I am taking a look back at how I started last year with my Rainforest theme classroom as I get in gear to set up for a brand new year:
After a whirlwind week of getting everything back together after waxing the floors, we had our Sneak Peek of our Rainforest PreK classroom.
Classroom Door
Since we are in a church, we were able to find some saved decorations from a past Vacation Bible Camp that was jungle themed with a ton of these leaves. This really saved me since I totally forgot to plan out my door this week.
Question of the Day and Lunch Cubbies
As students came in they received a sheet with pictures of things to find around the room. One was the Question of the Day. Student name cards were placed on top of the cubbies shelf so students could find their name and place it under the answer they chose. You can find the Teddy Bear themed questions in my Question of the Day Bundle.
Each child’s lunch bin held a special teddy bear theme treat to find when they checked off the cubbies on their sheet. Editable name labels of all kinds to match the rainforest theme classroom are part of the Rainforest Decor Bundle.
Coat Hooks and Classroom Jobs
I keep my jobs above the coat hooks in my classroom. The student names have velcro on the back so that I can move them down each week to change jobs. This means the line leader is always the coat hook closest to the door.
Library Area
My library area moved this year to the spot where the blocks used to be. I also added a pet bed from IKEA for sitting. The easel is on the other end of this area, which I hope to use for story retelling on the side that faces the library area.
Celebrating Birthdays and ABC Display
Above the library is my birthday display. I switched out the decorative paper on the fronts of the bags for some AstroBrights paper. The birthday sign should soon be added to my Rainforest Decor Bundle, as soon as I can write up some instructions for putting it together since it prints out on six sheets of paper.
Since the library moved and has the art shelf as one side of it, I needed a solution for having the alphabet by my circle area. I ended up creating a new set of alphabet cards and placed them on the back of the pretend play shelf facing the circle area. Since this shelf is shorter, there is just enough space to fit everything.
Combing Circle and Blocks
In the past I have had my circle area and blocks area separate. I decided to rearrange this year and combine the two. We will see how I like it as I make my way through the year. I felt that the circle rug was wasting too much classroom space by not being used much during centers time, although I did use it for small groups sometimes and having blocks here now will make me have to rethink small groups sometimes.
Center Sign Placement
One challenge with my new layout is figuring out where I would place my centers signs. The arts and crafts sign ended up on the cabinet next to the table where we do those activities and the blocks sign ended up in the window just above the block shelf.
Now that I have reviewed last year’s decor, I am inspired to make some changes for the new year. What changes are you planning for your classroom?
