, construct, classify, compare, and question. Students are natural-born scientists. They are curious and eager to explore the world and everything in it! As teachers, it is our job to nurture their scientific spirit and help students form questions, investigations, collect data, and share their conclusions. Make your science center amazing to enhance their experiences! Plus, I have a few freebies for your center too!
Hey, friends! I wrote this post on The Primary Chalkboard a while back and thought it was worth another post. If it's summer vacation for you, enjoy! If not, live each day to the fullest and smile because it happened! I'm here today to talk about getting your classroom ready for a makeover. Now, this is NOT a classroom reveal. Today is all about getting ready to set up your room! Let me preface this by saying, I'm not trying to pressure anyone into decoration madness, but I do believe a happy classroom is one that functions efficiently; and is well organized and attractive. This summer I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Marie is a proponent of getting your house in order and keeping it in order. She suggests keeping only the items in your home that bring you joy and letting go of the rest. I think we can apply the same principle to the classroom. Keep what sparks joy in you and let go of the rest. ARE YOU READY TO SEE MY MESS? Here you go! Want more? The good news is...it doesn't look that this anymore! So, are you ready to get your classroom in order? Great! But, remember this is not a one day job. I like to think of it as ten days. Already started school? Take one task a week for the first ten weeks. Day 1) Clean out your children's literature. Keep only the books that bring you and your kiddos joy! I know. I LOVE children's books, too, but let's face it. Not all books are created equally. It's okay to let go of a book. DON'T THROW IT OUT. Pass it on to someone who will find joy in it. You'll be amazed at how much room this gives you AND you'll know what you have when you need something. Day 2) Clean out your Math manipulatives! You don't need 6 bins of pattern blocks or 48 Judy clocks. Keep what you need and pass the rest on to someone else. It's okay. Day 3) Clean out your art supplies. If you haven't used those foam Easter bunnies in the last 3 years, get rid of them. Pass on the joy to someone else! No hoarding! Day 4) Clean out your office supplies. Look at each one. If no joy comes from having them and they serve no purpose, pass them on to someone else or donate them. It's a good feeling! Day 5) Clean out board games, puzzles, and other activities. If you don't use them, someone else can. If Czechoslovakia is still on your globe...you get it. Share your treasures. Day 6) Do I dare say it...Clean out your paper. Oh, it's tough! I know it is. I've done it. But the feeling is just so great! If you haven't used it or it turns your fingers purple...you don't need it. Recycle that paper! Day 7) Decide how you will store supplies. Once you decide what manipulatives and supplies you are going to keep, choose how you are going to store them. Then label your supplies. Labeling makes supplies easier to find for students and other adults who may visit. NOW- The next two may not be popular, but I'm going with them. Day 8) Get rid of your filing cabinet OR scale down to a smaller one. The more room you have for stuff, the more stuff you'll acquire. If there's nowhere to put the stuff, you won't be as likely to hold onto it. Day 9) Get rid of your teacher desk OR scale down to a smaller one. You can do it! I did and I had a lot of stuff in mine, too. I never sat there (not even after school), and it took up a great deal of space. Now, that space is used by my first graders, and I don't miss my desk one bit! I use an over-the-door shoe organizer for my office supplies. Space saver! Day 10) Plan your classroom design. Once the clutter is removed and you are ready to set up your room, go online and play around with a classroom set-up tool. You can design your whole room as many times as you like. You'll need your room measurements for this. Here are a few good ones: Floorplanner.com Classroom Architect at classroom.4teachers.org Lakeshore Learning Classroom Designer This is the one I use. And, to show you what a difference organizing makes, the pic below was taken on Valentine's Day, months after I purged and organized. I cleaned out some more baskets and placed them on top of my bins, but other than that, the closet stayed pretty tidy. If I can do it, you can do it! Having a plan makes all the difference!! Good luck!!
