Preschool Plans 2013-2014: School Room & Learning Spaces

We moved into our current home 6 months ago. This house is twice as big as our last house, so there has been a lot of space to plan and organize. The space will change over time as our family grows. The upstairs game room was an empty space for months. I had so many ideas for the kiddos "school room" and was overwhelmed with the inspiration on Pinterest. SO many fabulous ideas out there! Since I have a preschooler and a toddler, I made the space more playful with creative materials on their level. We won't be learning strictly in this room, but the majority of our learning materials are accessible in this room. I will be doing our family Bible study and calendar time in the family or living room downstairs. I will get the kids outside as much as possible, so that may mean our learning time gets moved outside some days. We are doing a very science-based curriculum plan, so it may be more natural to take the learning outdoors.

We put up the baby gate to separate the room from the rest of the upstairs area and to keep BooBoo (who is 22 months) from destroying playing without supervision with all the school materials. The walls are quite bare right now, but I plan on taping up all their art work on every bit of wall space we have. Hopefully it will get quite colorful as the year goes on! 

 From left to right: Littlemiss's Learning Center with a rug as her focused work space. The lovely shelving unit was purchased at a neighbor's garage sale. The the activity table to the right is a train table I bought on Craigslist. I flipped the boards in the middle so the train scenery doesn't show and put up a $6 mirror from Target.

Reading corner on the far left side, small train table for playing on in the middle, and  BooBoo's Learning Center on the right. A magnetic board on the outside of the gate to the far right. On the back wall is storage and shelving.

Each day the activities on the shelves are traded out for whatever learning activities are planned for that day. On the top left is the Montessori moving alphabet, with math and geometric activities on the shelves below. To go along with our month theme of insects, on the top right are some dead insects for observation with a few books about insects. Below are some core science materials for the insect theme. The bottom right shelf are science activities for that day. Some of these are intended for her use alone, and others require my guidance.  

This table will be useful for many activities. It is close by her creative materials for open-ended, process-oriented creating. Below the table is a light table, a box for sensory play, and a recycled plant holder for open-ended play. To the right of the table in the back (which can barely be seen) is paper stored in a storage drawers. 

For creative use: watercolors, colored pencils, glue, crayons, markers, scissors, pipe cleaners, paper streamers, textured paper, glitter glue, large tongue depressors, colored string, wooden beads, plastic beads, buttons, feathers, glitter gems, googly eyes, colored popsicle sticks, foam balls, cotton balls, small pom poms, large pom poms, and assorted ribbons. I will likely add to this as I find other fun things to create with.

The first storage cubby on the left has some sensory materials and staple sensory play toys: corn, rainbow rice, beans, colored gems, assorted scoopers, strainer, and large plastic containers. Middle storage cubby: a variety of collected plastic containers, electrical cord (without an outlet), bubble wrap, etc. Right storage cubby: egg cartons, Valentines themed sensory bin, fake flowers, plastic eggs, paper "grass," and packing popcorn. All these materials will likely be shuffled around and added to/taken from through out the year.   

This is a favorite chair of my kiddos, so it will be well used for reading during the year. Our themed library books are in the basket to the right of the chair.

There is PLENTY of storage to grow into. We don't have much stored in this space now, but I know this will change over time. I have two other storage closets full of learning toys and art/creative materials in other places in the house, but I think those things will eventually end up in this space. The organization will change over the years as our family grows. On the top left are Target fabric bins with folders of alphabet and themed printables. Below that shelf are a few resources for Littlemiss's school this year, and a writing station bin in progress for Littlemiss. The printer is on the lowest shelf. The right top shelf are books of mine from college that I will use as resources for teaching the kids. Below them are classic chapter books. Some decor on the shelf below that. On the lowest shelf are materials and activities for that week. I have a sensory bin ready to go for the first week, a book extension activity, and the kids school totes. 

Littlemiss got the tote on the left as a birthday gift a few years ago. Since then I've used it to organize her daily school stuff. I typically have writing materials, worksheets, lesson plans, and anything else we might need for the day. This was before we had the school room. I would carry the tote around our house with all the materials in it to do activities with her. I still plan on using it for writing activities or to "tote" learning materials around the house. I made BooBoo one as well. Since he has an obsession with cars, I drew the car and truck on his tote.

The two cabinets on the left of the built in are organized with science, various small world animals and objects, early literacy, and math materials. I organized each learning manipulative in shoe box bins and food bins. I even whipped out the label maker. My organized-obsessed self is quite pleased with this space. Eventually Clay will build shelves within these cabinets. For now this is sufficient. I may post more on what materials we have and use for those interested.

BooBoo's Learning Center. See how each activity/toy is neatly placed on each shelf and bin, this won't last long. I envision him happily tearing this apart, which is the idea for the most part :)

Upstairs between the kids rooms is a learning toy closet. I keep all the puzzles, building toys, games, lacing materials, fine motor games, peg boards, felt toys, and magnetic toys. These learning toys are rotated downstairs on shelving we have in the family room and are also used on their Learning Centers. All the imaginary play toys are downstairs in another closet under our stairs near the play family room. I call it the family room, but if I'm honest with myself, it's mostly used for playing :)

Since the hot climate we live in rarely requires a coat even in the winter, I converted the coat closet into an art closet. Various art supplies are stored in a shoe organizer on the door and other paper, paint, play dough, stickers, shaving cream, and various creative materials are stored here. This closet will serve to restock the school room's creative materials.

I decided to have our calendar wall down in the kitchen area where we already start our day. I originally had our daily rhythm on this wall for the past few months, which is on the far right of the wall now. We just painted it with magnetic paint, and then chalkboard paint over it. We ended up having to paint 6 coats of magnetic paint so that it would actually work. Even with the 6 coats, only stronger magnets work on it and the wall is rough to the touch. I don't regret it, I just wish I would have known how much time and money we were going to end up pouring into it before making the decision to make the wall magnetic! 

I'm going to write another post on how I made all of the elements for her calendar wall and will link it here. The "Days of the Week" and "Days in School" pockets are made from an old hanging shoe organizer. Each month this year we are going to focus on a fruit of the spirit and a weekly Bible memory verse that corresponds with it.

Well, that's it for our school room, learning spaces, and storage throughout our house. Love that I've documented this so I can see how it grows and changes over the years :)

Hop on over to the iHomeschool Network School Room Week blog hop to share your own homeschool classroom or to check out some of the other homeschool class rooms!