classroom set-up

New classroom this year - converting a two's classroom to a science room wrought some serious thought to function and form as well as interior decorating (ha!) and organization. I have boxes and boxes of materials and books, stored in 2 other classroom closets and snuggling up with the spiders in my basement. I did some life laundry and downsized to one closet and just 2 boxes left for the spiders.

I made a reading circle area with separate displays for fiction and for non-fiction books illustrating science themes. I will change the selection periodically to complement the areas we are studying from my considerable personal library.

I made a terrific find - an old turntable salvaged from someone's classroom 'junk' and got it to work. It's the black box on the cupboard on the left in the first picture! Perfect for my 'Information Storage' unit. Can YOU figure out those black vinyl discs on the bulletin board? Yep, 33 1/3rds and I have 78s and 45s at home as well. I got hold of a TV, VHS and DVD player as well, not to mention our collection of ancient computers at home. More on THAT when the time is right!

Finally - after years - a collections table! Just waiting for the first rocks and shells and leaves to hit it! Magnifiers, paper and colored pencils (SO much more subtle than crayons and marker even for 3's) to draw what you see. Even a bug box lest some live objects arrive with the kids ("well it LOOKED like a rock"). Check out 'Let's go rock collecting' by Roma Gans - a good read-aloud book.
My jelly marbles are growing as we speak and the first students arrive in science class Monday. Wrote an intro newsletter to the parents and had so much fun with it - I hope they like the humorous bits!
Check out these quotes from NAEYC publications - I love the chinese proverb one - it's what my science class is all about - DOING!