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Creative classroom organisation ideas

Blog
The YPO Team
24 Sep 2024

We all know it doesn’t take much for a classroom to get messy, but making sure you spend time creating smart organisation solutions can help to reduce the time spent tidying up. Read below for our top creative classroom organisation ideas.

Label your electronics

With a lot of teaching now being digital, it’s common to use laptops and tablets in the classroom. But with this comes the task of needing to keep them organised. A great way to keep tech and wires organised is to use a labelling system, such as numbers or colours to correspond each device with it’s charging lead. Using a number system also works well when storing your devices, as it ensures that each device is put back in the correct place, making it easy to spot if there are any missing.

Use an organisation app

You can utilize an organisation app that helps you track, organise and manage your entire workload with ease. With apps like Monday.com and Google Classroom, you won’t ever have to worry about keeping up to date with projects, tasks and deadlines; the app will do it for you. You can sync the app to your existing emails and calendars and stay informed with real-time updates. It will allow you to automate any repetitive tasks allowing you to keep on top of your to-do list. Nothing more relaxing than having a stress-free and organised schedule!

Create a designated supply station

A great way to keep track of supplies is to create a designated supply station, with each item labelled up. Give each item a home, such as pots for pencils, a box for paper, and a basket for whiteboards. Make sure each items home is labelled, and at the end of the day, check to make sure that the items have been returned to their homes. This is a great way for children to feel responsible for helping with keeping the classroom organised.

Colour coordination

A simple and effective way of organising the classroom is implement ing colour coordination. You can begin to assign a colour to each table; the supplies on the tables should match this colour. This will minimize the long efforts of trying to stay organised. Throughout the day, you can also give each subject a distinct colour so that students can save time during class transitions. Let’s say you make English ‘yellow,’ when the time comes to switch from Science to English, students can quickly grab the yellow folders.

Put labels on your lids

We all know how easy it is for glue stick lids to go missing! A great way to keep track of lids is to label them, for example numbered or coloured. You could label the corresponding glue stick too, to make sure that if a lid goes missing, it’s likely to be nearby the corresponding glue stick!

Assign classroom jobs

This is a great way for pupils to get involved with responsibilities in the classroom. Assigning monthly class jobs on a random basis gets all pupils involved in regular jobs, for example handout helpers, cloakroom monitors, light monitors, and calendar helpers. Giving children responsibility helps develop their leadership and self-esteem, and also helps to keep your classroom organised.

Organise the layout of the classroom

Desk arrangements and classroom layout matters; it sets the mood for your classroom and ultimately reveals what sort of learning you want to provide in the classroom. If you want to deliver play-based learning or interactive hands-on learning, the table groups layout would be ideal as it encourages social interaction and group work amongst other students. This is typically used in early years classrooms. If you aim to deliver teacher-centred and individual learning, the table rows layout is ideal. This is when the tables are set out in rows of two or four. This layout is preferred in secondary schools, providing more oversight of the classroom.

Table caddies

Having table caddies in your classroom is an easy way to keep classroom essentials in one place! Instead of having an area where children need to go and find pens, pencils and scissors, having them in a caddy on each table ensures that children can stay seated, and items stay on the table. Children can then be responsible as a team for their table caddy.

Individual pupil storage

Set up an area for individual pupil storage, to keep personal equipment and supplies tidy and safe. For example, this could be in the form of lockers, cubbies, or hanging pegs, depending on the space you have available.

We hope you found our classroom organisation ideas useful! To keep stocked up on all of your classroom essentials, shop our School Essentials Price Freeze.

Author

The YPO Team

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities, which means the profits made are returned to public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.