Wow…it’s been WAY too long!! My blog has gotten a bit neglected over the past two months as I traveled back to Tanzania and started my second year teaching at Hope International School! It has been so great to be back “home” here in Moshi, reconnecting with friends and getting to know new ones, and so much more! I truly feel like this is home, and I love it!
I am teaching Kindergarten this year- for the first time! I am really enjoying it- I have 12 students, from Tanzania, America, Korea, England, and India. They are sweethearts, and I am loving getting to know them and being their teacher! The majority of my class are English Language Learners, which proves challenging but very rewarding!
This is the door to my classroom. The school where I work is on a compound-type property. We have 3 buildings that all lead out onto a courtyard where we have lunch, play basketball, and have the playground area too. I’ll have to do a “school tour” sometime soon! We have 86 students- ages 2-14 at Hope, with all sorts of cultures, backgrounds, and languages! I love being a part of this growing international community!
When you enter my classroom, this is what it looks like! I am blessed to have a spacious classroom this year, with lots of room to learn and grow! We have two main spaces- the work area which is in the foreground, and the meeting/teaching area behind the mushroom-cut-out. We do lots of centers and hands-on learning in our classroom!
This is facing the front of the room right next to the door. On the right, you’ll see my teacher desk. I actually used a lightweight scarf as my tablecloth! I think it’s perfect for my jungle-themed room! Then we have the chalkboard, and our word wall next to that. The kindergarten teacher a couple years ago brought over a TON of awesome resources, centers, and decor from America, and I am so blessed to have some extra resources! She had a jungle theme going on, so I decided to continue that, adding some pops of bright colors along the way.
Here’s a closer look at the word wall, the door that connects to the hallway inside the building, and a faux bulletin board that I created as a focus wall! I’m putting up different anchor charts/student work/big ideas from our weekly-ish themes on this one. This week, we had Noah’s Ark up on the wall!
This back wall houses their cubbies, where they store backpacks, water bottles, etc. I also have their work up on the wall, an extra table for centers or art, and a bookshelf for storage. Each student has a cup that they can use if they forget to bring their water bottle to school.
I put labels with the students’ names and numbers on the cubbies. Now, I use the space on top of the cubbies to store center work for the day/week, and the cups get stacked up.
I love this area in my classroom- it houses “Roarin’ Good Work”! I put 2 lines of masking tape on the wall, hot-glued clothespins to that, with the little monkeys on top. Now, we can easily switch out their work! Each student has a clothespin that has a cute little monkey (from Lakeshore) with their name on it!
Here’s a look from the other side of my room. This setup makes centers really easy: we usually will have three centers at the tables, and one on the floor in the meeting area.Do you see the jungle-theme going on here?! 😉
Here is my Jungle Helpers area. I have decided to have three student-jobs that rotate weekly. I have a line leader, and two teacher’s assistants- one boy and one girl. This makes it really easy to manage, and each job gets used each week.
At the beginning of each week, during our Morning Meeting on Monday, I pick the three helpers from our popsicle sticks, making sure that everyone gets a turn somewhat-regularly. Then, I write their names with an Expo marker on the animals. These animals, as well as the ones on our door, and ones used throughout the classroom, came in a pack from Lakeshore. I think they are SO cute!!
These guys also came from the pack mentioned above. They’re my passes for if a student has to leave the classroom! They’re hanging up right next to the door for easy access.
I think I’m going to wrap this blog post up here, and continue the Classroom Reveal in a couple days, showing you the back area of my classroom, where we have our meeting time and large-group teaching time. I’ll also share more of the decor that I made! I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into my classroom! I am in love with it, and having so much fun teaching in Tanzania again this year!
Much Love, Allie
