The 'Hygge Your Classroom' Series - Part 2

Hygge Your Classroom

Written by - Shabnam @miss.d.prepteacher

Welcome to the second part of the Hygge Your Classroom series. In this part, I will be sharing three key steps to make your classroom feel like a home. Creating Hygge is all about atmosphere and experience rather than ‘the stuff’. Through small, personalised approaches to simple things, you can transform your learning space into a cocoon of comfort for your little ones. A space they’ll associate with safety, comfort, love and true belonging. One extra advantage about this approach? It is a real time save for teachers! What is there not to love?!

1. We Are Family! (....are you singing with me? )

It’s important to establish the family feel in the very early stages of your learning environment. The family feel should be visible as soon as you walk into the classroom, just as it would be if you walked into someone’s home. It is crucial however, for this vibe to be established and created by the children. It cannot be pre-designed. Walking into a ready-made space doesn’t leave much room for personalisation or growth. For a genuine family feel, your space needs to naturally evolve with the children and compliment how they adapt to it.  The great news? This is a brilliant time saver in those precious summer holidays! Step awaaaay from the ready made display packs and reams of laminating! As beautiful as they look, they will not make your classroom feel like home for your little ones. The space is theirs. They own it. Let them make their mark and arrange it in ways that make it meaningful to them. ‘How?’ I hear you gasp! Yes, the prospect of letting children loose with displays is likely to cause a shudder, but there are a few tricks to guide the process. I like to keep my display boards backed in hessian, perhaps with a few washing lines with pegs, or neutral frames ready and waiting. I ask the children to create their own titles and captions, and display their work in a scrapbook approach that really captures their journey. Keeping displays at their height will encourage the children to add to displays themselves, which in turn gives them genuine purpose and meaning. I also like to have a little space close to my desk for my own family photos, and some of my favourite school moments that I’ve captured throughout my journey.  Adding little touches like this invites your children to ask questions about you, and inspires them to open up and share their identities with you too.

2. ID Please!

It is so important that your little ones feel part of their learning environment. Finding their identity and place in their setting plays a crucial role in their learning. A hygge classroom is a wonderful place for this to blossom. Raise your hand if you sit for hours trawling through websites and online teacher stores to find ‘the perfect’ label design for trays, book and pegs? Keep it there if you do this every summer to try and make your space ‘different’ from last year? I thought so! Well, here’s the great thing... every year is different because every class is different. Let the children create these resources, and the work has been done for you! Every year I invite my children to create their own tray, peg, locker and book labels. Working on a simple bordered template, they design a name label in their own style and I duplicate enough for wherever it’s needed. They love this activity and take real pride in it! It’s a lovely one for those first days back when they’re trying to find their place in their new classroom. Labelling their pegs and trays is a real ‘I’ve arrived!’ moment. Let them feel it for themselves.

3. Stick it on the Fridge!

Families should stick together like glue. Through the highs, the lows, the ebbs and the flows they are there for one another. They will clap you when you rise and catch you when you fall. Your classroom should visually celebrate all of these personal family moments. Just like that ‘stick it on the fridge’ badge of honour, try to create spaces dedicated to personal milestones and moments that the children have made. I love building these walls with the children and sharing their latest news. Worry jars, affirmation cards, emotional check-ins and the like, are all wonderful ways to create a sense of family togetherness. The key is in allowing your little ones to build these details so that it is true to who they are as one family. There are many examples of this on my instagram page over @miss.d.prepteacher Pop over and take a peek! I’d love to hear from you. 

Thank you so much for tuning into the second part of this series. I really hope it has inspired you to try some new tips and tricks in your classroom set up. Enjoy all of that time you’re about to save! In the third and final part of this series, I will be sharing some tips on how to add those cosy, finishing touches to your hygge classroom. Until then, keep cosy and carry on.  Note from the editor: Are you loving this series as much as me?! I am 100% with you Shabnam on not overprepping in summer, enjoy your time off and let the space evolve as you bond with your new class. I was guilty of being in all summer during my NQT year but now I back the boards with hessian (or not if they have been done already, another amazing plus of hessian it lasts for ages) and then I let the space develop as my new class settle filling it with their drawings/paintings and things that make the classroom ours not mine! I absolutley love this series from Shabnam and cannot wait to read the next one! If you haven't already you HAVE to check out her Instagram! I am already formulating an action plan to get a tree into my room...