I've taught first grade for 18 years and have always been in an indoor classroom. I am being moved into a portable building for the first time. It is very old, small, drab, and has very limited in wall space. I have a huge classroom library and a huge collection of teaching texts, not to mention all the math manipulatives and science materials. I'm overwhelmed by the challenge of making my classroom inviting and flexible, with room for the structures and routines that first graders need. I also want to have a makerspace because I went to several trainings about makerspaces and am excited about what I learned. I feel like getting rid of most of the "school furniture" because there is NO ROOM. I'm not sure where to begin. I have round and trapezoid tables that take up too much room, and I'm not sure I will be able to get any rectangular tables. I'm going to ask the custodians to remove the kidney table because it just takes up too much space. Ideas?
