Back to school

Welcome to the happiest place on Earth….Kindergarten! This is just a simple virtual tour of my mostly, but not all the way, completed classroom. If it makes you feel all warm and cuddly inside-that’s great! My Kindergarten classroom is not the typical 18-24 student classroom. I have the privilege of having 8 wonderful students, who just happen to have special needs and other obstacles. But you know what? These children are little geniuses in the making. I am so looking forward to this school year! I will post more later….but here we go…on with the tour!

In these pictures, is my Word Wall for sight words, Possible Birthday Board, Home-ade un-stiched mini-curtains and more! The blue material is from Wal-Mart. The border is made out of brown paper towel rolls just all scrunched up and stapled on. My pennant banner was made from scrapbook paper from Wal-Mart and then stapled onto thin ribbon (also from Wal-Mart). The WELCOME sign above the bulletin board was hand-painted by me. I’m so proud of it because I am not exactly an artist. I just hand wrote out the letters on blue poster board and then used acrylic paint to decorate each one.

I made my swirly tree by ripping up brown grocery bags and twisting them at the ends. I’m not sure what I am going to put on the tree yet. Hmmmm… I still haven’t decided what to do with the polka-dotted smaller bulletin board either. I may put my birthday wall there. We’ll see!

These cute lime green curtains were so cheaply made. I bought those springy type curtain rods and material from Wal-Mart. Then, I stapled the material around the rod. To cover the staples, I used blue ribbon (from Hobby Lobby) and no-stich glue, because I don’t sew. In this picture you will also see the Block Center and to the left of it, a table for 1:1 work with students. The brown ABC Word Wall letters were made by Frog Street Press.

This is my Reading Center. It’s still in the making.

Here is my fun desk! The funky flower material is from Hobby Lobby.

I actually hand-painted these capital letters above the Smart Board. The letters are from Lakeshore Learning. It was a fun project. That’s what I did this summer! The calendar, months of the year and shape signs are all from the Dollar Tree. Aren’t they cute?!

This cute fabric is from Hobby Lobby. I simply taped the material under by desk (you know, since I don’t sew).

The “Our Schedule” section is at eye-level for the children and I will be putting Board Maker pictures of the schedule there -once I make them!

Our School, Thompkins Early Childhood Center in Ozark, Alabama, is a “Bucket Filling School.” I will write more about bucket filling later. It’s great-but I will stay on topic for now.

This is the most precious little sign that I have outside of my classroom door. All of the classrooms have this sign. I think it’s a great reminder for everyone who enter! I hope you enjoyed this mini-tour!

This is the Reading Station. Each basket is sorted by theme based on the books that I own (fairy tales, Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Jan Brett, animals, insects, ABC and numbers. I also have animals and hats for role playing.

I traced some puzzle pieces (floor puzzle) to make this bulletin board. Once I get my student roster, I will be writing each child's name on each puzzle piece!

These cute ABC kids signs are from Lakeshore Learning store. I will be ticky-tacking the sight words under each letter, as I introduce them.

This is the Hitachi interactive whiteboard that I have for student use. Check out the cool laptop cart, to go along with it (complete with projector)!

This is the Guided Reading group table-where all the phonics magic of reading will happen!

I got these cute Center/Workstation labels from Teacher Heaven. I plan to assign 2 students per station, to minimize behavior problems.

My new easel arrived! It is magnetic. I plan to use it for my morning message that I write to the students each morning. The rules poster will be completed as a class together. Then each student will sign on the bottom.

My school bought these nice letter/sound tubs from Lakeshore Learning. They have cute little objects inside, for each letter. The tree you see was made out of a Pringles can, felt leaves that I cut out and glitter sticker letters that I got from Wal-Mart.