Organize! Organize! Organize!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Inspired by all the teachers out there organizing their rooms using cute labels and great containers, I worked on organizing some things today. I got all my craft supplies where I can actually see what I have. Last year someone donated some sharpie containers, so I used those to sort crafts and math materials. I wonder how long it will last. It seems like I always start my year this way and then by about half way through it's a mess again. Maybe I'll be able to make it a little longer this time. I also used the colorful fabric I bought at Wal-mart yesterday to redo my bulletin boards. I have one that I just never seem to know what to put on it. I've used it for student work before but its location is not great for that. I was searching different learning environment ideas and saw this idea of a graffiti board. You put a topic or question on butcher paper and post it somewhere for the kids to write or draw on. I liked the idea of having something functional so I'll be putting up the butcher paper on my new pretty bulletin board on Monday. Any suggestions for what the first topic should be?

I made some signs for my center areas. I want to try to be more intentional with my centers this year in kindergarten. I've never been able to make it work for me mainly because it seems to require a lot of planning and organization on my part. So I've been working on what they are going to be. My main learning centers are going to be

Sight Word
Math Practice
Math Game
Alphabet
Reading
Promethean Board
Writing
Theme Center

The students will do 2 centers a day for 4 days a week. We also have a housekeeping area, blocks, art, and other toys. I am going to make these the centers they can go to after they have completed their learning ones. The problem is certain centers get filled up and then there are arguments. So I created some signs and there are dots on them so they can attach a clothespin with their name on it when they get there. Once it's full, kids have to find other centers to go to. Hopefully it will work.