New Classroom: New Environment

I took a blogging hiatus when I found out that I'd be moving to teaching kindergarten at our of sister school because of the sudden departure of the teacher.  Over the past several weeks, I've had to ramp up on the kindergarten class, families and curriculum, while handing over management and Pre-K classroom responsibilities to my peers.  Needless to say, it's been a pretty busy time, leaving no time (or inspiration) for blogging.  I've been in the kindergarten class now for two full weeks and things are starting to settle down again.  

Before starting in the kindergarten classroom, I moved over a lot of the materials I've accumulated and reorganized the classroom to meet my teaching style.  Below are the before and after photos.  

Kindergarten Before

Kindergarten After

The significant changes I made to the classroom included:

(1) Moving the large block shelf in the middle of the room for a more spacious, open feel; 

(2) Creating several interest areas, which I can change according to the needs of the week/day; 

(3) Rotating the semi-circle tables so I can face the classroom during small group instruction times; 

(4) Removing some of the extraneous items from the room (like the Dora kitchen set); and

(5) Moving the sensory table from the classroom entrance to a nook. 

I left the wall postings, but I plan to slowly change these over.  There is a lot going on in the whole group area on the wall.  I'd like to create a more subdued space that directs the eye to what is most important in that area. 

It was a lot of work, but I'm happy with the outcome and the class has responded well to the changes in the room.