4th Grade Classroom Setup – Teacher Spotlight- Emily Kruse

Classroom Decor Inspiration, Decor Tips and Tricks

Are you looking for ideas for setting up your 4th grade classroom? Check out how Emily Kruse has set up her room!

And not only that, but she has shared so many of her thoughts, tips, & tricks to help other teachers with their own classroom setup.

Much of the posters on the walls and labels around her room can be found in the Modern Calm Colors bundle in my shop!

Read on to see how Emily has used her calming classroom theme in her 4th grade classroom setup!

This image shows a wide display of a classroom with a whiteboard and a teacher's desk near the front. There are cursive alphabet posters on the wall above the whiteboard, with a number line & place value posters underneath the whiteboard. The words on the image read "4th Grade Classroom Setup Teacher Spotlight - Emily Kruse".

Modern Calm Colors Overall Thoughts

When I asked Emily if she would be willing to share her 4th grade classroom setup with all of you, she enthusiastically agreed!

This image shows a wide display of a classroom. The desks are arranged in pods with supply caddies on top of each desk. You can see the whiteboard and displays hanging on the walls.

Here are Emily’s thoughts:

“This bundle was really a one-stop-shop for me. Since I started teaching six years ago, my goal was always to create a calm, welcoming, and helpful place for my students. The Modern Calm Colors bundle has significantly contributed to that goal of mine. Shayna has included SO many important aspects of classroom decor, plus everything is completely editable so if I need to change things to fit my needs, I can. I love that anything I need for my room can be created with this one bundle.”

Classroom Set-Up Tips & Tricks

Let’s dig into some specific pieces of Emily’s classroom decor & learn more about how she set it all up.

Banners

Emily created beautiful, custom banners to make her classroom more personalized.

This image shows a close-up of the teacher's desk area. There is a banner reading "Mrs Kruse" hanging on the front of the desk in a modern calm color scheme.

This image shows a close-up of the area in the classroom by the door. On the top of the door is a banner reading "Hello!" in a calm color scheme. There is also a calendar hanging by the door reading "July" and a small whiteboard with classroom jobs.

The banner across her desk reads “Mrs. Kruse”.

And the banner over the door reads “Hello” to greet the students each morning. 😊

Emily created both of these banners using the editable banners file included in this decor bundle.

Also, I LOVE the little collection of resources right by the door for easy access.

Combining the calendar, job board, & bathroom hand signal poster in this little area is perfect!

Students have reminders of their jobs, the date, & how to ask to use the bathroom at their fingertips!

Student Work Display

Emily created this amazing display where she can place student work throughout the year.

This image shows a display reading "Your best is enough". The display has clipboards with papers reading "Amazing Work coming soon" on each one. The papers are different colors.

To create this display, Emily used the “Vertical Editable Pages” that were included in the bundle. 😊

This allowed her to keep the colors exactly the same as the rest of her decor pieces.

Watch her set up this display in her reel on Instagram!

This image shows a section of a classroom with a whiteboard, a display reading "Your best is enough", and a cozy reading area. All of the decorations in the 4th grade classroom setup use the modern calm colors theme.

Then, she added this cozy reading corner below this display.

Who wouldn’t want to hang out here and get lost in a book?

Student Job Board

I LOVE how Emily created a job board for her classroom.

It’s pure genius!

The idea of using a smaller, magnetic whiteboard is such a good idea! 😍

This image is a close-up of the Classroom Jobs whiteboard. The small whiteboard has different nametags with different classroom job names listed, such as "Line leader" and "Pencil sharpener". There are also circles with numbers at the bottom of the whiteboard.

To create this, Emily “put magnet tape on the back of the jobs and created circle numbers on Canva (also made magnetic) to represent my students”.

This allows her to easily switch jobs as the school year goes on because all she needs to do is move around the number magnets!

Schedule Time Cards

Here is Emily’s visual classroom schedule display in her classroom (to the right of the amazing work coming soon display).

This image shows a closeup of the reading area with the student work display & a snapshot of the visual calendar displayed on the whiteboard. There are analog & digital clocks with times next to each subject in the schedule. The colors of the cards are the same as the calm colors theme.

As you can see, it is on one side of her magnetic whiteboard.

She has both digital and analog clocks next to each subject or even in her schedule.

Emily said she “wanted my students to see analog clocks as well as the digital time for our daily schedule, so I taped the matching clock to the time before laminating the cards. Then, I put magnet tape on the back of every time and subject card so that I could place them on my whiteboard.”

Adding the digital and analog display of each time is a great way to help students learn both methods!

Labels

Sprinkled throughout Emily’s classroom are labels to keep everything organized!

She used the editable labels included in the modern calm colors bundle to create all of them!

This is a wide view of the classroom showing off the calm color labels used to identify the table groups. The labels are placed on the supply caddies on each table.

These labels identify the supply bins for each table group.

This image shows a close-up of a whiteboard with voice level posters, visual schedule cards, and standards posted. You can also see the number line and place value posters underneath the whiteboard. Everything is decorated in the modern calm colors theme.

If you look closely, you can see the subject labels underneath each posted standard.

Another close look shows the resources she selected are PERFECT for a 4th grade classroom.

The cursive alphabet posters with ASL are a great way to challenge your upper elementary learners.

Place value posters are another great addition to 4th grade classroom setup. These concepts are really tricky for students, so a visual is super helpful.

This image shows a close-up of an affirmation station mirror and a birthday display. Both of these decor items use the modern calm colors theme.

She added the editable labels to the “Our Birthdays” poster to create her birthday display 😍

Also, I love her smaller mirror with the affirmation station labels around it!

This image shows the cabinets in the back of the classroom. On the cabinets are supply labels, computer keyboard shortcut posters, and skip counting posters. All of these items use the calm color scheme.

These cabinet doors have labels to remind students where different supplies are located.

Another part of the bundle Emily used in her classroom is the skip counting posters. Placing these posters on her cabinets make them easy for students to look at while they work on multiplication.

Emily also used the cabinets to display the computer keyboard shortcut posters. As 4th grade students spend more time on the computer learning how to type, these posters are a huge time-saver!

Something she also mentioned that is captured well in her pictures is the fact that the labels are pretty and match the color scheme!

As you add labels into different parts of your classroom there is no clashing with the rest of your classroom decor because everything blends perfectly together.