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Having a classroom Makerspace is a wonderful opportunity for students to think about the world in new ways, and design creative solutions with simple materials.

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But how do you get started creating one? In this episode, I will be sharing with you my top tips for setting up your classroom Makerspace.

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Whether you’re a STEM teacher, a classroom teacher or library specialist, this episode will give you actionable tips to make the process more manageable and easier for you.

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I am so excited to talk about this topic today; setting up your Makerspace. I have to be honest, this has taken a lot of trial and error in my own classroom to figure out systems and routines that worked for all grade levels, K-5.

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I definitely had moments where during the lesson things weren’t working out, whether it was where I put the supplies, what supplies was being used… (I definitely have some stories to tell you about that!) These are my tips and tricks to help you get started right away so you can have a great foundation in your own classroom and not have to go through all of the mistakes that I made.

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I will be sharing with you three major tips and breaking down each of those tips so that you can have a great Makerspace year.

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The first thing when getting started with your Makerspace is decide on the storage and space, you’re going to house everything.

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Now this is definitely up to you and a case by case situation; all classrooms are different. I was very lucky! Ehen I got my brand new job, I was gifted a brand new classroom. I felt like I had won the lottery! But I know that’s not the case for everybody.

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Some people may prefer having one designated small location where it has all the Makerspace supplies. Some might have materials spread out along the room. Whatever you decide, make it work best for you. Now, we will talk about organization later on in this episode, but really figure out what space do you have to work with.

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You can make it all work, just work with what you got!

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Once you have that figured out, decide if you are going to have a grab-and-go method where students are going to grab their materials from that location or locations and take it back to their seat, or if you are going to pull out bins as needed for the project. There are benefits to both and I actually use both methods for different times of the year.

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I will start off the year K-5 by pulling out bins of specific materials I want the students to be using. My Makerspace is spread out along my classroom, and everything is organized at kid-height. I will have specialty items in the closet for specific projects put away in my cabinet, but the majority of materials are out on the floor.

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Even when you think about when you’re shopping at a store, you might ask, “Do you have anything in the back?”, I usually don’t have a whole lot hiding in my closets. I just don’t have room for extra things!

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Everything is out in my classroom at kid-height. I get started by pulling out the bins so whatever specific materials that students will need for their project, they will grab the items that they’re allowed, or however many I say they can get, and then bring those items back to their seats.

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For younger students, if this is hard for them to remember how many, even if you write it on the board, a simple tip that I have for this. Grab a little sticky note, write a number. Let’s say I want them to have three straws, I’ll write the number three. Then I’ll draw three dots on the sticky note and put the sticky note on the bin.

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This is something I will definitely use even if the students are grabbing things from the locations in my Makerspace it helps so much so that helps build their independence. Then, they’re not relying on me asking, “How many straws can I get?” This simple little trick has just been a great hack in my classroom.

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Another major thing when setting up your Makerspace in your classroom is have designated locations for projects. Now I know this is actually one of the most tricky things in classrooms because some teachers even see all the kids in the whole school the entire week!

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You definitely want to make sure you have space for all of those projects. (Now I do have a tip that will make storage a lot easier later on in this episode; and you’re definitely going to thank me later for this one!)

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Think about where those projects are going to be stored. I like to have on my open shelves, a shelf for each grade level. I just have the grade level written down on an index card with an arrow pointing to the shelf. For smaller supplies, I have a big fabric box from IKEA, the fold- out boxes, I can take apart and pop up whenever I need. Students will place their loose materials in a grocery bag or Ziploc bag with their plan inside. Then, the bags will go in the bucket at the end of class.

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This is really helpful after I teach the mini lesson in our group meeting area, I’ll pull out that bucket I might even pull out all the bags and lay them in a row on the floor to help students get their materials faster. This little trick has just worked for so many different types of Makerspace projects.

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Not only are you setting up those materials, but set up a place where the projects can be stored when the class is done for the day.

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The second major tip when setting up your Makerspace is the organization of your materials. Now keep in mind, I was given a brand new classroom, so some of the furniture is very expensive in there. I will look up other things that are very similar that can help with your organization as well.

