Five Must Haves for Setting Up a Classroom

WOW! Setting up a classroom is not an easy task! Every single time I move into a new classroom I always think it’ll be easier and easier, but yet it is still very time consuming and lots of hard work! Over time and with a little more experience, I feel that I do have a better grasp on setting up a classroom than I did my first year teaching!

I’m excited to share my top 5 items for setting up a classroom that make it a little easier!

Throughout this post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links. This means I receive a small commission if you purchase something through that link, at no extra cost to you! This helps keep my blog up and running and allows me to fund fun and happy things for you!

I bought one of these my very first year teaching and hands down it is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made! I use it like crazy when I’m setting up a classroom and continue to use it throughout the year! Not having to worry about the length of the cord makes using a hot glue gun so much easier!

This particular one has been great! You can get it on Amazon here!

When you’re setting up a new classroom you spend a ton of time cutting. You have to cut paper, borders, fabric, lamination. I think it’s really important to invest in a pair of quality scissors!

Since I had to cut so much fabric, I brought my sewing scissors to school! I’ve also heard great things about these scissors!

For as long as I can remember, I get so nervous using a regular stapler to create bulletin boards in my classroom. There is just something that makes me nervous about having to open a stapler! When I found this amazing staple gun, it was literally love at first sight! It helped me set up my bulletin boards so much faster than using any other stapler! The only negative part is that it does take smaller staples, but they are worth every penny in my opinion! And, they aren’t that expensive!

You can find the staple gun here and the staples here!

I use king sized flat sheets for all the bulletin boards in my classroom and on my tables to create more storage space! I’ve found that using these sheets are cheaper than using fabric, but hold up so much better than using paper! I love using the sheets to glue onto my tables because it gives me so much more storage! I can fit a lot of stuff under these tables, and nobody knows it’s there!

There is lots of stuff hidden under my kidney table! I love having access to everything, but it doesn’t look messy in my classroom!

In my current classroom, there is a huge wall on in the back! As soon as I saw my classroom for the first time, I knew I wanted to use this for all my anchor charts! Since it was so big, I knew it would cost a fortune with fabric! But, it was much more reasonable with the flat sheets! I had to use about 3 king sized sheets for this particular wall, but I did have some leftover!

Click here for the sheets that I use in my classroom from Amazon!

I used painter’s tape A TON when setting up my classroom! This tape is the best because it’s really sticky, but it’s also very easy to remove! I used this tape to stick up my classroom alphabet and make sure everything was centered before any hot glue touched my wall! I actually ended up having to move the letters a little bit, and I was so happy that I used this tape!

I also used the painters tape to stick my bulletin board quote letters on my board! I don’t like the look of staples on my letters, and hot glue can burn through the paper! The painters tape sticks really well and allows you to move around the letters, as needed!

These tools were so helpful during my classroom set-up. I literally could not have imagined setting up my classroom without one of them! It is not an easy task to set up an entire classroom, so anything that helps make the process easier is a must in my book! For all my favorite classroom supplies, make sure to check out my Amazon storefront!