I remember being a new teacher and waiting so anxiously to get into my new room! I tried to imagine what it would look like...the center areas, the little tables and chairs, the storage space, etc. How would I arrange my new room? What centers would I have? Would I have enough shelves and tables? Those were just a few of the hundreds of thoughts I had before I started school. I drew my layout on notebook paper late at night when I had new teacher jitters and on napkins as I waited for my food in restaurants. The day had come, and after I saw my classroom, I had to reconfigure my arrangement based on the space, furniture, and other obstacles. I knew I had to have space to put down cots for nap time, I needed a small group table/teacher aide work space, I needed the tables to do double duty for activities and lunch time, I had to work around the built in carpet, cubbies, teacher desk....the list went on and on! My advice is to make a list of necessities and plan those areas first. Sometimes you will have to work around not having enough storage or tables, funky pieces of furniture that have to stay in your room, outlets in goofy places, etc. You will have to get creative! Also, It's perfectly fine to redo your arrangement during the year and switch it up! I've always changed my arrangement at least once a year and I always want something different as a new school year begins. The classroom should be a happy & comforting place for students and teachers as well! During college courses and internships I learned about early childhood room arrangements. The shelves should be low, all materials on open shelves are for the students, everything labeled, plenty of walk space, etc. I took notes as I toured classrooms and poured over those cute teacher blogs! : ) But only from my own teaching experience, I truly learned the importance of classroom space & design. Here are a few of my favorite classroom floor plan arrangements that I've had over the years. We might not have the same furniture or same amount of furniture but I hope it gives you at least a few ideas to work with! Happy planning! I liked this arrangement because there was plenty of room between the centers and tables. I bought the cube shelves from Target. They made a great room divider, held storage, and you could see through them so it made the classroom a light & airy feeling! The large group time carpet was built into the floor so it couldn't be moved. I double duty used it for our whole group lessons & for block play. The art center and easel were conveniently located to the sink for easy clean up. The light table was next to an outlet and book shelves were used as center dividers. I also used some of the backs of bookshelves for felt boards and to display vocabulary. The cabinet next to the door was used as a parent sign-in station and the rug there was used as our safe spot. I liked this arrangement because placing the library center at the entrance of the classroom provided for a homey/living room look as students entered. The safe spot was located closer to the teacher work area tucked into a corner and the pretend center had plenty of space. I also liked having a defined blocks center. Students could leave out special constructions during transition time and return to them later. In this floor plan the safe spot was moved near the cubbies and the light table was moved to the back wall. I traded in a table in the discovery area to allow students to have more workspace. Also, the library area was moved to the middle and made the classroom feel much larger. There was also a book shelf/cabinet placed behind the group time carpet. The cabinet held puzzles and morning tub manipulatives. Here of a few photos of some of my past classroom arrangement ideas! They are a mix of photos and from different years. Enjoy! Parent sign-in station...the back of this cabinet (which actually used to be the pretend center fridge) stored crayon buckets! Pretend center in the corner... Here's another pretend center area where I had it in front of the window... Discovery/science center close to the classroom entrance... Chairs were bought at Ikea and they have remained in great shape! Baskets were bought at garage sales and www.saveoncrafts.com Discovery/science center Here's another discovery area idea in the corner with bookshelf and table... ABC center with use of table, magazine rack, and bookshelf. The shelf on top of the table is an over the sink shelf. I bought it at a garage sale and sometimes use it for storage under the Smartboard! I love items that do double duty! Portable light table on top of Ikea table with magnet board behind. Safe spot and crayon tub storage...parent sign-in station with folder drop off bucket... Built in group time area... (labeled apple baskets awaiting school supplies on Meet the Teacher Night! Get your labels HERE!) Built in cubbies and rectangle table used for breakfast... Rolling blocks station that could be moved to the big carpet for play. Another year, I made a bigger blocks area. I turned over the dress up closet/mirror and utilized it for block play/storage. The rug is from Ikea and I love the mellow colors! Math center table and bookshelf/cabinet... Library area when it was in front of the window. I created extra storage from zip tying Michael's wooden crates together to make a bookcase. I covered an existing felt board with burlap to tie in the neutral colors. The chairs were half price (yay!) from Garden Ridge/At Home store...the rug was bought there too. In this arrangement the library center is near the classroom entrance. It's defined by a rolling book cart and writing station cart. The writing station cart actually used to be the blocks cart, lol. Like I said..I have done a lot of re-planning and rearranging in my teaching career. It's fun when you find new uses for things and they work! I took the wheels off my listening center cart, flipped it over, and put a plastic bin inside...instant sensory station! ABC station: writing center/abc games... this is when I had a whole lot of hot pink leftover from my previous classrooms... I slowly turned over to neutrals and natural textures...it made the classroom feel much more calm, clean, and relaxed... Math center with storage for manipulatives and a table to play the games. I used the back of a cabinet for a math pocket chart game and vocabulary. And last but not least...the art center built by Target cube shelves. I've hope you've enjoyed my little room arrangements tour and I hope you've found some useful ideas for your new or existing classroom! If you have any questions leave them in the comment section below. Happy planning & happy teaching! ~ Christian

