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Welcome to
Our Classroom!
Welcome to our class,
welcome to our class!
Hello, we're glad you're here,
welcome to our class!
(Farmer in the Dell tune)
From Conscious
Discipline
Our Discovery Area
Our ABC Center
All of our core materials (magnetic letters, tiles, etc.) are stored in
labeled tubs-
games or activities that I introduce as a Literacy Center are usually put
in a labeled
ziploc bag and then stored in a separate tub. This is next to the
Writing Area so materials can be shared if needed.
Our Calendar and News Board
This is our Calendar and News Board. It also houses our Goal Board,
Celebrations Board, and our Time Together Board. Four of our jobs
are Snack Reporter, Weather Reporter, Book Reporter, and "My News"
Reporter. When the kids arrive, the four reporters grab clipboards
and crayons and start preparing their report. They share their work
during our Opening. The Snack Reporter tells us our snack for the
day; the Weather Reporter reports on the weather; the Book Reporter picks
a book to tell us about (we have a "Book Reporter's Picks" book basket
which the book goes in to for the week); and the "My News" Reporter tell
us some personal news or anything else they'd like to share. The
reports go up for the day and then can go home with reporters at the
dismissal.
Our Goal Board
(Part of our Brainsmart Start, adapted from
Conscious Discipline)
We pick a goal for the day depending on the needs of our school family.
Some goals might be, "Walk more quietly back to the classroom after
lunch", "Line up as soon as you hear the signal outside", "Have a better
clean up than the previous day", etc... We use our Celebration
Board to celebrate throughout the day when we notice helpful things
happening around us, get a compliment from another teacher or class, meet
our goal, etc. We choose a different celebration each day-see
Dr.
Jean's site for LOTS of Celebration ideas.
Our Day Together Cards
These are pictorial representations for each part of our day.
Due to limited space, these are strung across our Pretending Area House
divider...
Our Safe Place
From
Conscious
Discipline
(one view)
This shower curtain was originally meant as a backdrop and way to hide my
mess!! The kids have been using it as part of the Safe Place,
pulling it around when they go in (I can still see them to keep them safe
and provide help if needed!)
(another view)
(We have learned how to "S.T.A.R." and "Balloon"-as we learn each
Stressbuster Strategy, the visual is posted in the Safe Place. The
felt figure is an idea borrowed straight from my CD friend Katja-she works
with emotionally challenged PreK children. This was a way for kids
to visually represent where they are angry/hurt/sad and also what they can
do to help themselves. There are small icons for the Stressbuster
Strategies which the kids can manipulate on the body form.)
Inside Our Safe Place Stuff Basket...
Soft toys, a pinwheel, a photo album with family pictures, the star bottle
(it's being repaired!) and a journal for writing/drawing in...
Our Reading Area...
This is one view-we create the tree by going on
a nature walk and exploring trees. We then decide how to make the
paper feel and look like a real tree. We add "accessories" to it
throughout our year. Right now it features fall leaves...
**PICTURE COMING SOON!**
The shelf to the right holds our stuffed reading "buddies", puppets, flannelboard
and story hat props. To the left is our Listening Center materials...
Our Writing Area...
The children's mailboxes are the blue bins.
The shelf holds the standard Writing Center materials-papers, pencils,
markers, crayons, colored pencils, staplers, hole punchers, etc... along with
whiteboards, chalkboards, and all the things to go with them.
Everything we need to be great writers!
Here are all our Author Tubs. I put them in the Writing Area
this year so we could become familiar with popular authors' collections.
You can see our name wall and part of an A-Z list-
we create one for every project or theme we study.
This is the start of a word wall created through interactive writing.
We talked about some words that were important to us to know-ones that we
used a lot in our writing and ones that I was continually asked, "How do I
spell...?"- and wrote them together. We'll add throughout the year
as needed...
Our Math Tubs Area...
These are our Math Tubs with manipulatives. The tubs that aren't
labeled are other materials we use-dice, grid boards, sorting plates, etc.
The children can take the tubs to a table or floor space to work with
them. There are also 2 baskets of full of great math literature.
Our Games/Puzzles
Area...
Our Building Area...
Here are the basics-unit blocks, legos, duplos, bristle blocks, tools
(Dollar Tree has a great selection!), cardboard brick blocks, train set
and other props, construction hats, a clipboard and rectangular
construction pencil for plans and signs, and books about building and
machinery. This area is always full!
Our Creating Area...
This is our Creating Area-these cubbies stretch across the whole back of
our room. Each holds art materials and paper is stored on top.
The easel is to the left but I like to pull it right outside our room to
use-space is so limited! Above the color paper trays is our year
long photo album-each month we add snapshots of our time together!
To the left is a spot saved for a cooperative mural or storyboard.
Our Pretending Area...
This is our Pretending Area. We call it that because we can change
it to fit our study.
It's been a castle, barn, cottage in the snow, with many more ideas to
come! Most of our props the kids have put away (picture taken after
clean up) but I want to add more. Materials and props seem to get
more expensive every year while the budget gets cheaper!
Any creative and frugal ideas would be much appreciated!
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