Preschool Classroom Setup-Walls

So, it is February and I am FINALLY getting my post up from the beginning of the year about our classroom setup. These are some photos of our circle time area wall and our birthday board. I decided to make it real simple this year. We don't even have a calendar, just the interchangable day, month and weather words. Also, I love that our word wall is interactive with velcro, so the children can take the words off when they want. Also, the laminated white posterboard is being used as a dry erase board for making our webs about our topic, lists, etc. When done, I take a photo before erasing it for documentation. It is much better than having chart paper hung all over the room or finding somewhere to store it that I will remember.

Here is a close-up of the word wall.

Here is our birthday board.

Please leave comments about things that are on the walls in your classroom!

Classroom Organization

So, here are some before and after pictures of my classroom.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Circle time and library area with the computer just off to the left so we can show videos at circle time.

The Childrens' Hatch Computer

Our word wall with no words added yet. I love that it takes up much less room than the one we had last year.
These letters were printed from the TpT Store of Love of Teaching.

Writing Area

Sensory Table

Block Area

Dramatic Play Area

Toys and Games

Discovery Area

Art Area

A lot of the room stayed the same, but we just flip-flopped the blocks with toys and games and the circle time with dramatic play.  I love the new setup because it's much easier to show the whole class a video on the internet now and the room just feels more organized. I also love our discovery table. So far, the kids have mostly been flocking to the dramatic play area, although when we get out specific table toys, they tend to like those as well. We'll see how it goes and if we need to make any changes. I also tried to de-clutter as much as possible. Sometimes I feel like that is a losing battle with 2 classes of 17 coming through there each day and 2-3 other adults sometimes using the space as well, but you will never get there if you don't start out that way.

What did you do differently in your classroom setup this year?

First Week Back

Well, I have officially started back to work this week, so I can actually say TGIF! So far, we have had 2.5 days of training, so I have only been in the classroom 1.5 days. But I just wanted to share a couple of things I have made and done. I am also at a different center this year, so there will be plenty to organize and prepare!

This is one that I thought would be easy for the beginning of school because most kids already know this rhyme. The pictures are held on by velcro (or they WILL be as soon as I can get the thing laminated, resource room laminator died). I will probably choose one person to help find the right picture and place it in the correct place.

Helper chart. Although I really love this one, I can't take credit for it. The teachers that were there last year made it, but I wanted to share as it is SOO cute! (Close-ups below)

And.... my favorite area so far. Writing center. I love the little square things on the left, red and green. They are kind of like eye spy bottles with letters hidden amongst the beads!

One last thing I wanted to share is a CD that I have reserved from the library. I want to use song 9 which I heard used over the summer at the library's toddler storytime. It is an action song where the kids put on their glasses and get ready to read the book, but oh no! Is there something scary in there? Quick, shut the book! It's very cute and I think it will be a good transition into storytime.

Tutorial Tuesday: Setting up a Montessori Homeschool Classroom

Hello, this week's tutorial is graciously brought to you by Kerri from Momma of 4 Cutiez. Please stop by there and show her some love by leaving a comment. She has some good resources on Montessori and Autism. Hope you enjoy the tutorial!


Alright, I finally got the shelves up in our new school room downstairs. I still have to go through another laundry basket of "stuff" and put the maps and posters on the wall, but finally have most of it gone through!! So here it is....

OK, so the paint is out of place forgive me, but everything else looks pretty tidy!! :) To the far left is our sensorial shelf. Top shelf includes homemade keys and locks board, chalk boards, measuring cups, and pourers. I would not classify any of these items sensorial, but since we have our practical life shelf in the kitchen I needed a place for these guys to go during school time. The second shelf holds our current sensory bin, (which is the coffee sensory bin) our geometrical solids, (omit the paints hanging out there) our homemade sand drawing tray, and our oceans in a bottle we made with Mamma of Many Blessings. On the bottom shelf I'm holding my trays, smelling bottles, geometrical shapes, and our sound boxes.

The middle shelf is our language shelf. I only have my homemade sandpaper letters here for now. I usually keep my movable alphabet on top, but it's being held hostage by Lil Einstein currently.