Wecome to my Pre-K Cottage! I teach pre-k in a public elementary school in a portable classroom aka cottage. With that being said, ...

the joy of helping children learn and grow

I remember being a new teacher and waiting so anxiously to get into my new room! I tried to imagine what it would look like...the center areas, the little tables and chairs, the storage space, etc. How would I arrange my new room? What centers would I have? Would I have enough shelves and tables? Those were just a few of the hundreds of thoughts I had before I started school. I drew my layout on notebook paper late at night when I had new teacher jitters and on napkins as I waited for my food in restaurants. The day had come, and after I saw my classroom, I had to reconfigure my arrangement based on the space, furniture, and other obstacles. I knew I had to have space to put down cots for nap time, I needed a small group table/teacher aide work space, I needed the tables to do double duty for activities and lunch time, I had to work around the built in carpet, cubbies, teacher desk....the list went on and on! My advice is to make a list of necessities and plan those areas first. Sometimes you will have to work around not having enough storage or tables, funky pieces of furniture that have to stay in your room, outlets in goofy places, etc. You will have to get creative! Also, It's perfectly fine to redo your arrangement during the year and switch it up! I've always changed my arrangement at least once a year and I always want something different as a new school year begins. The classroom should be a happy & comforting place for students and teachers as well! During college courses and internships I learned about early childhood room arrangements. The shelves should be low, all materials on open shelves are for the students, everything labeled, plenty of walk space, etc. I took notes as I toured classrooms and poured over those cute teacher blogs! : ) But only from my own teaching experience, I truly learned the importance of classroom space & design. Here are a few of my favorite classroom floor plan arrangements that I've had over the years. We might not have the same furniture or same amount of furniture but I hope it gives you at least a few ideas to work with! Happy planning! I liked this arrangement because there was plenty of room between the centers and tables. I bought the cube shelves from Target. They made a great room divider, held storage, and you could see through them so it made the classroom a light & airy feeling! The large group time carpet was built into the floor so it couldn't be moved. I double duty used it for our whole group lessons & for block play. The art center and easel were conveniently located to the sink for easy clean up. The light table was next to an outlet and book shelves were used as center dividers. I also used some of the backs of bookshelves for felt boards and to display vocabulary. The cabinet next to the door was used as a parent sign-in station and the rug there was used as our safe spot. I liked this arrangement because placing the library center at the entrance of the classroom provided for a homey/living room look as students entered. The safe spot was located closer to the teacher work area tucked into a corner and the pretend center had plenty of space. I also liked having a defined blocks center. Students could leave out special constructions during transition time and return to them later. In this floor plan the safe spot was moved near the cubbies and the light table was moved to the back wall. I traded in a table in the discovery area to allow students to have more workspace. Also, the library area was moved to the middle and made the classroom feel much larger. There was also a book shelf/cabinet placed behind the group time carpet. The cabinet held puzzles and morning tub manipulatives. Here of a few photos of some of my past classroom arrangement ideas! They are a mix of photos and from different years. Enjoy! Parent sign-in station...the back of this cabinet (which actually used to be the pretend center fridge) stored crayon buckets! Pretend center in the corner... Here's another pretend center area where I had it in front of the window... Discovery/science center close to the classroom entrance... Chairs were bought at Ikea and they have remained in great shape! Baskets were bought at garage sales and www.saveoncrafts.com Discovery/science center Here's another discovery area idea in the corner with bookshelf and table... ABC center with use of table, magazine rack, and bookshelf. The shelf on top of the table is an over the sink shelf. I bought it at a garage sale and sometimes use it for storage under the Smartboard! I love items that do double duty! Portable light table on top of Ikea table with magnet board behind. Safe spot and crayon tub storage...parent sign-in station with folder drop off bucket... Built in group time area... (labeled apple baskets awaiting school supplies on Meet the Teacher Night! Get your labels HERE!) Built in cubbies and rectangle table used for breakfast... Rolling blocks station that could be moved to the big carpet for play. Another year, I made a bigger blocks area. I turned over the dress up closet/mirror and utilized it for block play/storage. The rug is from Ikea and I love the mellow colors! Math center table and bookshelf/cabinet... Library area when it was in front of the window. I created extra storage from zip tying Michael's wooden crates together to make a bookcase. I covered an existing felt board with burlap to tie in the neutral colors. The chairs were half price (yay!) from Garden Ridge/At Home store...the rug was bought there too. In this arrangement the library center is near the classroom entrance. It's defined by a rolling book cart and writing station cart. The writing station cart actually used to be the blocks cart, lol. Like I said..I have done a lot of re-planning and rearranging in my teaching career. It's fun when you find new uses for things and they work! I took the wheels off my listening center cart, flipped it over, and put a plastic bin inside...instant sensory station! ABC station: writing center/abc games... this is when I had a whole lot of hot pink leftover from my previous classrooms... I slowly turned over to neutrals and natural textures...it made the classroom feel much more calm, clean, and relaxed... Math center with storage for manipulatives and a table to play the games. I used the back of a cabinet for a math pocket chart game and vocabulary. And last but not least...the art center built by Target cube shelves. I've hope you've enjoyed my little room arrangements tour and I hope you've found some useful ideas for your new or existing classroom! If you have any questions leave them in the comment section below. Happy planning & happy teaching! ~ Christian

