Circle Time

(Click on picture to enlarge)

(Click on picture to enlarge)

• The yellow chair is where I sit for whole group teaching activities.
• Directly behind the yellow chair you can see the rules chart (made at Vista Print), our daily picture schedule, our leader of the day information, and our literacy and math center rotation chart.
• The white board to the right holds our calendar math curriculum components; calendar, days of the week train, number line, number bear, and counting hands to 100 quilt. 
• The schedule in the narrow blue pocket chart is a MUST for all early childhood classrooms, it helps smooth transitions by giving your students a visual reminder of what is happening or is going to happen in class. 
• The bags hanging above the white board are Birthday Bags
• The Royal Reading and Writing Easel holds our morning message chart, big books, and much more.

Classroom Rules:

It is important to have visuals to go with your rules in an early childhood classroom as a reminder.  I made this rules chart using Vista Print.  It is posted on the wall in our circle area so we can refer to it often. 

Days of the Week Train

There are many wonderful days of the week songs out there. 

The one I use in the beginning of the year is to the tune of "Oh, My Darling"

• There are seven days,
• There are seven days,
• There are seven days in a week,
• Sunday, Monday,
• Tuesday, Wednesday,
• Thursday, Friday,
• Saturday!

I like to use Dr. Jean's "Days of the Week" song from Sing to Learn starting about mid-way through the year.

The days of the week train is located under the calendar and comes from our Everyday in Pre-K Counts math kit, by Great Source.  Each day of the week is a different color, it is very colorful and  looks like the train from Donald Crews' Fright Train.

Birthday Bags:

Each bag is labeled with a different month and a die-cut shape.   Each student's name and birth date is printed on a colorful tongue depressor, then the sticks are placed in the appropriate bags.  At the beginning of each month we take a bag down to see what birthdays are coming soon, then we place the birthday stick in the calendar pocket chart on the appropriate day so we won't forget the important birthdays.

Picture Schedule:

Our daily activities are displayed  sequentially in a pocket chart and a clip is moved down at the beginning of every transition to indicate what we are doing.  This schedule was made using Microsoft clipart printed on cardstock. 

Teaching Easel:

I couldn't live without my teaching easel!  I use it to conduct the morning message, read big books, hold pointers, I write on it like a whiteboard, it holds my magnetic timer, it has hooks for hanging charts on the back, and it has 4 large tubs underneath where I store the books I am going to read aloud each day and all sorts of other teaching tools I need to have at my fingertips.