Every year I set out to do a mock up of every space in my classroom, and this year has been the best ever! It is no secret I am in love with royal blue, yellow and white, so I kept my theme but included this color palette in two specific areas of the classroom:  the morning meeting area, and the guided group area and teaching wall.

Using the power point shape tool I drew my bulletin board that will host our alphabet chartlets and words, words of the week and future word lists.  I also included my scoreboard for whole class behavior management.  Here is a before (inspiration board) and after  (the actual finished board):

Another area of my room that is so important is the guided group area with reading strategies and word walls.  Here is the finished product which looks very much like the inspiration board I created during the planning stage! (pardon the mess, still getting my room ready)

I also use shapes to create a mock up of my room.  Shapes can be moved around easily after adding them to the slide.  Here is one from last year.

Seeing a design board can make planning more efficient.  It is important to have noisy centers away from your quiet centers, messy centers away from electronics and other items you do not want disturbed.  I hope this has inspired you to create a virtual set of images that will soon become a real classoom.