Welcome to my pre-k classroom tour! Classroom spaces and and arrangements are so very important and especially in the early childhood years! Defined areas for learning centers allow for students to be gravitated to new provocations and it also helps them know where to return materials properly. I love to create inviting center areas that are already set up for play! It gives students kind of an invitation to play and a few ideas about how to get started. The center learning areas I have are: blocks, pretend, discovery, reading, abc's, art, ipads, math, sensory, puzzles, & light table. Sometimes I don't have the centers open all at one time. For example, at the very beginning of the school year blocks and pretend centers are open. Students learn to be responsible in that center and then a new center is open/added every couple of days. I also like to incorporate the topic we are studying into all the centers. Currently, we are learning all about the season of spring! There are so many seasonal concepts students are interested in. We are exploring insects, spiders, butterflies, and gardens! We are also learning new art techniques with our Andy Warhol bee prints and learning about garden artist, Claude Monet! First stop, our morning board area! Here we have our word wall which has our alphabet circle letters (purchase here!), sorted student names, environmental print from our community, and post-it note student drawings of vegetables we have been learning about! We also have our Smartboard, Wish You Well Board, and other carpet/circle time supplies. Here is our newly arranged blocks center! This is a new classroom and I finally came up with a solution of where I wanted our blocks center to relocate. For a few years I have had it open to the group carpet area. It allowed for students to have a lot of room to build...but when it was time to clean up (and even if I gave the blocks group a head start) ..students were waiting to sit because of the blocks on the floor. So during winter break I revised the room layout a little bit which allowed for a new reading area, separate blocks area, and larger discovery area. It is working quite well! I am trying to stay with a more natural theme this year.. I purchased the two burlap canvases (above shelf) at Hobby Lobby and they display photos from our buildings study and photos of our observation of a hobby farm construction. The carpet is from IKEA and I like how they colors and design are a bit toned down? ..unlike a regular primary colored transportation rug. I was also attracted to this rug because it features a castle (for fairy tale unit), an igloo (for winter unit), and neighborhood buildings. We were studying community, construction, and maps when the rug arrived so it tied in nicely! The mirror is actually a pretend dress up clothes cabinet that I flipped over. It makes the center appear larger and students can view their constructions from a variety of angles! The blocks always stay in the center but I rotate extras with the current topic of study throughout the year! The "extras" include road signs, cars, construction vehicles, flowers, stuffed animals, plastic toys, people...whatever fits the theme. The blocks center also includes baskets for storage and clipboards. We practice drawing out our "construction plans" on the clip boards and students also like to copy the vocabulary posted. Our newly expanded discovery area! I have a large wooden spool/table and 2 wicker Ikea chairs that I hope to add in soon. The discovery center is all about investigation & finding out! Students explore weight differences, measuring, size ordering, textures, etc. The discovery center permanently houses science tools like a microscope, tongs, tweezers, pan balance, scales, binoculars, and magnifying glass. The center also has baskets for storage, clip boards for observation drawing & writing vocab, pencils, sensory bottles, plants, and vocabulary. In our discovery are we also have informational picture books on insects and gardens, seed activities, a butterfly observation basket, During our spring unit of study the center holds: The Very Hungry Caterpillar butterfly life cycle cards, plants, mini pretend nature doll house, seeds & seed packets, real butterfly wings, and a basket of textures. Here is an example of another unit of study in our discovery area. This photo is from our summer ocean unit from last year. Items can easily be switched out and easily rotated to fit any theme! This is a photo of our spring math center that contains insect books (that focus on counting & time), folder games, a Hungry Caterpillar roll, count, draw game, a Hungry Caterpillar graphing game, chick eggs number match up, sensory numbers, and a few other spring themed math games. I love using trays for center games with little cups on the trays. Trays help students be ready to play with easy setup and easy clean up! Before we play in new centers for the new topic of study we ALWAYS have a class circle time meeting about center procedures. We go through how to play every game (teacher and students model) and how to clean it up! This is so very important and helps center time to run much more smoothly and students learn practical life skills. Our new reading area! It contains a Hungry Caterpillar felt board for story retelling and sequencing, Hungry Caterpillar sequencing cards, pillows from Hobby Lobby, rug from Ross, two wicker Ikea children's chairs, insect puppets, books about gardens and insects, and also spring themed QR codes that lead to stories on the ipad. Our sensory tub is filled with flowers, magnet numbers, green and pink pots for patterning, gardening gloves, gardening tools, and watering cans. It also has mini vocab. cards that I laminated and then taped to the side. Sensory is such a fun center and quite popular too! There are hundreds of sensory ideas on Pinterest. I store sensory materials in large plastic bags in a tub. I like to sprinkle in plastic magnet numbers and letters and also post vocab on the outside of the tub. Tweezers, tongs, chopsticks, and shovels can be added to help with fine motor! This is our ABC center which now features Hungry Caterpillar word cards, Eric Carle stories, rhyming cames, and alphabet matching games. I have my writing center and ABC games combined this year and we call the whole center ABC center. The writing supplies are located next to this shelf and contain whiteboards, a variety of writing utensils, paper, and wikki stix. The ABC center games can include: letter matching games, letter bingo, alphabet beading, letter i spy sensory bottles, letter formations sticks, letter tracing, etc. Our spring pretend center filled with farmer's market items such as flowers, pots, seed packets, and vegetables! We incorporated literacy into this center by having gardening books, seed packets, an open/closed sign, and vocabulary displayed. Pretend is such an important center to have for students to explore community roles, practice life skills, and just experience "play." This is just a glimpse of all the fun and exciting things going on in our classroom for spring! Thanks for stopping by to check out our classroom! Only a few more months till school is out, then summer, and back to fall again!

