Our classroom setup was inspired from blogs I stalked…for MONTHS!!! I tweaked a few things to fit Ellie’s age, but I really found some great stuff at the following blogs.
1. Calendar time: As a retired public school teacher I am familiar with the general set up of a classroom. Having a great set up and print friendly classroom has always been important to me because I feel like it makes the environment so much fun to be in. These 3 blogs have FANTASTIC resources and printables for your morning calendar time. Honestly, it is better than what we had as public school teachers!
a. Confessions of a homeschoolerErica, from Confessions of a Homeschooler was SO kind to talk me through some curriculum woes I was having. I am very thankful for the resources I have been able to take advantage of thanks to these VERY busy, intelligent and crafty women.
b. Mama Jenn
c. homeschool creations
2. Our school table-
I purchased our classroom table from HERE and evidently it is on major sale right now! We’ve had this table for a few years now and it has been awesome. Our kiddos are young and still need the one on one work time, so this is a great place for all of us. (and yes, I DO sit in that green ikea chair ALL.DAY.LONG!)
Both kiddos have their names spelled out on the table top with bulletin board letters held down by clear contact paper, but Ellie is now using the side with the name plate on it.
Our word wall hangs above our supplies wall and it is all within arms reach which I love. Both boards are magnetic (one from Lakeshore and one from staples), but we use tabletop white boards for our All About Spelling lessons and everyday teaching.
3. Library, Computer center and Español:
I am SO happy I kept all of my books from teaching! We have a pretty great selection from some top authors. This is just ONE of the five spots you can find books in our house! Our kiddos love to be read to!!! Ellie’s CPU is kept on the desk hidden behind our EXPEDIT shelf in this picture. Ideally, she was supposed to sit here and do computer, but she has been watching it on my laptop and getting comfy as she does so. Her spanish words for the week hang in the green pocket chart and on the orange bulletin board.
3. Curriculum storage:
I have formed a love affair with IKEA during this classroom transformation! It’s so inexpensive and I am so impressed with how sturdy it all is.
These shelves house all of our curriculum, manipulatives, art supplies, handwriting paper, and basically anything else we need during the week. Cullen even has his own shelf with some pre-k books that he works on during school is he isn’t napping.
4. Our workboxes: Ellie was SOOOOO excited about this addition to our room. She is very visual/kinesthetic and having the ability to see what she has completed and placing the tag on the chart as she finished a box has made her so happy this week. She is so proud when she gets to place a tag on the “finished” chart and gets so excited to see what is left. On Tuesday, I made a surprise box which was a trip outside to swim for 45 minutes. It was amazing how rejuvenated she was after the swim! She actually focused better after the time outside than she had done earlier in the day.
I searched a ton of workbox printables and I ended up combining a few different resources to make up our tags. You can find the ones we are using here, here and here. All three are super blogs about workboxes with awesome printable tags.
Here is a pic of our poetry center. We had a TON going on this week, so we will start next week with this center.
Another view of our little working area. The supply bins from IKEA are SO awesome for all of our supplies! Crayons, highlighters, markers, sight word cards, etc. are all right there. It is probably one of my favorite organizational tools.
This week we “started” school. We are actually only reviewing AAS 1 and some Saxon lessons, but we did add all of our other daily lessons from all subject areas just so Ellie could get back in the swing of things. On Monday, I will take her “official” first day of Kindergarten picture. I want to get the whole mom/dad with her outside and her backpack on just because I’m sentimental that way! I have my kinder picture and I want her to have one too! Nonetheless, this was our first day back and even my little homeschooler has a snack box and matching hair bow! We did go barefoot though!!
Our dearest Ellie Grace,
I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool you. (most of the time!! HA)
I think this year is going to be amazing and you will really learn to LOVE learning. We have had a (mostly) amazing week filled with lots of new learning and new extra curricular activities. I truly can’t believe you are old enough to be in school now. It was just yesterday that I was holding my 2 pound miracle on my chest in the NICU. I am proud of you every single day…on our good days and our bad ones. You are amazing, beautiful, smart, kind, talented and I am grateful every day that God chose us to raise you up to Him. What a gift you are!!!
We love you forever and always!
Mommy and Daddy
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