This is my first year as a classroom teacher. I'm growing with every day I spend with my kids. And so is my classroom. Here's a quick piece about how my classroom has changed in the past few months!
@teachthelove
Check out the video I posted for an in depth look at my classroom.
Dramatic Play
This is probably going to come as a shock to a lot of you, but we don't do a lot of dramatic play in my room. Don't get me wrong, I think dramatic play is SO important to kids this age, but it wasn't working for my classroom. So while we build up our pretend play skills (we still have time for it and are constantly teaching these skills to my kids) I took the play kitchen out of the classroom. My kids were not using it appropriately, and in talking with the other adults, we decided to focus on other methods of dramatic play - baby dolls, for example. Many of my kids are learning how to feed our baby dolls with a bottle, or brush their hair. Once we build up our skills, maybe we'll reintroduce the kitchen, but for now, we're focusing on more appropriate pretend skills.
Cubbies
My room is an ABA room, meaning we do a lot of direct teaching. For some of my kids, this requires a smaller space with limited distractions. To accommodate this, we made two cubby spaces. Each has a bookcase and cabinet for us to keep materials for DTI (discrete trial instruction) programs as well as reinforcers like puzzles and toy animals. We also have a separate room we call the Learning Room where students can receive DTI if they are able to transition outside of the classroom.
Play Space
In our play area, we have a few built in bookcases. I have curtains covering a few of them to keep some toys reserved for later rotations, and to keep them "out of sight, out of mind." Though the kids may try to look behind the curtains, most of the time, they respect this boundary. It also helps keep things clean - less toys to dump on the ground. We rotate which toys are available, though cars and blocks remain as they are very popular with my students. We use the purple mat to block off this space during table time to indicate that this station is closed at that time. This is a boundary we are still teaching, though many students are beginning to pick up on it.
Sensory Station
My next project is to create a sensory station. I am planning on putting a rug, pillows, and other comfort items by my mirror to create a safe space for my kids to relax and step away from the business of the room. Now that we have removed the kitchen from this spot, we have begun to collect pillows and other materials. One of my amazing paras found a rug she thinks will work for the room, so once that comes in we will start building up this station! I will keep you updated as it evolves.
Well, that's it for now! My room will continue to grow, and I am so excited to see where it goes from here.
Miss D
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