Behind the scenes: Mrs. Gloudemans' Class: 4K Classroom

My class blog: I use this as my communication with my parents, weekly newsletters, as well as ways they can increase their child's education at home. I set up my weekly (or couple week) themes as usual for 4K. I use my google calendar to create events and embed this on our class blog so they can look back on it. Parents really appreciate this resource and I like being able to share it with them and get some parent involvement.

I am currently working on making my room look more organized by creating a unified theme. These pictures may change as the theme emerges and the room looks more organized and unified. We cannot get into our rooms until August, please check back!

Panorama of my room from up in my tree house. Door is on the left with the sensory table, library drop box, and passes. Behind the pole, there are the students cubbies/mailboxes. We then have the carpet and rocking chair for circle time. The Easel and the white table hold the projector and small group materials. Behind the carpet is the block center. The back wall holds the the number and word wall. The word wall and number wall are also my huge closets. The back right is the dramatic play with art front of that and writing in front of that. The three tables in the center of the room are the student work tables. The far right is my desk and the flag. The tree house holds the reading center and under the tree house holds the computer and listening centers.

My 4k room will be set up as last year and I will continue to make it my chevron dream come true.

I do my best to change out my banners seasonally that hang from my tree house. I also got some white board stickers from scholastic that I used last year. They lost some of their "shiny-ness" so they weren't erasing as well. I wont be writing as much here, so I put this up for some fun messages and replaced the ones I use as a whiteboard daily. We wish you well board (a part of conscious discipline) is also here and names will be taped up. The kids can also write wish you wells on the board.

Centers

Reading Center

My tree house is also my reading area.
I tried making a fun and comfortable
place for children to go up and read.

Books in the reading Center.
The brown shelf is changed to match
the theme of the week/season.

Books in the reading center. the crates
are filled with a variety of books, but they
are sorted by theme. I am teaching my
students to sort the books and put them
out as the put them back on the shelf.

Sensory Center

The sensory table is labeled with what
is in the table to help build literacy

Our Describing words are all around the
sensory table to build literacy. I also have
images of the 5 senses to help students make
the connections to the 5 senses.

Puzzles and Games Center

This center is the hardest to keep clean, but the easiest to throw in some academic material! I have a variety of puzzles (both board puzzles and and the boxed 24 piece ones) to match themes, interests, and concepts. I also have a variety of games. The include the classics like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land, but also the created games. I take a lot of the free printable preschool packs, print them, laminate them and put them in the centers. These kids LOVE dice rolling games. I put an old sock (for eraser) a dry erase marker and the dice with with the pictures on them and they start rolling and graphing. The also like dice number games (which is bigger, adding, etc). I use recycled materials rand new room labels make them all cute and match!

Art Center

I have the recycle box close by so the students
can clean up their own mess. The "bubbles"
hold crayons, glue sticks, scissors (regular and the
fun edged ones) water color paints, stencils, stamps,
and colored pencils. I have also updated my art center
with colored materials to help when they
are looking for something specific. I have a variety of
paper types and colors in the center as well.
I also try to change up some of the material.
For example, in the winter we did the shaving cream
and glue mixture to make puffy paint.
I left the extras in the center for kids to use.
They loved it!

Discovery (Math & Science) Center

Being a play based classroom, I put out a variety of math (and science) materials in the "discovery area" for students to use and discover with. I have the shelf labeled and I change out some of the activities as the year progresses as well as along with some of the seasons. I have the bins labeled with the materials name and picture for students to clean up.

Even putting the toys away becomes part of the learning as they are working on the concept of sorting and putting things away. There are many days when I walk up to the table and every bin is dumped out. It takes time to clean, but they do sort it out, eventually....

Writing Center
**Writing center is getting a big revamp this year! Check back in August!**

Using contact paper, I have the chevron alphabet (which I have the same one on the board is to help with letter recognition and consistency)

The writing center is filled with a variety of materials to encourage writing. The ABC coconut tree indicates this is the writing center (not for drawing pictures). The students are taught the little blue bin is dry erase markers (students school supply is one pack of markers each and believe me, we go through them all) and old socks for erasers. These can be used on the variety of laminated sheets: our handwriting sheets to practice again, individual letters with directional arrows for guidance, and white boards. The big blue bin is paper, lined and white. I purchased the Awesome Words for Inspring Authors from Kindergarten Smiles-Caitlin Clabby. These folders are available for students to pracice writing. I also laminated the whole bunch so some practice writing right on top. Markers and pencils are available to write with. They have the letter charts with picture clues (I used the contextual print ones) to help them figure out the spelling or "say it slow and write what you hear." This center allows for a lot of differentiation based on what the student is ready for.

