The classroom I will be working in for this course is a preschool room of 4 year-olds, most of whom will turn 5 beginning in January through May. There are 24 total children on our class list, though only 20 are there on any given day, and it is a different mix of children every day of the week, due to flexible scheduling.
Most stay all day (8:30-2:45), but a handful are picked up at noon. Of those that stay all day, about a third to a half will sleep during our required rest-time, if they are given a quiet space, free of distraction (meaning away from the non-resting children). Those that don’t sleep are encouraged to look quietly at books while their friends fall asleep, and then halfway through rest-time we may engage them in quiet activities.
This years class is a diverse group with many ethnicities represented (Albanian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Asian Indian and Central American), and many different corresponding languages spoken at home. Some of our children have great English mastery, but many are dual language learners.
As far as classroom layout, we have a large rug in front of our SmartBoard where we gather for circle time and where most instruction takes place. We also have three hexagonal tables with six chairs each (that are really two trapezoids pushed together, so we have some options if we want to mix it up), and a writing table that seats four. In addition, we have a book corner, house corner, Lego table, train table and sand table at our disposal.
Our school is committed to providing technological tools for our students and teachers. We have SmartBoards in all the classrooms, and a cart of iPads that I suppose we can use, provided we don’t interfere with scheduled elementary computer classes. I have a school-issued laptop, too, but it is a dinosaur and I really hope I am next on the upgrade list!
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