A project to redesign an elementary school classroom was undertaken by 14 architecture students at the University of Buffalo (New York). Six basic steps are listed which any class can take to make its living space better meet its needs. (KC)

Article offers concrete suggestions for maintaining order in the classroom. (RW)

Article described how a piece of appropriate music can change a group's mood thereby creating a better environment for learning. (Author/RK)

Ways that teachers can prepare themselves for a class with a mainstreamed disabled student are described, including obtaining information about the specific disability, visiting the child and parents at home, reflecting upon personal attitudes about disabilities, setting up for a wheelchair user, working with visually- or hearing-impaired…

The author defines psychic ability and suggests ways that teachers can recognize it. (KC)

Lists and describes varieties of plants which survive drying out, cooling down, heating up, and being brushed against and touched too often, such as might occur in any classroom. Also lists some edible plants. (RH)

Provides suggestions on how to turn the classroom into an all-green growing center and how to harvest some good learning at the same time. (Editor/RK)

Nine elementary teachers explain how they design their classrooms to match and support their instructional styles. The teachers focus on whole language programs, student portfolios, science activity set-ups, technology transformation, learning center strategies, and space utilization. (SM)

Presents tips to help teachers best use their preparation time before school opens. Suggestions include making multiple student lists; designing classroom desk arrangements; reviewing cumulative records; adding desktop names and numbers; checking texts; posting correctable schedules; decorating only one bulletin board; creating box-trays for…

Features displays and bulletin boards to help elementary teachers build support from home by providing parents with glimpses of daily school life. Suggestions include a photo display of students in action, a class time line, and a riddle tree for parents to fill in with tricky riddles. (SM)

Strategies to help students transition to a new school year include emphasizing that everyone is in it together, discussing everyone's progress, visiting next year's classrooms, meeting students individually, discussing change, maintaining an open-door policy, reviewing the year's plan book, making memory books, and planning to visit old teachers.…

Several ways teachers can nurture elementary learners include helping students become responsible, validating feelings and opinions, helping students strive for their own excellence, guiding behavior through questions and suggestions, reducing rivalries, and tuning in to children's needs, interests, and abilities. (SM)

Presents a list of affordable decorating suggestions for elementary classrooms, including: a reading tepee where students can read quietly; bouquets of construction paper flowers with students' pictures in them; an art center that displays posters of paintings by famous artists; colorful curtains created with bulletin board paper; and a secret…

Maintaining a high "synergy" classroom, when the total effect of the people in an environment seems to be greater than the sum of the effort of the individuals, requires a commitment to a cooperative learning environment and hard work. Here are some learning activities designed to provide students with "synergy" all year long. (Author/RK)

Presents science activities to help elementary children learn about water resources and home water conservation. A reproducible worksheet is included. (SJL)