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When I moved to Pre-K, I completely changed how I ran my classroom. I went to a more center based, student led system, as opposed to a teacher led classroom. The biggest thing I had to adjust to, was I let the STUDENTS CHOOSE what center they go to, I let STUDENTS CHOOSE when they change centers. And do you know what? It was NOT mad chaos like I expected! Once we set expectations and taught them the appropriate social skills to communicate, it was so easy! This post does contain links, both affiliate and regular. Use them to find some great centers for your classroom, and help keep this blog running J Center Management Each of my centers has a card on it with two Velcro dots, and each of my children has a name tag, with a Velcro dot on the back. When my kids aren’t at centers, on the wall is a list of all our names and another Velcro dot. So, if we transition to centers after a whole group lesson, it is easy to call names and they go get their names and pick a center. If we are working in small groups, half of my kids can go grab their names. Another way I managed changing centers, was using clothes pins. If there were two dots open, that meant there is room for two kids. If both dots are full, the kiddos must wait until someone leaves. At first there were lots of tears and begging to get into a specific center (usually it was Magnatiles!) But all we had to do what teach them Social Skills. Being patient is a big skill we must learn. I also, don’t make friends leave a center because they have been there too long. Once we get past the bumps that come along with any center time, it is smooth sailing. Center Options So, a big question I get asked frequently is “What center options do you have in your classroom?” So, a quick reminder, I teach Pre-K, so my centers are free play centers. The first set of centers, that are a must have in our room, are building centers. Our number one pick, that is always full is our block center. They love seeing how tall of a wall they can build! They also love using these houses and cars from Lakeshore Learning. When they are by my desk I can hear them making sirens and pretending to be Officer Hofficer! (In which he is usually arresting someone for some silly crime, like not picking up their mess!) Another one of their favorite building centers is Legos. They LOVE to make things with Legos. I am adding little Legos this year to our centers. I really want them working those fine motor skills. I just love this table I made! I asked on my Facebook if anyone had an old two leveled side table, and a wonderful friend just happened to be getting rid of TWO! So, she gave them to me, I painted them, and added a Lego brick plate. This gives them a place to be stationed. A place for our Legos to live, so they aren’t spread all out across the classroom! Right now, our Magnetic Center is looking a little weak. Since it is the beginning of the year, they are exploring our center. We have magnetic letters, name with their picture, and those cute magnetic numbers and shapes that I found at the Target Dollar Spot! Eventually I put STEM activities in the magnetic center! They love playing with gears and funnels! Another one of the centers that is always full, is my train table! This table is the best thing since sliced bread let me tell you! Again, it gives the center a place to live. The train tracks are not running all around the room. However; it does give it a better ramp for them to go flying across the room (no matter how many times I tell the kiddos that trains stay on tracks and airplanes fly through the air!) I bought the train tracks and trains from Ikea, and they are super durable! I inherited this big sturdy storage system (again, from Ikea!) I use as our main center storage system. I bought these great containers from Sterilite, you can get a 6 pack for about $31 from Amazon, and they fit perfect in them. In these center tubs, they put their name on the center cards, pull the tubs out, and find a place in the room to work. In these tubs I have Pattern Blocks, Lite Brites, Bristle Blocks, Unifix Cubes, Mr. Potato Head, and Mega Blocks. Also in this station, I have all my puzzles. The puzzle center card is on the side of the storage system. You can read about what I use to store my puzzles HERE. I also got tired of searching for the “lost pieces”. As a result, I bought ANOTHER Sterilite container with a snap lid, added some vinyl, and the kids now know if they find an extra piece to put in the lost pieces container. Also, if they are missing a piece, they know exactly where to look. One of my favorite centers in my classroom, is our library. I store my books thematically. I put only a few books out at a time. They also have a tub of puppets to act out what they are “reading”. You can read HERE all about my classroom library. Another popular center is the Art Center. Yes. There is paint. We are going to try something new this year! But our art center typically has construction paper, crayons, stickers, markers, daubers, and pencils. We also added composition books to our Art Center this year. They will be labeled with a name, so each child has an art portfolio to take home at the end of the year. We are testing out a type of light table this year. I found an old overhead projector in our surplus pile. I took off the arm, and will be placing some contact paper over the screen to dim the light just a little bit. Now we have a light table, that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. This is also one of my found treasures. The same table as my Lego center. Underneath the second level, is a basket of light table goodies. They will change as the year progresses. Right now, they have stacking cups, refreezeable ice cubs, and our Magnatiles. And last but certainly not least, is our dramatic play center. Right now, it is set up as a kitchen. We have baby dolls, baby beds, vests, community helper hats, pots and pans, food, plates, silver wear, and most important of all, the actual kitchen. This is right next to our sensory table. As the year progresses it will turn into an auto shop, grocery store, doctors office, and flower shop! I hope you found something that can help you with your classroom and centers! Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram, where I share ideas all the time! You can make the center cards yourself, but to save you the time and energy, I have these listen at TpT. They are editable too! So you can call the centers whatever you want.

