"My entire world is turning upside down..."

Below are a variety of pictures to help you envision the changes in my classroom. Hope you enjoy them!! :)

The classroom from the corner cubby... a big change! The room feels more open and the kids move much easier and more freely about the room!

The World's most organized classroom library: I had room mother's sort and label each book alphabetically by author. I know they're glad this job is done! It was a huge undertaking! We also have our "Art Museum" in the background, where any artwork the children do for Mrs. Brown and I hangs. The kids compete to get into our gallery!

The two above pictures are of "Miss Kennett's Centers Catalog", which is explained below.

Our sorting lids (Old milk caps, juice caps, 20 bottle lids, etc. are great for sorting by color, shape, size, etc.!) and the marked spot on the shelf- one of many new shelf labels.

So, the classroom is different.... and surprisingly, I like it. The kids really did have some fantastic ideas about the placement of items and it's amazing how much quieter that they are working in the groups. In addition the majority of management on my part has calmed.... basically, the students are running the classroom. Although I will not attribute all of the changes to the room placement (Since by this time of year, the students are usually running the room fairly well), it has a sense of calm that has taken over. The students are working more in teams and looking out for each other- as if a sense of community that I've never noticed before has developed.

For example, today as we were making dreidels to celebrate Hanukkah, students (in both classes) who came in late from Speech or Title went directly to a table and asked their friends about what needed to be done- completely bypassing me! The kids are taking care of each other, using a consideration and teamwork I've never known in kindergarten. If the teamwork of creating an environment together creates this loving save environment where risks are okay and not knowing what to do is accepted, I'm sold. Sign me up!

As far as other aspects of my inquiry plan, I've been hard at work and I believe that my assistant is spending way to much time at the laminator. Some things that we have done around the room that have helped are:

1) Each area of the room has a set of rules with picture clues that the students designed using Kidpix.

2) Each free play area has been designated a color. By doing this, students are using clothespins to determine how many children are allowed in each area (5 students in each area are allowed at a time). The students also thought that this would be a good idea because it would "make you" go to new areas if the one you really wanted to play at was full.

3) According to the students, you are not allowed to say that there is nothing to do in each area. The students, using a digital camera (and supervision!!), took a picture of each item in each center to create what we've called "Miss Kennett's Centers Catalog". Using the catalog, the students will know what is in each area to use during free play or to try new things that they may not have seen before. In addition, Mrs. Brown and I laminiated and contact paper-ed a picture label of each item into the spot where it's supposed to be in the room. That way during clean up, there is no discussion about where items go ( I have noticed that this makes for a much faster cleanup!).

I also feel as if I learned alot from other teacher's in my building. Mrs. Piper next door gave the the idea to put risers on my sand table to create more height for the kids to paint on and to give me more storage underneath (I ended up purchasing bed risers from IKEA- they hold a lot of weight and they're inexpensive!). One of the first grade teachers taught me to put stickers on each book and label each bin with the same sticker creating an understandable sense or organization for the kindergarteners to follow. And, my ever favorite, Mrs. Brown (my assisstant) has taught me to clean my desk twice a day- during the morning class's snacktime and after school- to keep papers from getting lost. Although, I still believe that I would be lost without her, I'm not losing as many papers and I'm feeling a tad more organized. So many teachers had great ideas to their organization, however, I've realized that you have to find what works for you, your aide, and your students.