Sunday, December 8, 2013

a december classroom tour.

As we are two short weeks away from the conclusion of the fall semester, I thought now would be the completely logical time to give y'all the grand tour of my, now, not-so-new preschool classroom! I'm just going to give y'all the brief overview today, then I will be back to give you more specific looks at certain areas of the room to show y'all some tips and tricks I've discovered for the wee ones.

Let's get started! Here is our classroom door...

...with our daily schedule and weekly lesson plan posted!

Each morning, the kids "sign-in" for the day by placing their picture on the schoolhouse - this not gives the kids' ownership over their own attendance, but it also gives them ample opportunity to see their name in print! Above our sign-in board, I have door hangers that detail all of the places we might be throughout the day (playground, chapel, music, etc.). These are posted on our classroom door any time we leave the room.

For my 2 year olds, we have cubbies in the room where we store the little ones' diaper bags, lunch boxes, etc. so we aren't constantly running out into the hallway to grab things. The kids are responsible for finding their cubby each morning and placing their bags, lunches, and lovies inside! More name recognition practice!

Here's our helper chart for both ages:

The largest bulletin board features the kids' birthdays, the alphabet, and a place to display the two year olds' work:

The kids LOVE finding their birthday cake!

Our calendar board is super simple and streamlined - we don't want those baby eyes getting distracted!

As for centers, we have the Writing/Cutting Center:

The Home Center:

The Blocks and Car Centers:

And then, a shelf of wooden blocks, Legos, connectors, shape and color games, etc.

All of that put together...

As for my storage space, I am SO lucky to have tons of drawer and cabinet space!

And since there are two teachers trying to work in this space, I kind of went on label overload (shocking) so that we wouldn't have to constantly ask each other, "Where's the....?". I labeled where each type of game belongs...

...what is stored in each drawer...

...and where all of the various paint supplies are stored. Overkill? Yes. A more streamlined day? Absolutely.

And remember all of that sorting I did over the summer with the year's curriculum? Those monthly curriculum binders made the jump to the counter for easier access alongside our tubs for storing items to be filed, copied, and used throughout the week:

So, there you have it! Looks a little different then my class of firsties, but I love every inch of it...even more when it's full of wobbly toddlers and preschoolers!

Anyone else care to share their classroom now that we're almost halfway through the year? :)

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