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Welcome Fall!!! I'm so thankful for the four beautifully different seasons! This week we will be learning about our new season, apples, and worms! Yes, worms! I am linking up with Deedee from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten. Great ideas to be shared! Thanks Deedee! My Lesson Plans, "Fall and Apples" Tip: To print on 8x11 paper click "Fit to scale" before printing. A closer look... You can find the words to these super cute songs / finger plays at the site below: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/music_station07/fall-leaves-songs-rhymes-sep07.shtml Hope you have a great week!

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Welcome to my pre-k classroom tour! Classroom spaces and and arrangements are so very important and especially in the early childhood years! Defined areas for learning centers allow for students to be gravitated to new provocations and it also helps them know where to return materials properly. I love to create inviting center areas that are already set up for play! It gives students kind of an invitation to play and a few ideas about how to get started. The center learning areas I have are: blocks, pretend, discovery, reading, abc's, art, ipads, math, sensory, puzzles, & light table. Sometimes I don't have the centers open all at one time. For example, at the very beginning of the school year blocks and pretend centers are open. Students learn to be responsible in that center and then a new center is open/added every couple of days. I also like to incorporate the topic we are studying into all the centers. Currently, we are learning all about the season of spring! There are so many seasonal concepts students are interested in. We are exploring insects, spiders, butterflies, and gardens! We are also learning new art techniques with our Andy Warhol bee prints and learning about garden artist, Claude Monet! First stop, our morning board area! Here we have our word wall which has our alphabet circle letters (purchase here!), sorted student names, environmental print from our community, and post-it note student drawings of vegetables we have been learning about! We also have our Smartboard, Wish You Well Board, and other carpet/circle time supplies. Here is our newly arranged blocks center! This is a new classroom and I finally came up with a solution of where I wanted our blocks center to relocate. For a few years I have had it open to the group carpet area. It allowed for students to have a lot of room to build...but when it was time to clean up (and even if I gave the blocks group a head start) ..students were waiting to sit because of the blocks on the floor. So during winter break I revised the room layout a little bit which allowed for a new reading area, separate blocks area, and larger discovery area. It is working quite well! I am trying to stay with a more natural theme this year.. I purchased the two burlap canvases (above shelf) at Hobby Lobby and they display photos from our buildings study and photos of our observation of a hobby farm construction. The carpet is from IKEA and I like how they colors and design are a bit toned down? ..unlike a regular primary colored transportation rug. I was also attracted to this rug because it features a castle (for fairy tale unit), an igloo (for winter unit), and neighborhood buildings. We were studying community, construction, and maps when the rug arrived so it tied in nicely! The mirror is actually a pretend dress up clothes cabinet that I flipped over. It makes the center appear larger and students can view their constructions from a variety of angles! The blocks always stay in the center but I rotate extras with the current topic of study throughout the year! The "extras" include road signs, cars, construction vehicles, flowers, stuffed animals, plastic toys, people...whatever fits the theme. The blocks center also includes baskets for storage and clipboards. We