Today, I will be sharing with you a little tour of my classroom. I have a beautiful space for all 16 of my first and second graders. As a child, I dreamed of having my own classroom someday. I used to play school with my siblings and always insisted on being the teacher, although I would often let my cool, older cousin teach too, love you Shelby ;). Overall, I've been looking forward to setting up and organizing my first classroom for many years now. I would have never though that it would be in Costa Rica too!
Before I start, I want to give you some background information. The Cloud Forest School closed down in March 2020 when the pandemic struck. It was abandoned for more than a year until our current director got there this Spring. During the weeks leading up to the first day of school there was a lot of hard work that had to be done. Almost all of the classrooms looked like an apocalypse happened. There were half drank cups of coffee and lesson plans for the week laid out. Additionally, the Cloud Forest School is quite literally in the Cloud Forest. The forest was consuming the school. Needless to say, there was a lot of work that was done over those first few weeks. I'm so grateful for all of those that helped me in my classroom. I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out.
One of the first things you will see when you come inside are these 'first words' guides. Over half of my 16 students' first language is Spanish. I also have a student whose first language is Mandarin. These guides are helpful for both me and the students to communicate with each other.
Next, I have our classroom jobs chart. We only just started the jobs today so we will see how it goes. I'm planning to change them every week.
Here are the students' indoor cubbies. This is where they put their take home work and where their extra materials are kept. This will also be where their Chromebooks will be stored.
Above their cubbies, I have some of their work displayed. They completed these All About Me's during the first week of school so that we could all get to know each other a little better.
Here is one of the main areas we do a lot of work in. You can see the calendar to the left. On the board, I have their student groups, days of the week, and daily schedule.
This is the 'teacher area'. A lot of my supplies and my desk are all here. You can see some of the adorable pictures the kids made me hanging up by the window too.
Here are some manipulatives and the homework and school work turn in baskets.
This is our outdoor deck. My assistant teacher and I are planning on getting soil and seeds to start a classroom garden out here.
Next is my favorite part of the whole classroom, the classroom library! I have a snug reading corner. I separated books into baskets of fiction, non-fiction, and Español on the left side. Then, on the right, books are separated by reading level A-Z.
Here is the art center! The kids absolutely love this one.
Next, here is another spot where we do a lot of learning. I have a projector set up here so I can plug my laptop in anytime. The kids all have a post on the floor here so it's great for circle time.
Here's what the outside of our class looks like. Each student has their own cubby where they store their jackets, outdoor shoes, backpacks, and lunches.
Thank you so much for reading and coming along on the classroom tour!
Commentaires