Organization for Classroom

As the saying goes "the first impression is a lasting impression." Organizing your classroom to be inviting will let students want to be there and feel comfortable. The website http://www.realclassroomideas.com/143.html talks about everything from labels to themes for the classroom. The website also has pictures for the viewer to see along with additional links for the viewer to see other great ways to organize their classroom. This website gives great information and is sure to help a teacher with ways to organize their classroom.

Classroom Activities

One of the major part of school is having activities for learning. Exploring the website http://www.readingrockets.org/article/392/ you can find activities to help their reading and writing. There are 25 activities ranging from birth to Grade 3:

Activity 1: Books and babies
Activity 2: Tot talk
Activity 3: R and R – repetition and rhyme
Activity 4: Poetry in motion
Activity 5: Story talk
Activity 6: Now hear this
Activity 7: TV
Activity 8: World of words
Activity 9: Write on
Activity 10: Look for books
Activity 11: Read to me
Activity 12: Family stories
Activity 13: P.S. I love you
Activity 14: Good books make reading fun
Activity 15: Artful artists
Activity 16: Shopping your way with words
Activity 17: Cookbooking
Activity 18: Dictionary words
Activity 19: Journals
Activity 20: Greetings and salutations
Activity 21: Giving the gift of reading
Activity 22: Let your fingers do the walking
Activity 23: Map your way to success
Activity 24: What's in the news?
Activity 25: Using television to stimulate reading

These activities will be your ultimate goal in helping the students literacy development be a step easier.

As the above activities are more geared to reading and writing, I found another website http://activitiesforkids.com/educational which has various activities that can be used in the classroom. This site is categorized by grade level and different topics. It is very user friendly and has many interesting activities like Subjects (art/color, money, math, science, United States & poetry), Topics (back to school, poetry, nutrition, games & 100th day of school), Puzzles (word search, word scramble & sudoku) and Summer Camp (crafts, activities, printouts, recipes, theme days & vacation bible school )

Structure for Classrooms

Classroom structure is the organization of classes in society. There are many ways to build a positive classroom structure. On this website http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept08/vol66/num01/Seven-Strategies-for-Building-Positive-Classrooms.aspx there are 7 strategies for building a positive classroom:

1. Make Learning Relevant
2. Create a Classroom Code of Conduct
3. Tech Positive Actions
4. Instill Intrinsic Motivation
5. Reinforce Positive Behaviors
6. Engage Positive Role Models
7. Always be Positive

These 7 strategies for building a positive classroom are helpful for teachers that are just starting or having problems with setting up their classroom.

Classroom Arrangement

A classroom should be cozy, welcoming, and full of color. As you walk into your classroom it is a blank canvas. Looking at www.priceless-teaching-strategies.com/classroom_layout.html there are 8 questions that you should consider when you begin to setup your classroom:
1. Where will your desk be?
2. How many student classroom desks do you need?
3. What classroom seating arrangement of the desks will you use; for example,
groups,rows, U shapes, rows but in groups,etc?
4. Will you have any classroom computers? Where will you put the classroom
computer tables?
5. Will you have a carpeted area, away from the students' desks, where you can
all come together for classroom meetings,etc.?
6. What other additional classroom furniture such as filing cabinets,
bookshelves,working tables will there be?
7. How many classroom bulletin boards will you have?
8. What other classroom display ideas are swimming around in your head?
As there are many more questions that can come to mind these are just a few to begin with.

Introduction

I have selected a few websites for teachers, principals, and administrators to explore. I anticipate that they will find these websites useful for ideas and strategies for classroom arrangement, structure, activities and organization for the birth to Pre-K settings and Kindergarten to Grade 3 environments. These will be exciting and helpful for teachers to get ready for the school year.