Blocks, Blocks, and More Blocks

Alright, so I'm feeling better now - compared to how I felt this morning. I spent the day in my classroom doing finishing touches on some parade stuff and organizing the block center. Just in general, it was a good day.

I contact-papered (Don't worry - it's totally okay to use that as a verb. I'm a teacher. I know these things.) the banners we're going to hang on our truck this weekend first. Considering the banners are 6 feet and 4 feet long, this took me quite a while. I'm glad I did it though; they'll be much stronger this way.

Then, I moved on to the fun part - organizing my block center. I use The Creative Curriculum in my classroom, and I had just re-read the chapter on blocks. I knew there were lots of things I needed to do with it, so I took care of them today.

First, I needed to move my block center. It was in the middle of one side of my classroom, but I wanted to put it in a corner. I just thought it would make it more private and inviting for kids. So I took care of that.

Then, I needed to organize my unit blocks.

Here is what they looked like before:

It was really hard for the kids to get all of the blocks on the little cart they are on in this picture. Most of the time they were overflowing and falling all over the place.

I started by tracing the different shapes of blocks on contact paper, so I could label the shelves. Like this:


Here's the finished product:

I'm so excited for this! It'll be so much easier for the kids to pick up the block center. Each block has it's own space!

Next, I worked on organizing the props. I put everything in totes and labeled the totes and the shelves.

Shelves are labeled with pictures and words. (Sorry about the bad picture - I couldn't get the blinds to shut out all of the sun)

Each tote has a label to match the shelf. This way kids know what goes into each tote and where it goes on the shelf.

Here's the whole shelf area! I love how organized and easy to clean up it is.

Here's the whole area! I'm trying to decide if I want to keep that Lego table or get rid of it. The Legos themselves are hard for the little ones to take apart and put together - their fine motor skills aren't there yet. It also takes up a lot of space. I don't know though...Decisions, decisions, decisions.

In general, though, I'm very pleased with how it looks. I think the kids will appreciate it as well. Hopefully it encourages some outstanding play experiences.