Blog Hoppin' Teacher Week: Where is my classroom?

Today is Tuesday! You know what that means...DAY 2 of Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week!  There are some days where I think I spend more time at school than my own apartment!  Living in China has it ups and downs...The expat community is A LOT smaller than the ones I came from back in the States.  Not only do we work together, but we also hang out, go to church, and travel together.  Sometimes I definitely feel like I'm living in a BUBBLE!  But I love it and wouldn't trade my experience for the world.

This year, I kept my theme the same from last year: bright, rainbow colors, and a slight hint of owls and chevron.  I feel so lucky to work with such a SPACIOUS classroom!!!  I think it's every teacher's dream to have a HUGE class with a small student:teacher ratio.  :)

Here's a closer classroom tour...Scroll below!

A Panorama of my room.

Calendar wall

Guided Reading table area and our prayer and praise tree

Blocks center

Writing Center

I'm still working on my Tech center but each ECC classroom has 4 shared iPads and one teacher iPad!!

Dramatic center

Library center

Near the classroom entrance

This is where we do our classroom jobs, behavior chart, how we go to school chart, goodbye chants, and keep our mailboxes at.  Thanks for checking out my classroom!  I just love working in it! 

Don't forget to click below to check out other classrooms around the world! :)

The ECC Outdoor Classroom AKA Our Playground!

I wanted to share with you my lovely playground, or as my school calls it-- the Early Childhood Center (ECC) Outdoor Classroom.  

This area is exclusively just for the ECC students- ages 3-5.  It is located in my school's courtyard.

The bike track and grassy areas.

Kids riding their bikes or pulling wagons.

Some of the garden and huge sandbox.

Our garden sign!  Each Class takes care of a garden.

The kindergarten garden! There are carrots, beans, squash, peanuts, and other things I'm not sure of.

Another Kinder garden.  Last year the students planted corn, tomatoes and more vegetables.

On nice days, we take our classes outside for a picnic during snack.  

The water area.

The climbing wall.

Slides!

So what do we do when the pollution levels are high or it is raining? We go to the "Treehouse"!  It's a huge indoor playroom!

We have a swing. 

A log house with kitchen toys.

Back corner is blocks, puppet center, and a wall full of toys.

Slides and jungle gym, a big sandbox in the corner, and a small shelf full of books!

The outdoor and indoor playground is another reason why I fell in love with my international school.  It's amazing how they let students play in the sand, mud, and tend a garden. We have tubs of balls, jump ropes, wood scraps, and fabric for the students to use freely.  It's fun to see students engaged in learning through play.

What's in your school playground?  What do your students enjoy during outdoor play/recess?

My Classroom in China!

Ni Hao (hello!) everyone!  It's been forever since I've posted but I wanted to let you know that I've moved safely and successfully in China!  I have enjoyed almost every day living here and all of my school staff and hosts have been wonderful to me and my roommate! :)

I will talk about China more and all of the changes I've been experiencing the last 13 days.

But now I just want to show you my new classroom!  I'm still working on making it "perfect" but it's the set up I like as of now.  I still have a lot of cleaning and organizing behind many of the cabinets.

Also, I'm linking up with Courtney from Swimming Into Second for your Linky Party!

Since I'm at an international school, the school departments are separated by floors.  The ECC (Early Childhood Center is located on the first floor with specials (the big P.E. gym, music, etc) and cafeteria. The elementary is on the 2nd floor, the high school is on the 3rd. and Middle school is split between 2nd and 3rd floor.  I wish I took a picture of my whole school...but I haven't done that yet...

This is my learning tree outside my classroom.  My kindergarten class is called the Orchid class-- named after the Hong Kong Orchid Trees (where my parents are from).  I am loving the flowers my TA (teacher's assistant) made for it.

This is the bulletin board outside my classroom. I guess my classroom decor theme this year is bright rainbow colors and owls. :)

In the ECC, everyone (students, teachers, staff and visitors) must wear crocs or shoe coverings in our area of the school.  It is suppose to keep the environment more clean.  Honestly, I thought it was strange at first but I'm enjoying wearing them everyday because its like being barefoot in my classroom.  However, I hate how my pink crocs don't match any of my work clothes I wear...

I'm sad I didn't take better pictures of my whole classroom but I was doing this while the kids were at centers!  BTW, that's not me sitting in the back, that's my TA, Nancy.  I love how every class has a Chinese National TA. She is the best!  She helps translate notes to Chinese, teach the kids Chinese, and she's just an another teacher to help me in the class even though I only have 8 (yes you heard me, just EIGHT) students this year. :)

This is the entrance of my classroom.  You see the job chart, student mailboxes, behavior chart, how I go home chart, and goodbye chants.

Here's my class library. I love it! I will probably take a nap here sometime in the near future...As you can see, our author study is on Eric Carle!

Here's my lovely drama area.  For every unit we study in Language arts, we change the area to that theme.  Since it's the start of the school year, it's just a kitchen. And I threw a tent in there for them to play with as well.  I still need to add more stuff like windows and curtains.

The writing center.  It actually doesn't look like this because I already switched some shelves around since the first day of school.

Here's my carpet area for whole group time. You can see my calendar on the left of the Promethean board.

Here's the back of the room with my tricky word wall and other things.  Wow, I think I need to add more color to this side of the room!

I saved my favorite spot of the room for last-- my Prayer and praise wall.  Everyday we close in prayer and we discuss about any prayer requests or praises we have. Also we fill out learning leaves for our learning tree outside our classroom, too.

Hope you enjoyed my virtual classroom tour!  I'm hoping for even better pictures later in the year! :)