Environmental Print Word Wall

In my classroom I do not have a lot of wall space so I use cupboard doors.  I turned these doors into my word wall.  Under each Dave Matteson letter card is the children's names and environmental print.  Then directly across from the letter card is the matching zoo animal letter from zoo phonics.

What is Environmental print?  It is the first step to children learning how to read.  They begin to recognize logos and the print around their environment.  In my classroom I encourage the children to bring logos in from home and then this also turns into a family culture project as well.

I also add the animal letters from the zoo phonics curriculum too.  Zoo phonics matches an animal to a letter with a sound and action.  For example Aa is Allie Alligator and then you make an alligator mouth with your hands and make the "a" sound to match it.  The children love to come up to the wall, find a letter, and say the animal, their name, or point out a logo they can recognize.

What creative ways have you incorporated a word wall?

Updating My Teacher's Office!

I have a separate office attached to my classroom that I share with two assistants.  It is quite cramped and I wanted to make it more homey.  So I decided to personalize it a little bit.  I decorated a bulletin board with zebra duck tape and black office organizers with the tape too.  I think they turned out well!

Before

 After

I filled the board with past children's/parents cards and class photos.

This is right above my computer screen now :)

Then I duck taped all the container's edges with the zebra tape too. 

Next I want to order one of those Etsy teacher signs.  Then it will definitely be more homey :)

Classroom Management Problem Solved!

Problem: I was noticing that my students had a hard time understanding how many could be in a center at a time.  
Solution: So to help with this I came up with our "Monkey" system.   

Each center has monkeys that represent  the amount of children that can be at that particular center.

 There is velcro on both monkeys so a student just places their monkey on the spot and it shows who is in that center.

 Then the students each have their own matching monkey with their name on it. If there is no room for their monkey then the center is full.  When a child moves, they move their monkey to a new "open" center.
At the end of choice time all the monkeys go back to their home on a black homing board.

 Problem Solved!  It only took a few days for the kids get the concept down.  Now they walk around saying "don't forget your monkey" and "is it monkey time?"  So cute!

New Circle Area

Here is a picture of my updated circle area:

 I have sections for weather, jungle jobs, schedule, counting board (we don't do calendar), and colors.  The alphabet above and numbers below are Handwriting without Tears.


And here is my updated job board with places for both AM and PM:

I made these with word and downloaded free clip-art for the pictures.  This shows AM and the blank side is PM.  I separated each class into 2 groups and I rotate the groups every other day.  So each student has a job two times a week.  Group 1-Mon/Wed and Group 2-Tues/Thurs.  This really helps them because when they ask when will they get a job the answer is today or tomorrow.  That way they do not have to wait a super long time to have a new job. 

Summer Teacher Finds!

I love shopping at the special teacher stores but it's not always in my budget so...just found this a my local Dollar Tree! In the Party decorations aisle.  I think I'll put him on the door and
will go great with my Jungle theme classroom.                                                                                             

 

 

 And a new weather set in the teacher section $1 that I just need to laminate and add velcro to :)

I also found these at Walmart:

 $2.69 Cookie game by Scholastic -It only comes with the cookie cut outs but I thought I could make a cute jar for them to go in or a plate.

 .97 cents Math Banner I just learned we are using Handwriting Without Tears for Literacy and Math and this Banner will go great with it's curriculum.

$6.99 Alphabet and Number Table Easels- I thought I could use these for small groups.

At the $ Spot at Target:

$1 Birthday Certificates, Stickers and Erasers for each child.  I have a total of 39 kiddos this year between the two classes!  I got 6 erasers for $1. I thought I could make a cute Birthday Basket and the kids could pick from it on their special day.

Name Tags for first day of school 24 for $1

$3 Bulletin Border Organizer-I'm always looking for ways to organize my supplies.  I've never tried these before but thought I would give them a go!

I told myself I would NOT buy a ton of stuff this year because I have bought way too much in the past.  Also I'm starting a new position with a public School District teaching Pre-K and I haven't even seen my room yet :)  So I don't want to go too overboard until I see what was left behind from the old teacher.  I will post pictures soon!

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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