Part of setting up a child-centered classroom is taking the time to organize materials so that children can easily find where they belong.
One way to help keep the classroom organized is to add labels to the baskets. Adding labels with the words clearly printed on them also helps to promote the print-rich environment. Where possible, it is also a good idea to add pictures of the items that are in each basket to your labels – especially in the younger preschool classrooms.
On these shelves, you can see that I attached yellow construction paper squares to the shelves so that the children could see where the baskets belong. In the photo below, I added green construction paper rectangles to help the children identify where to put the green baskets.
I want the children to be able to put toys in baskets and baskets on shelves without having to rely on teacher directives. I am still working on the labeling process in this classroom and although I don’t have all the baskets labeled, the children will at least know which shelf to put each basket back on after playing.
Do you have any tips for labeling or organizing shelves and baskets to share?