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Before I start asking for donations, I like to have my organization system set up first. That way I know how much of things that I can ask for and actually hold on to. This is really important! Instead of asking for supplies, let’s get organized first! When you are organizing all of your bins and drawers and buckets, make sure to label all of your things with pictures and with words. (We talked about this in Episode 1 when you’re creating your systems and routines.)

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This is a great tip and helpful for all learners because that way they know where things go, they might even learn new vocabulary of what things are called. Also as a teacher, you will know where everything goes too! I swear, you will find things on the floor no matter how much you have a class clean up. This will help you know where everything goes in the classroom.

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Even further with your organization, I like to have different categories and locations for those different types of materials. I have a cardboard station where all of the little cardboard pieces will be; thin cardboard that will cut into pieces, cardboard tubes, eggs cartons… anything that is cardboard related will go in one section (and those are labeled, of course!)

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The other station is the paper station. I will have all of the construction paper set up for them, lined paper for planning, scratch paper for building and for planning, and graph paper. All of those can be found together to make it a lot easier for what they’re looking for.

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Finally, are the Makerspace items, the other little fun things that they can build with; the pom poms, popsicle sticks, cups….all of those are found in the same location. In another part of the classroom, I have all of the crayons, glue sticks and scissors.

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Now when I first got started, I thought it was a really good idea to have a big bucket of crayons and place it on each table group for kids to use. The older kids had no problem with this.

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I distinctly remember it was my first week teaching STEM, and I had 1st grade. It had been a while since I had 1st grade and taught them. I taught 1st grade when I was student teaching and then 2nd grade my first couple of years when I was teaching, So it had been a little bit of a while. I hear crying and think, “Oh great… Who’s crying? Why are they crying??”

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I go over to the table and the kids are telling me, “Oh! He’s not sharing the crayons.!” I say, “Well, okay. You need to share the crayons! The crayons are here for everybody!”

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Instead of giving the crayons back, he decided to put the crayons that he had taken in his mouth, chew them up and spit the crayons into the bucket. So nobody could use the crayons at that point…. and then there were more tears.

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I knew I had to change my structure of even just how crayons were in my classroom.

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For some time, I did use little supply boxes. In each box there was a pack of crayons, scissors, glue sticks, 2 pencils and an eraser.

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I also found out quickly the lids kept coming off of those buckets and they weren’t the best quality. The pencils were getting mixed up and the Kindergarteners were really excited that they had scissors in their box. (I don’t think they had scissors in their supply buckets in their classroom always out.)

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So, here has worked best for my crayons, glue sticks and scissors and markers. I have them in one area of the classroom. These actually get used more than my Makerspace. I have the crayons in little metal tins with a little handle and buckets can go on each table. This is really great when students are helping pass out supplies, they can carry these buckets. Or if I’m passing them out really quick in between transitions, this has worked great. Two students can share one bucket which is way better than a giant bucket in the middle of the table.

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Then I have an another container for the glue sticks and the scissors. Sometimes I might only need crayons for a Makerspace activity or for something else, students might only want crayons.

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Now it’s also helpful having the scissors and glue sticks separate because the younger students love playing with the scissors and you don’t want anybody accidentally cutting their hair. (Not saying that ever happened to me! Wink, wink.)

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Markers are in little drawers that are organized by color. If students want to use markers for a project, they can go grab the colors that they need. On each of the tables in the classroom, I keep this out year round, are metal buckets with two big erasers and sharpened pencils for all the kids to use whenever they want. Those simple materials are really easy to grab whenever needed.

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Finally, when setting up your Makerspace after you have figured out the space, you have everything ready to be organized, you’re ready to collect items. In Episode 3, we talked more about how to get creative when gathering supplies. There’s some tips and tricks to help you be creative when collecting supplies. Also at the end, I talk about a spreadsheet you can download for free, where I inventoried my whole classroom Makerspace supplies included, that will help you get an idea for what you might want to collect for your classroom.

