In your first few years as an elementary school teacher, it can be difficult to find your footing and establish exactly who you are as a teacher. A big part of your teaching identity comes from how you run and decorate your classroom, so here are two classroom aspects that you should consider.

1. Educational Toys

When teaching children in their first few years of school, it is important to remember that they can become easily distracted, so you will need to have several toys to occupy everyone in the classroom at any given moment. However, even playtime can become educational if you have stocked your classroom correctly. A manufacturer of educational manipulatives is a company that produces mathematical toys that help children assign meaning to abstract concepts surrounding numbers. Toys like these manipulatives, along with others, can not only keep children occupied as they play but also keep them learning at all times.

2. Visual Aides

When you walk into any classroom in the United States, you will be bombarded with colorful posters plastering every wall, and nowhere are these posters more important than in elementary classrooms. While higher-level teachers tend to fill their classrooms with motivational quotes and proverbs, elementary teachers have posters that serve a more practical purpose. Sometimes, children need visual reminders of the concepts they are learning, so you can use the number charts, alphabetical characters, and basic vocabulary terms that surround you and your students at all times as teaching tools and as ways to remind the kids of what they have learned so far.

A colorful and vibrant classroom makes for kids who are excited to learn. If children can be engaged with their environment, they will retain information better and be more interested in the subject matter you are presenting. Always keep your classroom interesting and relevant to your students’ education.