My First Classroom

Welcome to my classroom! My Kindergarten classroom is on the fourth floor of a huge early learning center that holds nearly 800 students between the ages of 3 and 6 (That's right! My building's comprised of all preschoolers and Kindergarteners)! I have a class of 23 at the moment and arranging the furniture was difficult. Many thanks to my parents and a few friends for helping me move and organize!

Firstly, I wanted to make sure my home living center was tucked in a corner so as to prevent any miscommunications about when it is playtime... This has worked wonderfully throughout the year so far and while the set up seems to be popular with the little ones, it is not distracting throughout their work day.

I wanted to make sure that the main focus within the classroom would be the group meeting and learning area. One of my biggest goals with the kiddos is to instill a sense of community involvement and respect for each other by the end of the year. The meeting and whole group learning area is where this skill, and many others, are learned and so must be supportive of that.

Here we are making our Thanksgiving feast together :)

As my room was an odd shape with many unmovable obstacles (the sink, bathroom, closet, sand/water table) it was very challenging to fit a library corner for the little guys. However, it was something I was absolutely adamant about due to my population of students. I definitely wanted to provide them with as many books as possible in an area that felt safe, relaxing, and exciting. I added the palm tree and the leopard to tie in the jungle theme of the classroom and give the children a reading buddy (who often doubles as a relaxation or cuddle buddy for tough days). The book bins are categorized simply using both labels and color codes so that all of my children can sort the books appropriately.

These are my book bins labeled with categories Fantasy and Fiction, Feelings and All About Me, Science, Well-Known Authors, Poems and Songs, Holidays, Cultural, Alphabet Books, Math, and Rhyming Books

My labels are jungle themed to match the classroom and underneath the words (not pictured here) are color labels to show that each category has books labeled with that color on the spine.

They are clearly lovin' the library in this picture (candid! by the way!) Love catching them like this!

My FAVORITE part of my room is my rocking chair. I snagged this beauty from one of my teacher friends during the summer and painted it using some small sample-sized paint containers from Home Depot and a can of black spray paint. This was the simplest and most cost effective way to buy paint for something this size. We first spray painted the chair (minus the rungs on the back) black and then I drew on the chevron design with pencil. Lastly I used about three coats of paint to create the chevron design on the back. For a not-so-artsy teacher- I'm proud! :)