practice drawing out our "construction plans" on the clip boards and students also like to copy the vocabulary posted. Our newly expanded discovery area! I have a large wooden spool/table and 2 wicker Ikea chairs that I hope to add in soon. The discovery center is all about investigation & finding out! Students explore weight differences, measuring, size ordering, textures, etc. The discovery center permanently houses science tools like a microscope, tongs, tweezers, pan balance, scales, binoculars, and magnifying glass. The center also has baskets for storage, clip boards for observation drawing & writing vocab, pencils, sensory bottles, plants, and vocabulary. In our discovery are we also have informational picture books on insects and gardens, seed activities, a butterfly observation basket, During our spring unit of study the center holds: The Very Hungry Caterpillar butterfly life cycle cards, plants, mini pretend nature doll house, seeds & seed packets, real butterfly wings, and a basket of textures. Here is an example of another unit of study in our discovery area. This photo is from our summer ocean unit from last year. Items can easily be switched out and easily rotated to fit any theme! This is a photo of our spring math center that contains insect books (that focus on counting & time), folder games, a Hungry Caterpillar roll, count, draw game, a Hungry Caterpillar graphing game, chick eggs number match up, sensory numbers, and a few other spring themed math games. I love using trays for center games with little cups on the trays. Trays help students be ready to play with easy setup and easy clean up! Before we play in new centers for the new topic of study we ALWAYS have a class circle time meeting about center procedures. We go through how to play every game (teacher and students model) and how to clean it up! This is so very important and helps center time to run much more smoothly and students learn practical life skills. Our new reading area! It contains a Hungry Caterpillar felt board for story retelling and sequencing, Hungry Caterpillar sequencing cards, pillows from Hobby Lobby, rug from Ross, two wicker Ikea children's chairs, insect puppets, books about gardens and insects, and also spring themed QR codes that lead to stories on the ipad. Our sensory tub is filled with flowers, magnet numbers, green and pink pots for patterning, gardening gloves, gardening tools, and watering cans. It also has mini vocab. cards that I laminated and then taped to the side. Sensory is such a fun center and quite popular too! There are hundreds of sensory ideas on Pinterest. I store sensory materials in large plastic bags in a tub. I like to sprinkle in plastic magnet numbers and letters and also post vocab on the outside of the tub. Tweezers, tongs, chopsticks, and shovels can be added to help with fine motor! This is our ABC center which now features Hungry Caterpillar word cards, Eric Carle stories, rhyming cames, and alphabet matching games. I have my writing center and ABC games combined this year and we call the whole center ABC center. The writing supplies are located next to this shelf and contain whiteboards, a variety of writing utensils, paper, and wikki stix. The ABC center games can include: letter matching games, letter bingo, alphabet beading, letter i spy sensory bottles, letter formations sticks, letter tracing, etc. Our spring pretend center filled with farmer's market items such as flowers, pots, seed packets, and vegetables! We incorporated literacy into this center by having gardening books, seed packets, an open/closed sign, and vocabulary displayed. Pretend is such an important center to have for students to explore community roles, practice life skills, and just experience "play." This is just a glimpse of all the fun and exciting things going on in our classroom for spring! Thanks for stopping by to check out our classroom! Only a few more months till school is out, then summer, and back to fall again!

