An Even LONGER Hallway?!

Well, how convenient is this:  The school I am moving to has a hallway even LONGER than the school I am leaving.  I know, I know...it seems impossible!  How do these incredibly long hallways come into being?  Who is conspiring against the short-legged children...and adults :) of the world?  

A view inside my new classroom:  The very small carpet/group time area.  I'm not quite sure at this point, how I'll use it, but it sure looks inviting! 

I will say that the twisting, round-about hallways do give us some unique opportunities for language extension!  While I taught the extended school year program last month in this same building, the children were especially enamored with the long, twisting ramp and the rock-textured wall! 

The super long hallway also saves me from changing the name of this blog :)  We will still be traveling down a long hallway.  We will, in fact, be traveling down an even LONGER hallway! 

I created 2 work time areas.  This is a view of the larger work table with white board behind it.   I've also decided to keep all my binders etc. out since we will have limited numbers of children in the classroom at a time.  This may have to be changed as we go...we'll see! 

I will, however, be teaching a preschool "resource" room rather than a typical classroom.  (Yep, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it as well)  I will work with children who have IEP's but are able to attend integrated classrooms.  I will work with children either in my classroom or in their own classroom on each of their individual areas of need. 

Ignore my stuff on the tables...I was working :)

I've spent the last few days in my new classroom setting it up.  After a few hours of work, I'm pretty pleased with the result.  I am POSITIVE I will need to make changes as the school year starts, but at least now it is clean, organized and ready for the first few weeks. 

Here is a view of the smaller work table.  I set up the 2 shelves in the middle of the room to divide the areas- one shelf opening towards the smaller table, one opening towards the larger table.  One holds children's books, the other holds manipulatives and games.   

I have purposefully left most of the wall space bare.  I have come across so many children who are highly visually distracted by items on the wall that we're going to start with very few distractions. 

I've created 2 work areas because I will be working with teacher associates who will also pull groups/individual children to work with them on goals.  This will mean we can have 2 groups going at once in the classroom.

Here's the very small cozy corner/calm down area.  We'll see how this works! :)

I hope you enjoyed this quick tour of my new room!  If only it could stay half this neat, clean and organized throughout the school year!