It's Time for Kindergarten

Moving to kindergarten has been in the works for 4 months. I knew back in March that I would not only be moving from second grade to kindergarten, but also moving schools. I was moving from the first school I had ever worked at. It was a scary and sad decision at first, but I am so glad that I made it. I have many reasons for making this change, but the biggest reason is that fact that I have always wanted to teach kindergarten. I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I, myself, was in kindergarten. My love for school was planted like a seed and has been blossoming ever since. Now I get to teach the grade that made me fall in love with learning.

Waiting to move for 4 months was hard!! I had to pack up my old room that had been my home for 6 years and say goodbye. There were many tears on those last days of school. Summer had come, but I was busy. Many summer committee meetings to occupy my time. Then yesterday I heard I could go into my classroom! Seriously?! I was so excited. I think I only slept 5 hours last night. Luckily, I am only a 3 minute car drive away from my new school.

When I walked in all of the furniture was in the middle of the room, as it usually is during the summer. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to move it since they will be cleaning the floors in 2 weeks. THEN I can fully set up my room *fingers crossed*. I got the okay to set up my walls and work in my room though. Only downside was that the previous teacher still hadn’t packed. Here are the before pictures.

Despite only being able to do a few things, I actually got quite a bit accomplished. I started by cleaning out all of the cabinets and wiping them down with Clorox wipes. I was able to clear out all of the cabinets on one wall and move some of my stuff into a locking cabinet.

I was even able to set up a few walls. The one pictured below is a nice little corner right next to the door. This is where I will display some of my students’ work as well as their picture frames. I love this corner because this took up so much space in my old classroom and this room it’s nicely hidden in a corner, but since it’s right by the door it’s also very visible.

I was also able to clear a corner of my room. I have a CORNER!! I have ALWAYS wanted a corner!! I put up the border, but didn’t take a picture of that yet. This is where I plan on having my calendar and morning meeting. Not sure if I’m going to be getting a classroom carpet, but this is the perfect place for it. I also heard that we are getting Smart boards, so that is another reason why I didn’t do much decorating yet.

The last place that I worked on was the bathroom. I have always had a bathroom in my room so it’s nice that I don’t have to experience it for the first time with kinders. It’s also nice to have a little “bathroom knowledge” and a few Do’s and Don’t’s. I’ve shared a bathroom with the teacher next door and our 50+ 2nd graders. Now it will just be my bathroom which is also exciting. I made these posters back in 2010 and they don’t really fit in my classroom anymore, but they went perfectly in the bathroom! Hopefully Viola Swamp isn’t too scary for the bathroom :-/

I am pretty impressed for 5 hours of work. 1 of those hours was moving things into my room and the rest was everything I shared with you. I still have quite a lot to move out of my house and into my classroom. Unfortunately it will be close to 3 weeks until I can get back in there. Hopefully, that will give me a chance to enjoy the rest of my summer. It has been flying by so quickly!! I will definitely be sharing more photos as this process goes on.