Just some thoughts..

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Just some thoughts..
By Another teacher

Hi Barbara,

Congratulations on your new position! I taught third grade last year and the most children I had was 19. I can't even imagine having 26 as you do.

I would suggest a few things for arranging your room.
I put my students in cooperative learning groups of no more than 5 in each group. At first, you won't really know what level each child may be at academically and behaviorally. As you become more aware, you might want to make adjustments to your groups so that there are children at various levels together. I think it's important for them to work with heterogeneous groups as children can

learn a lot from each other. By having your students in groups you can also offer group incentives (points, tickets) for groups who may put their things away the cleanest, get ready for lunch the quietest, etc. At this age, third graders are really big into competing for group points and/or tickets. They tend to put some pressure on others in their groups to cooperate and get things done so they whole group can get points.

Also, my students really enjoyed having a reading center. Maybe choose a corner spot somewhere in your room and place some pillows near it. Have a variety of books for students to look at during free time or when they finish work early.

I also found it beneficial to have an extra student's desk near my own for times when certain children might be having trouble working independently either behaviorally or otherwise.

I had a rolling cart that I put extra supplies on, as well. I put extra notebook paper, writing paper, and pencils. Rather than students coming to me and asking for supplies, they knew to go to the supply center to get what they needed.

I didn't have a lot of room this year, so I didn't get to set up centers in the room. If I would have, I think I'd have had a writing center, math center, language arts center, and science center. Perhaps if you have room, you could set up small tables for each of these types of centers. If you have a reading table, you could work with a group of kids as they read orally to you, and the other children can be working independently in the other centers. There are resources at teacher's supply stores that give some fast, easy suggestions for creating centers for the classroom. While it may seem overwhelming at first, you won't have to have it totally ready for the first day of school. You could start centers about a month after school begins (and you've talked about the rules and how to effectively work in centers).

Depending on how many manipulatives you have or the school provides, you might have little bins to put them in a central location. Or you could get little shoe boxes and put them there and place them on a bookshelf. I also had a word wall, as well as a birthday wall.

I don't know if I've helped much, but at least I tried. Best of luck to you this year!

Take care.