My classroom's physical setup

Here is a video tour of my classroom this year.  The camera work isn't the best, I apologize.

Untitled from Nicole Mays on Vimeo.

My classroom is set up with very clear physical boundaries defining each area.

• This defines the space so that the students understand where they are supposed to be
• This minimizes visual (and some auditory) distractions from other areas of the room
• This provides obstacles to discourage "runners" from eloping (or at least gives us a bit more time to catch up to them)

As you will see from the video, the main areas of my classroom are

• the entry "hallway" where the students put away their backpacks in the morning and where we line up when leaving the classroom
• laundry area
• kitchen
• bathroom
• storage nook and closet
• whole group instruction area (tables)
• carpet/circle time whole group instruction area
• individual work desks
• computer stations
• other various areas (the small whiteboard easel, swing, books, listening area, etc.)
• teacher desk/area (at the back of the room)
• teacher work area (at the front of the room)
• Sensory room (separate room)
  

When we do small group work, the groups are either in the sensory room, on the carpet, or at one of the tables in the front of the room.  ADL (Activities of daily living) obviously take place in the bathroom, kitchen or laundry area.  Whole group work either takes place at the tables (if there will be writing, using manipulatives, etc.- anything where the students will each be doing their own activity) or on the carpet (when we use the wiimote whiteboard, story time, etc. - anything where we will be working on one activity together as a group).
I am tremendously lucky to have a lot of storage! I also use shelf units as dividers, and then cover the shelves with curtains (I use curtains to cover EVERYTHING, as you can see - out of sight is out of mind and it keeps little hands from getting into everything - also minimizes visual distraction as the curtains are a solid, calming blue). The shelves provide even more storage.
You will also probably notice the light covers.  These are available in different colors, but I kindof have a blue theme going in my room anyway, and I have found blue to be a calming color for most of my kiddos so I go with blue. They tone down the harshness of the flourescent lights but still leave plenty of light for us to see.
The wooden dividers between the individual desks were made by my dad, as were the footstools on some of the chairs that you see and the stairs in the entry "hallway".
The next few posts will be about room setup, and I'll go into more detail about some of the areas and things that you see in the video.