Books! Books! Books!

I love books!  I just received my latest scholastic book order and because I had coupons and bonus points all of this was free!

 Literacy is my absolute favorite part of teaching.  I love incorporating books throughout the centers and using them to help the children understand new ideas and concepts.  I rotate my books about every two weeks.  I store all of my books not being used at home.  Here is a picture of my little library that I'm quite proud of that is categorized by learning themes :)

My Themes are:
Fall                                                                   Valentine's Day/Groundhog's day
Halloween                                                      St. Patrick's Day                                      
Thanksgiving/Veterans Day                       Spring
Christmas                                                        Easter
Winter                                                               Summer
Polar Animals                                                  Social/Emotional themes
Back to School                                                Favorite Characters
Getting Ready for Kindergarten                Animals
Transportation                                                Non-fiction
Community Helpers                                        Multicultural

I'm a Red Apple teacher so I  get free shipping and extra little goodies each month.  I always place an order for the $1 books because that is an easy and inexpensive way to grow my collection.  I also pick up used books from Value Village and look for them at garage sales.  It's like a little hobby of mine.  I think it's important to show enthusiasm for reading because the children pick up on this and also get excited when they see books too!

How do you store your books?  In the classroom, or at your home? And how do you organize them?  Would love to hear your thoughts!

~Meghan

My Jungle Classroom!

OK so here is a view of my classroom.  I'm very excited to have a Jungle/Safari theme this year.  I spent the entire month of August planning and decorating and I'm quite pleased with how it all turned out!  (Now you know why my blog is a safari theme) 

 Before

                                             




 






                                            







 After

Now let's dig a little further into some areas:
The Reading Hut is by far my favorite part of the classroom.  My husband designed it and then built it all on his own, of course I gave him my thoughts during the ENTIRE process too :)

I bought zebra sheet sets at Walmart and my mom used them to sew body pillow covers!  Very thrifty and easy too!  My daughter "J" helped put the animals around the hut and placed the cutouts on the hut too :)

This is where our Reading Buddies go.  The kids can choose "a buddy" (beanie baby animal) to read to while they are in the reading hut.  It was just an over the door shoe organizer that I screwed into the wall.

This is my Circle Area
This is where my kiddos b-days are placed.























Here is my Jungle Jobs Board






















I just made their names and job labels through word.  You can also see my class schedule, this was also made from Word clipart.

 Here is the sign-in area and the students mailboxes.

















My mom sewed the curtains and table skirt from the sheet set I mentioned about earlier.


















 Here is the "Wild About families" wall that we just decorated with foam frames the children decorated!

~Meghan

A New Journey...

Hi My name is Meghan!  I believe when you are an early childhood educator the possibilities are endless! I love being inspired and so for my first post I wanted to use a quote to help inspire others.

"You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going.  What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”  ―    Thomas Merton

My hope is that this blog will be a creative outlet for all of the ideas and inspiration I bring into my classroom and a place to document my professional journey as a teacher.  Thank you for visiting!
~Meghan