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I did mention you want to create a space where you students can put their projects. This if you don’t get anything else from this episode, this is something I want you to remember; small items make small projects They take less time to build, they take up less storage space, they take up less use of materials.

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On the flip side, big items make big projects, they take longer to build, they make bigger groups, and they use more items to build. Also think about the amount of tape! (You know how I feel about tape!)

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I learned this the hard way. I let students create whatever size project they wanted and I didn’t have room for anything. I ran out of supplies so fast, that I didn’t even have enough for the same classes in one day. When I shifted my mindset to where projects can be smaller, be a prototype and accomplish the same task, it’s okay! It really changed how materials are being used in my classroom.

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When I’m asking for donations, I actually don’t ask for large pieces of cardboard, big milk jugs, water bottles, I don’t have room to store that. They’re awesome to build with, however, in my classroom space, I don’t have room for that. I really aim for smaller items that can easily be stored and I can get a lot of it. Again, I have those smaller projects and I have more room to store them.

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If you’re thinking about a size, what is a good size? Think about a large gallon sized Ziploc bag. I try to aim students, if possible, to create something that could fit in that bag. Now there are some exceptions to some of the projects, but we’re not making ginormous things that have nowhere to go in the classroom.

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Creating a donation letter can be very helpful. Instead of sending a mass email out to families, maybe you could think about sending that donation letter to one grade level a month and you can build connections with those families. Each month could be a different grade level. In turn, if you have a specific project that you are going to do with a grade level, you could send out a donation letter to that grade level and very specific items that are specific to that project.

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You probably will get a better response with a smaller group and that way, and then you can really target what you need for the project.

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Also for specialty items, sometimes I’ll just send out a staff email and see if anybody has that at home. For example, I needed bubble wrap for a projec. I sent out an email and the next day, all these people brought in bubble wrap for me.

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I might even ask students in the class during a project for items. I needed more grocery bags to store our supplies. I didn’t have a lot at home (I really try to use reusable bags; not perfect, but I really try!) and we ran out of grocery bags in our classroom. I told the kids, “Hey, whoever brings in grocery bags tomorrow, I’ll give you some Makerspace money that you can spend on your project!”

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(Now if you’re wondering what Makerspace money is, we’re going to talk about that in a future episode. So hold your horses; that is a whole thing that we will dive into.!)

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There’s a lot of creative ways that you can gather materials and donations and easily get things for your classroom.

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I also have a few places for dropping off materials. In my building, I have a box by my classroom and in the front of the building. I would love to add another box in the teacher’s lounge. So just really great high traffic areas where students and families can drop things off that can be used in my room.

15:27
Another way to gather supplies in your classroom is to have students deconstruct. Now some students are obsessed about taking things home, which is awesome. Some kids really don’t care. They loved the building process, but they don’t have a desire to take it home. So after they take a picture, and Flipgrid, Seesaw or any other platform that you’re thinking of, students can take apart their projects and then put away the supplies like be can be reused for other projects. This is a great little in the moment mini lesson to talk about conservation and materials as well.

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On the last day of your projects, while students are deconstructing, just make sure you leave enough time for them to put everything away and clean out those bags. I will also reuse bags when possible if they don’t have any holes or they’re not broken. The more that you can reuse in this space, it’s just really great. You can get more life out of all those materials.

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As a recap, here are the three major things when setting up your Makerspace for success, so that you have a great system that will work all year long.

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First, is to set up that space and storage and where everything is going to go.

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Next, set up an organization system for all those different types of materials.

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Finally, think about ways that you can gather Makerspace donations.

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To make this setup even easier. I made you a Makerspace Bundle for getting started that comes with 180+supply labels with words and pictures, different colors, an editable donation letter and Makerspace Menu with money (which we will talk about in the next episode), anchor charts for specific supplies and getting started lessons.

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This will be linked in the show notes or you can grab it using this direct link: naomimeredith.com/tptmakerspacebundle.

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Thank you so much for joining me today for all of these Makerspace tips. I can’t wait to see you in the next episode!