Dramatic Play Center

Set up like a kitchen/home. Phones,
phonebooks, magazines, cook books,
and menus help build literacy as well
as imagination

We made a class igloo. We collected
the milk jugs, helped make a circle,
and watched it grow week by week,
donation by donation! Then we played
arctic animals in here!

Firehouse. For fire safety week, students
had fire safety gear, and phone to call 911.
It was great follow up to our community
helpers police officer/fire department
visit.

Blocks Center

The specific toys on the blue shelf change out. They range from: cars, farm animals, legos, K'nex, ABC blocks, and blocks that can open up and attach to other blocks. The wooden blocks are occasionally exchanged for the large plastic blocks. The cardboard blocks are here often. The sign (environmental print) and the directions to the various types of blocks build literacy in this center. I also have some construction books in the center to give ideas and immerse the students in print

Computer Center

Listening Center

We started with an electronic story reader (see post). We then introduced books on tape, but our tape player doesn't rewind so putting it in the other way and fast forwarding and then putting it back in for them got old. I taught them the correct way to put the CDs in the CD player and find the book they want.

Pocket Chart
Students do a variety of activities ranging from putting a stories events back in order, to working with concepts such as size order, letter vs. words, etc.

Safe Spot

Per Conscious Discipline, my room has a soft place to go to figure out how they are feeling on the feelings chart, and then figure out how they want to fix it (image on the other side not visible .

Kindness Center

Small Group Pull-Out Area

I pull the students out of their play time and have them come do an interactive project 1:1 or in small groups. I can differentiate in this area so that all needs are met, but the supplies are quick at hand. The white table also hold our projector and the laptop when the projector is in use.

Wall Decorations/Boards

Word Wall

My new Chevron Banner I made from Make Your own Multi-colored Chevron Banners from Mrs. Mac Place. I made the letters from a font that came on my computer. It is cool because it does the capital letter and an image that starts with that color. They start black and white, but when we learn that letter, we color the letter in.

Word Wall and Number Wall. The chevron numbers have rhyming phrases on how to make them. I hope these fun rhymes help with correct number formation.

Calendar Wall

I have updated my alphabet to be a chevron alphabet (which I have the same one on their writing table to help with letter recognition and consistency)

Student work (Hall)

Pinterest project. 1 gallon ziplock bags all lined up with the zipper facing the same way and the writing (ziplock) down on the floor. Buy that colorful, fun ducktape and tape the bags together. The other side is pockets for the art to slide in the back and you never see the ziplock words.

Student work (Lockers)

I use the students' lockers as a way to display art. I try to choose something that is rather seasonal that can stay out there for a while. I also use the cork strip to hang work in the hall above what is on the lockers.

Student work (classroom)

On my back "closet wall" I have a variety of doors. The left two and the right two doors are used for student art gallery. The word and number wall is in the middle.

Seasonal 3D Tree

Fall-Students sponge painted
cricut cut leaves

Winter-Students put glue and
glitter on printed snowflakes

Spring-Students wrapped
tissue paper squares on
their pointer finger and
dipped in glue. Then stuck
tissue paper to flower.

Student Art Board

I purchased scrapbook paper in the purple, pink, and green family that I liked. I put it up touching each page. The top left and bottom right has a small piece of paper with each child's name on it. This is where their art work goes. If they give me a new piece of art, I give them the choice to put that new art up on my wall and replace their old art--the old art going in my "love book" or they new piece going in my "love book" and that piece staying on the wall.

My new Chevron Banner I made from Make Your own Multi-colored Chevron Banners from Mrs. Mac Place.

Sensory Area

I bring student literacy in and put the words they use to describe their various sensory experience s up on the wall. I also have the 4 senses people up on the wall so they can use all these senses (minus taste!) in the sensory area.

I have simplified the way I put names on things by making them all the same and printing multiple copies. I have these name tags on the student cubbies, the art gallery, job names, center rotation names, and my teacher binder class list.

Classroom Center Labels-->Rotation board

Labels on the cubbies match their job name and their center rotation chart names for consistency.

Cubbies

Jobs

My new Chevron Banner I made from Make Your own Multi-colored Chevron Banners from Mrs. Mac Place. I created the jobs and they are available on TPT. I stuck the library envelopes to the posterboard, glued the jobs on them, and then laminted the whole thing. I then took a razor blade and reslit the envelopes open so I can stick in their popsicle stick names when they choose that job.

Family and Friends

My new Chevron Banner I made from Make Your own Multi-colored Chevron Banners from Mrs. Mac Place.

Floor--Line

Stop sign for the line leader to stand on, and then every class job (same picture on the job chart) is on the floor. No fighting over who was there first. Get in line on your job. If you dont remember your job, go look at the job chart. If the pictures look similar, we talk about the starting letter to look for.

Check in