We invite you to come in and take a tour of our Play to Learn Preschool Classroom! See pictures of the room, and read about how we organize our day.

One of the most important, yet time consuming areas of the classroom to set up in preschool is the carpet time/calendar area. This will be…

School is where the best years of life are spent. School decoration ideas for spring are very important to a

At the Crafty Classroom, we have over 30 preschool themes with numerous printables and activities you can use in your homeschool or classroom!

Choosing a classroom theme can be a tough decision for new and veteran teachers alike! Here are my top five tips for choosing a theme...

Your classroom environment influences your students’ learning, mood, and behavior so it is very important that you think about how and what it is communicating to young children when setting it up for those all important first days of school. The first few weeks of school set the tone for the entire year so you […]

I remember being a new teacher and waiting so anxiously to get into my new room! I tried to imagine what it would look like...the center areas, the little tables and chairs, the storage space, etc. How would I arrange my new room? What centers would I have? Would I have enough shelves and tables? Those were just a few of the hundreds of thoughts I had before I started school. I drew my layout on notebook paper late at night when I had new teacher jitters and on napkins as I waited for my food in restaurants. The day had come, and after I saw my classroom, I had to reconfigure my arrangement based on the space, furniture, and other obstacles. I knew I had to have space to put down cots for nap time, I needed a small group table/teacher aide work space, I needed the tables to do double duty for activities and lunch time, I had to work around the built in carpet, cubbies, teacher desk....the list went on and on! My advice is to make a list of necessities and plan those areas first. Sometimes you will have to work around not having enough storage or tables, funky pieces of furniture that have to stay in your room, outlets in goofy places, etc. You will have to get creative! Also, It's perfectly fine to redo your arrangement during the year and switch it up! I've always changed my arrangement at least once a year and I always want something different as a new school year begins. The classroom should be a happy & comforting place for students and teachers as well! During college courses and internships I learned about early childhood room arrangements. The shelves should be low, all materials on open shelves are for the students, everything labeled, plenty of walk space, etc. I took notes as I toured classrooms and poured over those cute teacher blogs! : ) But only from my own teaching experience, I truly learned the importance of classroom space & design. Here are a few of my favorite classroom floor plan arrangements that I've had over the years. We might not have the same furniture or same amount of furniture but I hope it gives you at least a few ideas to work with! Happy planning! I liked this arrangement because there was plenty of room between the centers and tables. I bought the cube shelves from Target. They made a great room divider, held storage, and you could see through them so it made the classroom a light & airy feeling! The large group time carpet was built into the floor so it couldn't be moved. I double duty used it for our whole group lessons & for block play. The art center and easel were conveniently located to the sink for easy clean up. The light table was next to an outlet and book shelves were used as center dividers. I also used some of the backs of bookshelves for felt boards and to display vocabulary. The cabinet next to the door was used as a parent sign-in station and the rug there was used as our safe spot. I liked this arrangement because placing the library center at the entrance of the classroom provided for a homey/living room look as students entered. The safe spot was located closer to the teacher work area tucked into a corner and the pretend center had plenty of space. I also liked having a defined blocks center. Students could leave out special constructions during transition time and return to them later. In this floor plan the safe spot was moved near the cubbies and the light table was moved to the back wall. I traded in a table in the discovery area to allow students to have more workspace. Also, the library