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?

5 Tips for Introducing Word Wall Words

Ok, so it's only the 3rd week of school and my students are already getting bored with the word wall. So I decided to come up with some more creative ways to introduce the words. We have to have at least 3 words a week which I think is a lot for preschool, but if you keep at least some of your words very basic (especially since we have a lot of dual language learners in our class), then it can be done.

1. Put the word card with picture in a mystery box. You can give hints and try to get the kids to guess the word or just have someone come up and draw one out and say what it is.

Variation: Use the same mystery box, only put real objects or items in that go along with the word.

2. Pass the word around the circle (musical chairs style) until the music stops and whoever is holding it must identify the word (by looking at the picture) and then place it on the word wall. Also, this gives every student a chance to look closely at the picture before putting it on the wall where it may seldom be looked at again by some children.

3. Play the loud/soft game. Have the children repeat the word loudly at first, then keep repeating it while getting quieter until you can no longer hear them. You can also do it with fast/slow or other variations, just make sure not to do it so much that the word ends up getting distorted and they are not really sure of the correct pronunciation.

4. Sing a song. For example: (Tune of: Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush) This is the word we put on the wall, put on the wall, put on the wall. This is the word we put on the wall. The word is ______. 

Another version could be a chant or clapping how many syllables in the word.

5. Choose a child whose name begins with the same letter as the word to put the word on the wall. To make it a little more challenging, say the word emphasizing the beginning sound and ask whose name begins with the same sound? Or if no one's name begins with that letter, whoever thinks of another word that begins with the same letter first gets to put the word up.

Some ideas to keep the children interested in the words on the word wall after they have been put up.

1. Do a search for a certain letter and have the children find it with a pointer.

2. Use magnifying glasses to look closely at the words and say each letter.

3. Give the children a small paper frame (just big enough to fit a letter inside) and have them frame a certain letter.

4. Have a word of the day and whenever anyone is caught saying that word, they must go to the word wall and point to the word and spell it.

5. Bean bag toss using bean bags with letters on them. If you get the bag in, you have to find a word that begins with that letter on the wall or for a variation, pass the bean bag back and forth to a partner and the first person to drop it has to find a word that begins with that letter on the word wall. 

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