Do you want to create a preschool portfolio for the students in your classroom? Portfolios are a great way to demonstrate student progress over time. Here are some of my best tips to help you set up and organize preschool portfolios in your classroom.
Gift giving inspiration with meaningful toys that will enrich your children's learning and development! In case you happen to be considering getting a gift for your child's classroom or you happen to be putting a wish list together for your own classroom, I have put together a snapshot of what I would consider to be the
Create fun and engaging pre-writing activities for preschoolers to help them practice their hand writing skills with these 50 simple to set up ideas!
I absolutely LOVE IKEA and even though the closest one to me is about 3 hours away, I always make a point to go a couple of times a year. A few years ago, I did a post on items from IKEA that teachers can use in their classrooms. You can check out that post HERE (most of those things are still available!). Below are some of my finds from my most recent trip... There are tons of alternative seating options at IKEA. Most of the office type chairs are sold in two parts... the seat and then the base. The seat part is a great floor seat.. similar to the rocker chairs people are using. Here are just a couple of the options that I thought looked the most comfortable and affordable... If you need some basic stools for your students to sit on while they work... IKEA has some awesome cheap rugs. The rugs I bought for less than $5 over 5 years ago are still holding up and look great (even after 180 days of use a year by primary students). I use rugs for silent reading but also for my low table where students sit on the ground. These are a few of the rug options... I grabbed up two of these larger circle rugs... my kiddos will love them! Two students can fit on them for partner reading. I loved this green dot rug.. look at the price! You can't really tell the size but this would be a great rug in a small area where 3 or 4 kiddos could sit and play a game together. This would be a great addition to any classroom. IKEA has tons of deals like this! They also have a TON of chair pads.. the ones with the strings that you tie to the back of the chair. these would also be great for your floor kiddos. I picked up these round versions that go on stools... they have rubbery grippers on the back that will prevent them from sliding on hard floors. If you are looking for "spots" to keep your students in one place while sitting on the rug these could be an option... they are actually placemats! They have a rubbery backing so they won't slip on laminate flooring and are just the right size for primary kiddos. This is a longer cushion pad... two kiddos would fit perfect on this for partner read! I wish I had about 12 of these! If you want to go kind of big and you are looking for a couch, this is so cute. I almost grabbed this up but couldn't decide on a color... It comes in yellow or a dark gray. These stools are so cute... they would be great at a tall table. The don't wobble and are sturdy. They have a ton of other stool options. I love stools because they can be stacked or pushed under tables so easily! Here are some lower stool options. They will work on regular height tables. If you are brave enough for pillows (I always tell my kids no heads on the pillows....if you get my drift) they have a ton of cheap options. This dish rack would be perfect for organizing tablets! Just slide the tablets into the slots and place any iPods into the silverware holder portion. I purchased this shelving unit (in white) to transform my fluency station... These picture frames are perfect for displaying learning objectives at small groups.... If you can screw into walls and cabinets these would be perfect for so many purposes... displaying student work, displaying pics from the year or I think they would be great for hanging headphones. Just slip the headphone over the wire and you are good to go! This is my dream item at IKEA...I would love to have two of these to hold my differentiated tubs for literacy and math rotations. It holds 12 drawers (3 drawers for each group) that can hold different leveled materials. If you want to whimsically figure up your data this calculator is super cute...I would love for my principal to come in while I am punching in numbers on this ridiculous thing... I have never seen this section in IKEA before (maybe it's new or I am just blind) but they have cute party favor type decor. I often use the tissue balls in my classroom. I love these options! This section also had these number paperclips and quotation paper clips. These would be a fun little teacher gift! I also grabbed up this cheap tub to store rugs and pillows. Finally what my kiddos will be most excited about BEADS (for fun friday). These are super cheap! IKEA also has these rolls of paper (should have grabbed a dozen for my artsy kiddos!) for super cheap! What items do you use from IKEA in your classroom? If you have any questions make sure to leave them in the comment section!