Last shelf is our geography shelf. We haven't acquired much geography stuff yet. When I truly am in need of something Mamma of Many Blessings usually has what I need. :) I also believe you are able to  acquire as you go. At least that's what I've been doing and it's been working for me. It's also better on my pocket book to spend a little bit here, and a little bit there. On the top of the geography shelf is our new cultural finds. The next shelf holds our children of the world finger puppets and globe filled with the children of the world wooden dolls. The kids really enjoy these!! We purchased them for fairly cheap at  Oriental Trading Company. The next two shelves hold country flash cards and a map of the world puzzle I got from garage sales.

Our math shelf.

On the very top is our divisions board I got from Amazon and a clock I got at a used curriculum sale. The next shelf holds our division bead materials, base ten cube materials, our golden bead ten bars I made, sand paper letters I made, and more beading material I made also.

On this shelf is our spindle box and more base ten materials. You can never have enough base ten blocks!! You can use them in place of beading material.

On the bottom shelf I keep a basket with all my wooden cards 1-9, 10, 20, 100, 200, 1000, ect. Mamma of Many Blessing's husband so kindly cut these blocks of wood for me and I stenciled them in with the correct colors. Next is a learning puzzle, a basket of unix cubes, (Amazon) and our fractions board pieces (Amazon also).

The shelf on the right will eventually be our Science shelf. I haven't acquired enough Montessori Science material yet for it to be a "Science shelf". Right now it holds our odds and ends, a tornado twister, a microscope, and the lifecycle of a butterfly in a basket. All the rest are non Science related.

In the middle is our A through Z object box. This has little pull outs draws that hold our objects. I took a sticky label, cut it in half, and labeled A, B, C, ect. on the individual drawers. Next to that is our "Nature Table" which is not really holding nature stuff right now so I'm not going to bore you with details of the gardening stuff which it IS holding currently. It does have a cool water fall/rock garden. I originally had this at my peace table until I made a peace basket instead.

All my non Montessori materials on the top 3 shelves. Clear cut here. The next two shelves I put things that the kids can easily reach including polished rocks, basket of musical instruments, papers, crayons, basket of little kid books, and a bucket of sand they can play with.

Classroom Setup Progress

Been back to work for 2 weeks already, but I feel like I've barely been in the classroom with all the trainings and meetings. But here are some of the things I have gotten done in the room:

So this is one of my big goals from last year upon realizing I did not have nearly as many diverse materials in the classroom as I did diverse children. This social studies center is actually new and it came about after being given a pile of atlases and realizing I had no good place to put the globe. In the middle of the table is a local map that I printed that shows the school, the zoo, and the library and some parks.

Music center. Working on my goal of more interactive classroom, I decided to post some questions that will lead to discussion about the types of sounds different instruments make.

One of my passions! The science/discovery area. It is not finished yet, but here are some of the ways I have tried to make it more interactive. I love the title Exploration Station. It is so descriptive and just makes you want to play with and experiment with what's on the table. Cutie, our class pet the hermit crab will soon be on the table. Since the beginning of last year I have had the dream of having so many plants around the window that it looks like a jungle. Not sure if that is ever going to happen, but I do at least want to get a couple plants in here for the kids to water and take care of. Some other ideas for this area are colored sand to mix, slime to play with, nature items such as pine cones, leaves, twigs, rocks,etc. We will be changing it out at least once a week and we also have trays on the shelf across from this table for kids to do individual sensory activities.

Although it's not something I made, I would like to take credit for the idea of the mirror in the middle so kids can see what their face looks like when talking about feelings. I love this idea!

The start of my circle time area. Word wall all in one place together as opposed to all around the classroom like last year. I want to be able to refer to it easier at circle time and it is very close to writing area. Also, you will see no numbers on our calendar. We decided that concept is too advanced for preschool age and that we will just use the pictures which are photo of the school, home, and other things we might be doing on a random day. And you will see some of my target finds.

Being the good little Head Start employee I am, I incorporated one of their buzz words for the year. This is my Kindergarten Readiness bag. Inside you will find small group activities that deal with letters, sight words, word families, letter tiles, etc. Inside the folder is the Kindergarten Readiness screening that the center coordinator will be doing for all the children who will be entering K next year.

So, those are some things I have gotten done. Can't wait to have a full list of names, so I can start on the name cards for writing area and labeling everything!