Friday 25 January 2013

My Prep Classroom 2013


Welcome to My Prep Classroom Prep Sarah 2013  
I have been a teacher for 8 years, the majority of the time spent teaching prep, and after returning from mat-leave I completed a year part-time stint in the art room.  Finally, I am returning to the prep room after what seems forever. I absolutely love teaching preppies. I wanted to create a really warm, cosy and relaxing environment for the kiddies (and myself). So I decided to incorporate my love of owls into my classroom. Enjoy....

This is the My Classroom from outside. I have spoken to the handyman to possibly paint the window frames a bright colour as it's a bit boring and dated. I have left the sides of the door bare so I can place important notes to parents in the windows, etc. 

This is my welcome door sign to begin my owl theme.

I have placed some birdhouses in the tree outside the classroom. These were unclaimed (and unnamed) from teaching art last year).



This is our class tree and welcome sign. Note I am teaching 4 days and 1 other teaching taking 1 day (you may notice that there are 2 teacher names on welcome sign).
The tree has all different images of little owls - each has a leaf near it with a students name.



Close up of the tree.
Close up of welcome sign. (as I am only class sharing for one year all other signs you see will just say Prep Sarah with Jane blue tacked on)

Classroom Entrance


As you walk in front door, directly in front of you are tubs and welcome sign. Fruit bowl on top, and class pet owl (not real) in cage.
As you walk in the door, to the left hand side is the sink/ wet area. 


Class Pet
Sock Owl - I got this idea from http://sockowl.blogspot.com.au/
I used my sons baby socks to create a Sock owl class pet. I have tried fish in the past, even stick insects and yabbies. So this year I'm going "make believe" feeding, walking etc.




Teacher Conference Table



I have done my best to try to capture the teacher conferencing area, but the photos don't really do it any justice. You can kind of make out the curtains and set up - I will have to take more pictures on a camera rather than my phone. To the left are empty shelves for student school bags and to the right is a grey shelf which stores students "Just Right" books.

Student Work Stations
I made chair bags to colour code each table - these store student THRASS and M100W charts - all communal charts and equipment as table groups are so fluid. All tubs in background have owl labels on them. Blue tubs are Maths resources such as counters and the pink tubs are literacy equipment.
Behind the material are "play" resources.
The wall on the right has individual sections for student display. The wall on the left is the Maths Wall.


Picture on the right shows my "Behaviour Perch". I have made sock owls for each student and the start in the centre of the perch. They can move up and down the perch depending on their behaviour. Students who perform best on the perch throughout the week can earn "warm fuzzies". When they fill their pocket of warm fuzzes they get a special homemade chocolate owl.


Display for student work.

Maths wall.

Class Meeting Place
This is where my little owls are outstanding learners :)

You can just see my desk behind the home corner.

Home Corner
This Picture shows my home corner. Also, the multi coloured pockets on the wall are where the warm fuzzies go (pom poms). The mail box is for class notes. The yellow wall will have our THRASS charts when distributed. 



Class Library


 I love the feel of the class library. I may get some boxes so books can be slid out of cubes easily, but will see how the kids go.