If you are a teacher mom, you know the struggle. The struggle is real when it comes to figuring out how to keep your kids busy during classroom setup. To be clear, I’m not talking about students. I’m talking about your own kiddos that you claim as yours – for better or for worse. Sure, they want to help. (Well, some of them do anyway.) But their “help” is often not help at all, right? Only you know the exact way you want things done.

After six summers of trial and error, I have finally figured out the best solution of all – don’t bring them with you. Haha! Not always possible though, is it?

I have come up with ten ideas (one is a no-brainer that is almost too obvious to even mention) to keep your kids busy during classroom setup. Some of the ideas involve a little planning and others can be done on the fly. People outside of the teaching profession have no idea how much work is involved in classroom setup for a new year – especially if you move rooms or change schools. It’s so much more than decorating and arranging desks. All the little things like labeling turn-in trays, brainstorming a “missing work” station, organizing and labeling books, setting up the technology, sorting manipulatives, etc., eat up so much time!

Most of my classroom setup ideas would be best for preschoolers through elementary-aged kids. For babies and toddlers, well, may the force be with you!

10 Ideas for Keeping Your Kids Busy During Classroom Setup

1. Bring sheets and let them build forts with the tables and chairs.  Obviously, this one is best left for the time when you just need to do desk work or planning as the center of your room will likely be a disaster. Just think of all the forts that could be made with the tables and chairs in your classroom! Look for any cardboard boxes lying around – which there may very well be with teachers moving/changing classrooms. The kiddos can add those to their building supplies. I tried to look up some fun resources for you on building forts. I didn’t find anything overly helpful, but I did stumble across this awesome video of a college student building forts in the university library. You are welcome.
2. Have them sharpen pencils and sort colored pencils. Little kids love to sort things – by color, by shape, by size, you name it. If your art or craft supplies have gotten into a mess from the previous year’s use, your helper(s) can help you get them back on track. If the kids are old enough, they can also help sharpen pencils and weed out bad pencils from your collection. 
3. Set them up with Clorox cleaning wipes and send them on a cleaning spree. If they are old enough, set it up like a relay race with an optional little prize at the end. This one is a maybe, depending on the child. Some kids love to help clean things. Others don’t. But if you think yours might like to help, this one is worth a try. My girls, especially my three-year-old, love to help wipe down my room with Clorox wipes. They even hit the walls! 
4. Keep a basket filled with special coloring books, colors, markers, flashcards, blocks, and games that they are only allowed to use when in your classroom. My girls think the things in the special basket I keep for them in my classroom are actually things for my real students. This makes the items all the more appealing since they think they are getting special privileges. 
5. Keep them busy with some simple and no-prep STEM activities using the school supplies in your classroom.
   1. Paperclip Chain: One year, a fellow teacher had her two elementary-aged kids with her. The boys had used several boxes of paper clips from her classroom to make a paper clip chain that was probably 20 feet long. They challenged themselves to use every paper clip they could find, and they stayed busy with this for hours. If you have multiple kids, they could even do a paperclip relay race, to see who can build the longest chain in a set amount of time.
   2. Paper Strength Challenge: Using the copy paper in your recycle bin or in your room, your kids can put this STEM challenge to the test. No prep necessary.
   3. Paper Chain Challenge: This free resource on Teachers Pay Teachers might just bide you some time if your kiddos like a good challenge. Again, you just need paper and tape.
6. Bring a variety of snacks and keep kids on a snack schedule “if they help” you and keep their chaos to themselves. Yes, I do mean bribery. Hey, it works! Even small kids can help you with things like bulletin boards by simply offering an extra set of hands to hold things up while you staple.   
7. Bring popcorn, blankets and a new movie or two and let the kids watch a movie on your big projector screen. Little ones will especially enjoy this as watching movies on big projectors is probably somewhat new to them. If your teacher’s lounge (or classroom, if you are that lucky) has a microwave, bring a big bowl and a bag of microwavable popcorn. Spread out some blankets or use a comfy rug from your classroom. The kids will have a different kind of movie experience than they are used to at home.  
8. Set them up with a paper airplane station. If you are lucky, you may stumble upon a recycle bin with papers begging for a paper airplane challenge. Any wide open space (such as the hallway right outside your door?) will work. The kids can mark the places on the floor where their planes land with a bit of painter’s tape or masking tape. They can challenge themselves to continue trying to fly further than their last mark. You can find great video tutorials on You Tube. This site offers instructions and short videos for making 50 different types of paper airplanes. I can picture some kids staying busy for hours with this site.
9. Set up a fancy schmancy, quiet reading or playing area. Bring a new stack of library books you think your kiddo will enjoy. Throw down one of your classroom rugs and maybe a pillow or two. Or let them choose books themselves from your classroom library if they are old enough to read that particular level. If your kiddo is a bookworm, you might get yourself a good bit of peace and quiet. 

And now for my over-achieving final idea for how to keep your kids busy during classroom setup:

10. When all else fails, whip out the iPad. Womp, womp, womp. What can I say? Suggesting you let your kids use an iPad so you   can get some things done during classroom setup is about like suggesting you keep toilet paper in your bathroom. It’s the obvious (and probably first) choice for many people. We have banished the iPads in our home, only allowing them for long-distance car travel  or an away-from-home activity that requires serious wait time. Our kids were becoming monsters every time they had free time on the iPad. Eemoving the iPad from daily use was one of the best parenting decisions we have made. But…desperate times call for desperate measures. This would be the perfect time to add some new educational or art apps. I would suggest Thinkrolls,  Where’s My Water, Cut the Rope, Pancake Tower, Drawing Pad, Toca Hair Salon 2 or Salad Bar . These are apps which will allow logic and creativity.

You just never know what other random things will occupy your child while you try to set up your classroom. My girls spent an hour punching holes in their drawing papers with my three-hole punch and then clipping those papers into a three-ring binder. An hour! It was pure joy for them. And once I decided they were not going to harm themselves with the punch or pinch themselves in the binder, it was an hour of pure joy for me, too.

And then there was my hat collection which kept them busy.

A classroom is a place of discovery for little kids. They are encountering so many things that are new to them. Let them explore a bit as long as they don’t destroy anything during your classroom setup! 

What have I missed? What are some of your ideas to keep your kids busy during classroom setup? Be sure to check out my latest classroom redo!