Revamp Your ECE Classroom Space: Transforming Classrooms with Creative Hacks
Anisha Grossett • March 18, 2024
One of the best things you can do to keep your classroom children engaged, curious, and stimulated is to change your layout, add different textures, or utilize window space and ceiling areas.
Redesigning should be your friend, not something scary!
Adding wall art, decor, and organic materials should never be overlooked. This is a classroom, yes, but it is also your home away from home. Let's make it beautiful and functional together with these classroom hacks.
The first and easiest thing I always recommend
for any classroom is bringing in live plants. Artificial plants can offer some benefits, but the advantages of live plants outweigh the cons of nurturing them. Plants offer stress-reducing and calming properties that can help with mental ailments. They also improve the air quality around you, which is a great hack for fresher air when your classroom windows don’t open. Plus, it's fun to have the children water and garden with you—a hack for children is to cut a paper plate on one side into the middle and place it around the plant on top of the soil, acting as a barrier. This will keep any unwanted hands out of the soil!
The next recommendation
I would make is to get some wall decor! This is helpful for you as the educator, creating a second home for the children and for someone who enjoys both functional and unique art. The best thing you can do for your classroom is to get some stuff on the walls, using macrame hangers for your plants, stuffed animals, or other items. Have some natural materials on your bulletin boards like burlap, fabric pieces, or even faux fur or plants as borders. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why this is even a recommendation, let alone a top recommendation. That's because these are also functional—they help reduce sound in the classroom. Reducing classroom sounds helps children develop speech and even reduces some unwanted behaviours.
The last recommendation
I can give—aside from learning more about your specific room's needs and interests—is to add lights and covers to the lights. Classrooms can go from very energetic to winding down for nap time by simply changing the lights from white/yellow to blue. Great ways to incorporate this are through cost-effective LED light strips, fairy lights, and even desk lamps with blue light bulbs. We forget as adults that light is a visual cue for us. The light tells us when it's bedtime, or for those of us from the 80s and 90s when to get home. The light also tells us when to wake up. Why can’t it tell us when to feel calm or when to feel kindness? To further that, studies have also shown light can be used as therapy to heal the body. Utilizing lights and colours to your classroom's needs is a home run all around; it's good for the soul, the body, and the mind!
Redesigning your room shouldn’t cost hundreds of dollars. These three incredible hacks should cost under $20 each, or you can shop around for a bargain on local marketplaces to stretch your dollar.
These are so simple but often missed. Once you start integrating any one of these into your classroom, you’ll notice a difference in the children, how you show up to educate the little ones, and how many parents and peers want to incorporate your ideas into their spaces.
As summer winds down and a new program year approaches, many early childhood educators find themselves making lists, reorganizing materials, labeling bins, and preparing for a new group of students. Don’t get me wrong, all these things are important. They create an environment where children can thrive. But before your students come through the door, it’s worth checking in with yourself. How are you preparing yourself? Remember, it’s a new program year for you too. Yes, preparing the classroom space and materials are important, but you’re just as important to your students’ learning. The relationships we build, the way we respond, and the curiosity we bring shape children’s experience every day. So, let’s invest time in preparing our mindset, intentions and well-being. Reflect Before You Reset: Every new year offers a fresh opportunity to reflect on the previous one. Ask yourself: What brought me the most joy last year? What challenges did I face? What would I like to do differently? Which routines supported children well, and which could be improved? How did I grow as an educator? Reflection isn’t about dwelling on mistakes. It’s about recognizing what you’ve learning and carrying those lessons forward. Small adjustments can still have a big impact. Reconnect with Your “Why” When schedules become busy and paperwork piles up, it’s easy to slip into simply getting through each day. Before the pace picks up, take a moment to reconnect with the reason you chose this profession. This is a grounding exercise and there’s a reason we talk about it often. Perhaps it’s witnessing a child’s excitement when they solve a problem, or it’s supporting families through important milestones, or creating a place where every child feels they belong. Keeping your purpose at the forefront can help guide decisions through the year and provide perspective during more challenging moments. Prepare for Relationships, Not Just Routines The children in your care won’t remember perfectly organized shelves, but they will remember how they felt in your care. The first few weeks are about much more than learning routines. They’re about building trust. So, let’s be intentional. After all, relationships are the foundation of any learning environment. Think about how you will: Welcome families into your program Help children feel safe and connected Create opportunities for every child to experience success Leave Space for Flexibility It’s natural to want to be organized and prepared before the first day. But don’t forget that some of the most meaningful learning experiences happen when we follow children’s curiosity rather than our own agenda. A well-prepared educator is also a flexible educator. Leave room in your plans for unexpected discoveries, spontaneous conversations, and the interests children bring with them. These moments often become the most memorable because you’ve followed the children’s lead. Check In with Yourself The beginning of a new year or having a new group of students often comes with excitement – but it can also bring pressure. As you care for the children, remember to care for yourself. Are you setting realistic expectations? Do you need to have more recovery time the first few weeks of a new routine? What boundaries will help you maintain balance? Reflection on what helps support your personal well-being. Make a list of people you can turn to when you need support, either in the classroom or out of it. Embrace a Learning Mindset Children aren’t the only learners in the classroom. Every new group of students, every family, and every experience is an opportunity for growth professionally. Rather than striving for perfection or the appearance of perfection, make curiosity the priority. A Fresh Start for Everyone The carefully prepared learning environment is important but so is your warmth, your responsiveness, your patience and your willingness to learn alongside the children in your care. This is what truly creates a place where children can thrive. So, before you organize one more bin in the art cabinet or make another label, take a moment to prepare the most important part of your classroom – you. The year ahead won’t be perfect, and it doesn’t need to be. It simply needs an educator who is reflective, present and ready to build meaningful relationships one day, one child, one family at a time. Here’s to a year filled with curiosity, connection, growth and joy – for both the children in your care and for you. We’ll be rooting for you!
As Early Childhood Educators, we enter our classrooms with hearts full of good intentions. We want every child to feel safe, valued, respected, and included. And that matters. Good intentions are often what bring us to this profession. But in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work, there is an important truth we must embrace: Good intentions do not always lead to positive impact. This does not mean our intentions don't matter. They absolutely do! The research on implicit bias reminds us that even well-intentioned educators can unknowingly make decisions influenced by unconscious assumptions rather than their conscious values. In other words, we can genuinely care about children and families while still unintentionally causing harm (Safir, 2016; Staats, 2015). The goal isn't perfection. The goal is critical reflection. To truly support the children, families, and communities in our care, we must move beyond simply meaning well and intentionally pair our good intentions with reflection, awareness, presence, and action. Understanding Unintentional Harm Most moments of unintentional harm are not rooted in malice. They are often rooted in habit, assumptions, tradition, or simply not knowing what we don't know. Unintentional harm can show up in many ways. Below are three examples educators may encounter in their everyday practice. The definitions are informed by the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion's (CCDI) Glossary of DEIA Terms , an excellent resource for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of inclusive language and practice.