Setting Up the Classrooms

For me, setting up the preschool classrooms was my favorite part of getting the school ready. I was starting from scratch and I was on a mission to create a welcoming, child friendly environment that would promote independence and creativity. I wanted the classrooms to help the children feel safe and comfortable while engaging them and stimulating their curiosity.

The first step was to purchase child sized shelves, tables, and chairs. Having furniture that is the appropriate size for the children who will be using the room, helps them to feel comfortable and gives them a sense of empowerment. Besides this, the small furniture is more practical for children. When a child is sitting in the appropriate sized chair, she is more likely to stay seated during meals and activities because she can sit without dangling legs or other discomfort. The smaller shelves allow teachers to see and monitor all the different areas of the classroom.

Book Corner

I love books so the first area I set up in each classroom was the book corner. The book corner should be an area where children can sit quietly to read and relax. It should be clearly separated from the rest of the classroom by shelves or other furniture. I wanted ours to have lots of natural light so I positioned them near windows. I also wanted the children to have a soft comfortable place to sit so I added an area rug, pillows, and stuffed animals. I framed and added art work that some of my former students had given me to give it a homey touch. In the future, I hope to add some comfy, child-sized chairs.

I had read about using Ikea spice racks for book shelves on another blog. When I went it the Ikea near me, they were it of the spice racks but, fortunately, I came cross these picture ledges that worked just as well.

Dramatic Play Area

When a child plays pretend, he is not only having, he is also learning important skills. Through pretend play a child has the opportunity to take on a new role. He can be a mailman, a race car driver, a parent, or anyone else he chooses to be. When he pretends to be another person, he is learning about the roll that person plays in the community. Children also use this pretend play time to try out new words and language. If you watch a child have a pretend phone conversation or feed a baby doll, you can hear them repeating the things they have heard adults saying. When they play pretend with other children, they are learning to compromise and to get along with other people.

I like to use the dramatic play area as more then just a kitchen area. Throughout the year, I bring in different props for the children to use such as an empty wading pool and swimming gear in the summer, a tree to decorate at Christmas time, or props that have to do with the topic we are covering in the classroom. 

But since we are just starting out, I decided to begin with the basics. I set up our dramatic play area as a kitchen and home area. Since the school building is actually an old house, one room has a closed up fireplace. This seemed to be the perfect, homey place to set up the center. My fiancé found a wonderful, used kitchen play set that had hardly been played with at all. I added a small table and chairs, dishes and food, dolls with changes of clothes, and some dress up clothes.

The dramatic play area in the second room was set up is similar way except it doesn't have a fireplace.

Block Area

Over the past few years, I have been in several schools that did not have large floor blocks for the children to build with. I know that this is partly because blocks are expensive and because they can be loud but the benefits children reap from playing with blocks are worth the money and the noise. When children play with blocks they are learning:

Math concepts such as size, shape, weight, and symmetry

Science concepts including gravity and balance

Hand-eye coordination

Communication skills

Symbolic thought

To be creative

To make connections and to solve problems

To work together

To appreciate and respect other's work

For this reason, I made sure to have a well stocked block area in each classroom. Right now there are also cars and trucks in the block area but we can switch them out later for animals, trains, plastic people, or other props.

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Emergent Curriculum in Progress: Building Rocket Ships

 Last week we had a great example of how emergent curriculum works. One morning, while I observed some of the children building in the block area, one of the boys said, "Miss Bridget, look. I made a rocket ship!"

 I asked him where his rocket ship was going and he told me it was going to space. As we talked about the rocket, I explained how there is a countdown before a rocket blasts off. We counted down from ten while several children, who had also built rockets, blasted their blocks into space. After a few minutes of this, I pulled out the iPad and found this video of a real rocket launch.  Of course all of the children gathered around as soon as they realized that the iPad was out. They loved the launch, so we watched it several times. 

Later, at circle time, I asked the children some questions about space ships and space travel in order to get an idea of what they already knew and what we could learn. I asked where the rocket went, who was in it, and what is in space.

The children answered that the rocket goes to space and has astronauts in it. They also knew that stars, planets, and the moon are in space. But when I asked what the astronauts would do in space, they were stumped. Several children suggested that the astronauts would visit relatives. One little boy said, "They will come here, to our school!" Of course everyone liked that idea until I pointed out that our school was not in space. I pulled up some pictures of astronauts on the moon and we talked a little bit about what they were doing up there. 

Now the whole class is very interested in anything having to do with space. I scratched the craft I had been planning to do that day and we made rockets out of paper towel rolls instead. For the rockets, I cut the paper towel rolls in half and gave one half to each child. Then I set out paint and brushes and let them paint their rockets however they liked. 

Once they were dry, I cut three triangles out of construction paper for each rocket. I cut a slit in each triangle...

and three slits around the bottom of each rocket.  

 Then I fitted the triangles into the slits on the rocket. 

The children stuffed red and yellow tissue paper "fire" into the bottoms of their rockets and they were ready for blast off!

 I am excited to see where this exploration of space and space travel will take us over the next couple of weeks. 

Christmas Tree Stumps in the Block Area

Update: I wanted to update this post because I did the same thing again this year except with a few differences. First, the Christmas tree people gave me the stumps for free. Hooray! Second, they let me pick out my own stumps, so I got a better variety.

I picked out lots of small ones for inside play. The children built with them and put the plastic animals on them.

I also picked out some bigger ones for outdoor play. The children stacked them, they made circles with them, and put animals on them, of course.

When I went to get my Christmas tree this year, I noticed that the tree sellers were also selling the stumps that they cut off the ends of the trees. They were selling big boxes of them for only $5 and I later learned that some places give them away for free. Presumably people use these stumps in their fireplaces because they smell nice. I bought a box to use for building in the block area.

The stumps were a big hit and they made the classroom smell great!

One of the stumps had a hole in the center of it that was just the right size for our toy nails. The children loved hammering the nails into it so I took some of the other stumps home and drilled holes in them too.

Some of the stumps still had branches on them that we broke off and used for painting.

Those were five well spent dollars!

 

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