Kindergarten Classroom Set-up

This year I have been blessed again to have a Kindergarten classroom. I am at a new school so it means new classroom and new students. The first week has already passed us by and it went absolutely fantastic. This is the classroom set-up for right now. I don't think I will be making changes to it as it has worked very well within the first week of school.

The back of the classroom. My ECE and I decided to keep the table there as the sensory table.

We use blue bins for the kids' lunch boxes. The children come in every morning and their routine is to put their lunch boxes inside their blue bins and then hang their backpacks on the hooks. It helps to clear out a bit of the traffic when children are getting their lunches out from their backpacks during lunch and snack time. The red bins are for any art work they want to take home as well as all the forms and newsletters that need to be sent home for the day. The children clear out both their bins at the end of each day. This promotes self-regulation and independence. And of course it cuts down a bit of the work for the teachers as well!

Another view of the bins. I printed out the class list of names on mailing label stickers. Then I put them on card stock and taped it to the bins. They look fantastic and we were done all this work in about 20 minutes.

Here is my carpet area. We have a nice bookshelf and another book bin for large size books. There are carpet toys in the big wooden bins. And my white board is full of a really tiny calendar (because I am not big on calendar) and it has the basics such as days of the week, seasons, colors, months of the year, O Canada, picture schedule, and a stash of books we will be reading to the children during the day. 

This is one end of the carpet area. My easel goes in the middle. The left side is the dramatic centre. The left side of the easel is my science table because it is near the windows.

My reading centre. Children can read books here during centre time if they wish and they can play with the toys on the bench and the shelves under the bench. (At the back of the picture you can see the easel and the science centre table more clearly).

On the other side of the 100s carpet is the computer table. In this picture is the large table which we use mainly for creative work and literacy. On the shelf if my awesome typewriter which the kids LOVE. You can also see other literacy items such as my mini blackboard on one side and the other side of it has a white board. The other end of the shelf is puzzles, Math books and other Math toys.

Finally, this is the front of my classroom. It consists of an awesome reading table and two small tables. The table next to the sink is where I will be using Paint quite often. It also has a dry rack near by. At the right side of the picture you can spot a little blue lid right by the sink. That is the water table. We also have a sand table but you can't see it here as it is by the bathroom behind the dry rack.

Meet Ryze

A few posts ago, I shared pictures about my Australian budgie, Raja. Now, I would like to show you my pet chameleon, Ryze. 

Ryze is 2 and a half years old. I brought him home from the reptile store in April of 2011 when he was 2 months old.

Ryze on the day we brought him home. He was this tiny!!!

He is a veiled chameleon. He can change colors from different shades of browns and greens. Ryze eats crickets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is quite big now. This is him on my leg just hanging out!

If you have any more questions about Ryze, please feel free to ask!

Bulletin Board - Diving Into Kindergarten

A new school year begins in a few days! I have left my old school and moved to a newer one. And by the looks of it, it seems absolutely fantastic! The administration is wonderful, my team is great, and my ECE partner is amazing! I went in everyday last week to clean and set-up my classroom. I will be doing another post on my set-up for this year. But I spent around an hour making the bulletin board and putting it together before the first day of school begins. I am teaching Kindergarten again this year and this is what the board looks like. And yes, the fish are 3-D!!!

Free Coloring Pages for Ramadan

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Crayola-64.jpg/220px-Crayola-64.jpg

If you have not yet had a chance to read my posts about Ramadan, please click here. To find out more about Eid-ul-Fitr, please click here.

Ramadan is coming to an end and it will be celebrated with Eid-ul-Fitr. Use these free coloring pages to keep children and their artsy mind healthy. They have been provided by Crayola. You can print them off or you can color them online. Here is the link to all the coloring pages: http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/holidays/ramadan-at-sundown-coloring-pages/?page=1&count=48

Here are the pages if you would like to print them right away:

"Teacher's Hefty Salaries..."

I found this amazing post circling around few months ago and have no idea why I didn't share it. It is totally worth a read!

"Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That...would be $19.20 a day (7:45 to.....3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan -- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE...That's $585 x 180 = $105, 300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries). What about those special education teachers and the ones with the Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 x 6 1/2 hours x 30 children x 180 days = $280, 800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students = $9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student -- a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!

Heaven forbid we take into account highly qualified teachers or NCLB...

Make a teacher smile; re-post this to show appreciation!"

Online Reading Links

As teachnology is on a constant rise, children are spending more and more time with it. I am taking courses in my Masters about incorporaring technology not just in the classroom but also at home. Here are some links that children and families can access on their computers. I have yet to try them on tablets or iPads but they definitely work on the computer.

Tumble Books

Tumble Books has an online collection of e-books for children and families (focus on elementary schools).

Clifford Interactive Storybooks

Children have choices in parts of Clifford stories making it interactive and fun for kids.

Little Critter

Little Critter stories online.

Storyline Online

Screen Actors Guild Foundation (SAG) is  an online streaming video program featuring SAG members reading children’s books aloud.

Kids Yoga Adventures

I was covering planning time for another teacher this week and in her Kindergarten class, the children did Yoga watching these videos. I can't believe I didn't know about them earlier! There are many episodes that you can do on different days or even for the whole week if it matches your theme. They are great for indoor physical activity time (as they are about 15 minutes long) and keep the children busy! Here are some links with the themes for a quick search!

Ocean Adventure



Circus Adventure

An Australian Adventure

Arctic/Penguin Adventure

Polar Bear Adventure

Bee Adventure

Space Adventure

Faritytale Adventure