area was moved to the middle and made the classroom feel much larger. There was also a book shelf/cabinet placed behind the group time carpet. The cabinet held puzzles and morning tub manipulatives. Here of a few photos of some of my past classroom arrangement ideas! They are a mix of photos and from different years. Enjoy! Parent sign-in station...the back of this cabinet (which actually used to be the pretend center fridge) stored crayon buckets! Pretend center in the corner... Here's another pretend center area where I had it in front of the window... Discovery/science center close to the classroom entrance... Chairs were bought at Ikea and they have remained in great shape! Baskets were bought at garage sales and www.saveoncrafts.com Discovery/science center Here's another discovery area idea in the corner with bookshelf and table... ABC center with use of table, magazine rack, and bookshelf. The shelf on top of the table is an over the sink shelf. I bought it at a garage sale and sometimes use it for storage under the Smartboard! I love items that do double duty! Portable light table on top of Ikea table with magnet board behind. Safe spot and crayon tub storage...parent sign-in station with folder drop off bucket... Built in group time area... (labeled apple baskets awaiting school supplies on Meet the Teacher Night! Get your labels HERE!) Built in cubbies and rectangle table used for breakfast... Rolling blocks station that could be moved to the big carpet for play. Another year, I made a bigger blocks area. I turned over the dress up closet/mirror and utilized it for block play/storage. The rug is from Ikea and I love the mellow colors! Math center table and bookshelf/cabinet... Library area when it was in front of the window. I created extra storage from zip tying Michael's wooden crates together to make a bookcase. I covered an existing felt board with burlap to tie in the neutral colors. The chairs were half price (yay!) from Garden Ridge/At Home store...the rug was bought there too. In this arrangement the library center is near the classroom entrance. It's defined by a rolling book cart and writing station cart. The writing station cart actually used to be the blocks cart, lol. Like I said..I have done a lot of re-planning and rearranging in my teaching career. It's fun when you find new uses for things and they work! I took the wheels off my listening center cart, flipped it over, and put a plastic bin inside...instant sensory station! ABC station: writing center/abc games... this is when I had a whole lot of hot pink leftover from my previous classrooms... I slowly turned over to neutrals and natural textures...it made the classroom feel much more calm, clean, and relaxed... Math center with storage for manipulatives and a table to play the games. I used the back of a cabinet for a math pocket chart game and vocabulary. And last but not least...the art center built by Target cube shelves. I've hope you've enjoyed my little room arrangements tour and I hope you've found some useful ideas for your new or existing classroom! If you have any questions leave them in the comment section below. Happy planning & happy teaching! ~ Christian

WAHOOO! The BIG classroom reveal! I made some new additions to my rainbow classroom this year and kept all my fun makeover items from last year, too! When I was taking the pictures for this post, I thought of a few more things I wanted to update. It is always a work in progress! I am always adding new activities, taking out the old, putting up new student work, taking down the old, and organizing.

Create a number of the day space and routine in kindergarten and first grade.

A list of monthly preschool themes for your classroom. Fun and engaging themes with hands-on activities your preschool or pre-k kids will love!

Explore the wonders of the ocean through a lively list of ocean songs for kids. Download our FREE printable and add an exciting twist to your circle time, transitions, and class routine.Catering to child care centers, home daycares, homeschoolers, preschools, and kindergarten classrooms, the varied ...

I have been working in my classroom for several days getting ready for my little ones to come on Thursday. I took some before and after pictures for you to see. Now please remember that I am not the best photographer and my room is still not 100% ready, but pretty close. The first picture is before and so is the last the middle is what it looks like right now. Enjoy!