Just Look What I Found! MORE Pringles Can Ideas!

Do you remember my 5 Green and Speckled Frogs that I made, and now have used for YEARS!?  Well, needless to say, these poor frogs and log really are just about to fall apart.  But, what else is there to do with a Pringles can, construction paper and bath toys?  Oh, do I have the answer for you!

I can't even tell you how excited I am to share this with you!  I came across Laura from Differentiation Station Creations who took my basic idea and RAN with it!  She has created several new ideas using this same basic concept.  Bumblebees, sharks and puppies...oh, my!  Now, these ideas may be more elementary classroom in nature, but can be adapted for younger students as well.   

Seriously, if you like the 5 green and Speckled Frog idea, you will love these other ideas!  You really have to check them out!  Now, I'm off to eat a few more Pringles!

My New Preschool Resource Room Classroom Setup!

 Here I am for my annual visit to write a blog post about setting up my classroom!  Well, perhaps, if I find a way to manage my time a bit better this year, it will be more than an annual visit.  Between writing papers for my masters classes, reading books for those same classes and managing to actually teach at some point in there, I've been a bit busy!

This will be one of two work areas for us. 

My tiny "teacher area".  That's a "fake" bulletin board above my desk, on which I will simply tape the school calendar and schedule.

A view of this same work area as above, from the other angle.

This is a close up of what will be our learning targets board.  I may have to adjust this a bit.  If you look closely you will realize that this is really a "fake" bulletin board.  This is why the chart is pinned to the top of the border. :)

This is the shelf in our main work area.  The children's IEP goal progress papers will be kept in the mailboxes. 

Luckily, this summer has been a wonderful opportunity to rest, relax and recharge!  These are three things I clearly needed to do this summer.  It's amazing how simple these masters classes seem when it is the only thing I need to do during the summer!  Oh, but it is so quickly coming to an end.

If you remember (or look to the previous post) I find it very important to set up my room to help avoid as many visual distractions as possible.  Now, I've only figured out two ways to do this.  One way is to simply keep the walls as bare as possible until the students are used to the room and it slowly becomes possible to add in more visuals as the students become more capable of focusing and attending without being so distracted by everything around them.

This will be our other work area.  This area is a bit smaller, but will serve two purposes.  We will use the table to work with children on goal work.  We can also move the table out of the way and provide language/communication and play skills on the carpet.  This area doesn't stick to my originally color scheme as much, but I've tried to cover up as many distractions as possible.

This is what the "curtain" is hiding. :)  Agh!  Just look at that visual distraction!

This will be our book area.  I KNOW the kids will love looking at books in the tent!  The small window behind the tent just faces a hallway, so we really aren't blocking too much.

 The other way to do this is to simply keep the colors consistent (or as consistent as possible) throughout the space and to cover all visual distractions on shelves (or as many as possible).  This is the plan I went with this year.  There were two reasons I decided to take this route.  The first, and main reason, is that I am sharing this room with, not one, but TWO other preschool resource teachers.  This means there are three different personalities, teaching styles and ways to decorate and organize the classroom.  I just had to keep things as simple and as coordinated in my area as possible (otherwise, I am sure I would go crazy!).  The other reason is that I actually did have a full summer this year.  I was able to sort through all my teaching items at home and came across a treasure trove of unused things that I figured I could make use of in the classroom.  I also had some time to sew a few simple, new "curtains" to cover and contain my mess on the shelves!  Unfortunately, I also stack things on shelves, so this only takes care of some of the visual distractions, but it does, clearly help!

This is my tiny teacher area!

The is the back of my area of the classroom.

Now, here comes the problem with this.  Clearly, I am attempting to re-use items and I don't intend to go out and buy brand new items to create a perfectly color coordinated classroom area!  So, needless to say, this will not be the cutest or perfectly coordinated classroom area.  But, I tried to stick with the black base highlighted with green and blue.  Hmmm...does that make sense?  So, what do you think?  Is there anything you would add to this?