There are many elements to consider as you plan for the next school year. You always review critical pieces like standards, curriculum, instructional activities, and testing, but you also think about the classroom space and how to arrange desks, set up bulletin boards, and organize materials.

You can bring these seemingly disconnected components together in a system of seven classroom zones. Using these zones will help you establish routines, save time, and maintain your sanity from the first through the last days of school.

7 Zones for Optimal Classroom Organization

1. Discovery Zone: The discovery zone houses all those items that spark imagination. These include arts and crafts materials, manipulatives, recorders, cameras, music makers, games, puzzles, and fun books and magazines.

Share samples of different projects so that students have a jumping-off point. You can harness all of this creativity by giving the students a central concept to explore. Have them draw what they see, list observations, and write down their questions. Use this data to inform your instructional strategies and design your lesson plans.

7 Essential Classroom Zones

2. News Zone: The news zone will help you manage your classroom calendar, assignments and projects, school-wide events, holidays, upcoming celebrations, weather, temperature, and community and world news. You can also use this space to list your daily learning target, classwork, writing and discussion prompts, and homework. Designate a section for students to share either personal or classroom-related updates.

3. Supplies Zone: The supplies zone is sure to save your sanity. Here is where you provide pencils, pens, highlighters, sharpeners, staplers, scissors, hole punchers, rulers, paper, glue, tape, paperclips, tissue, paper towels, hand sanitizer, a trash can, and general tools.

You can also use this space for reference materials like formula and vocabulary charts, cheat sheets, study guides, manuals, textbooks, clipboards, and spirals or journals. And it can be the hub for turning in classwork or homework, and for storing graded work or portfolios. Provide a lost-and-found box to help with cleanup and reinforce good citizenship.