"School seems like a frightening place, when you read about all the safety measures kids will have to adhere to this year.

Thankfully, there are educators, like Jennifer Birch Pierson, a Kindergarten teacher from Texas, who are making lemonade from some very sour lemons and making their classrooms as welcoming and comforting as possible for our littlest learners.

Check out how she set up her classroom desks to look like a bunch of trucks on the road. She even makes the required desk shields look like windshields.

Those students who enter her classroom may have a tough time, but clearly they are in the hands of a caring teacher, and that's something all parents can be grateful for.

Thank you to the teachers, who, like Ms. Pierson, are doing all they can and more to make our kids feel safe and happy."

"Even with all that’s going on around us, I’m still excited about the beginning of a new school year like I have for the last 12 years."

This space feels happy. After measuring and cleaning and decorating and measuring and taping and hanging and organizing and...did I say measuring? This home-sweet-classroom feels happy and worth every bit of work put in this week. I hope my students feel happy when they walk in here in a few soon. I will be sharing more of the details but for now I’m so excited that the bulk of the work is done

Sooooo with no shared supplies this year (which isn’t my preference anyway)... I found these lap desks/trays at Michaels a couple weeks ago ON SALE! With the idea of spreading the students out as much as possible, I will have a few kiddos that will sit on the green chairs (2nd picture) with the lap desk at the carpet. The rest of my kiddos will be at a desk/table with the trays under their seats to hold all the things! (3rd & 4th pic) I actually used these last year and LOVED them!! AND none of them broke They are stackable paper trays from Amazon that I zip tied to the bottom of their chair. Here’s to a very weird classroom set up 

Not exactly what I would choose for my students, but the best I can give them with our current limitations.
Making kids sit at their desk all day goes against everything I believe about kids learning, so I knew I’d have to get creative this year.
I taped 4x5 boxes for each kid to call their own. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’ll give them space to sit, stand, or lay while also following guidelines!
I’ve also gotten the okay to assign pillows, carpet squares or stuffed animals to each kid to keep as their own for the school year!
I always knew my inability to get rid of pillow pets would come in handy some day