Classroom Set-up

Finally!!  I have set up my room for the first day.  I managed to include all of the centres which I found important.  I especially tried to keep the store bought materials to a minimum.  I plan to fill the walls with student made work.  I also hope to incorporate some Reggio-Emilia aspects as well (natural materials and inquiry-based learning).  

Welcome to Mrs. Hennessey and Mrs. Switzer's Classroom!!

Below, is the house centre.

Our student inquiry area.

Our crafting/writing centre.

The painting table is to the right.

Our computer/light table centre.

Light Table (it's homemade, from Pinterest!)

Here it is lit up; it works!!

Building/Sand Table area.

Our sand table is ready for the first week.

The water table area.

The library corner (still under construction.  I'm looking for cozy additions to add).

My daughter organized my books into themes in the storage area.  We only put 4 bins in our library centre.  We organized and grouped by colour to make it easy for students to return the books to their bins by colour.

Our thematic book display.

Now we are ready for the children!!  We are so excited to learn along with our students.  Stay tuned for our next post: "I can!!!" - our Tin Can inquiry coming soon.

The Journey Begins...

Hello There!  Welcome to my first blog.  I am beginning a new Full Day Learning Kindergarten class in September and thought I'd give blogging a try.

I finished my Grade 1/2 assignment in June and had lots of cleaning to do in my new classroom.  I am posting my "before" pictures to show the work I had to do to clean it up and get it ready for the end of August when I will go in and set-up.  I certainly had my work cut out for me and wanted to cry and go screaming for the "hills" but with my trusty helpers (My ECE, an E.A., a Child and Youth worker and my children), we got it cleaned out. I have a storage cupboard which I cleaned out. I put all of the stuff on the floor of the class and we sifted through it.

I filled an entire garbage bin in the back of the school by myself!! It took the better part of the week to get it done but we did it!

Stay tuned for the "after" pictures which will be posted during the last week of August when we embark on our classroom set-up!!