Saturday School Show and Tell

A learning link-up…

Learning can happen anywhere, you know. A kitchen table, an elaborate classroom, a picnic table at the park, in the grocery store, while driving in the car…

Still, it’s nice to have a space that’s dedicated to learning. As a classroom teacher, I delighted in providing a fun and comfortable place for my students to learn. As a home-school momma, I’m glad I have room in the basement that can be our dedicated homeschool “classroom.”

I guess that those old desks came from my school, several years before I was a student there. They used to sit in my grandma’s garage, waiting for me to play school when I was little.

I covered the graffiti filled tops with some fun paper and topped it with contact paper. A little worse for the wear, but this will be the third year for our desk covers.

My “desk” consists of three stackable storage bins topped with a fabric covered board. I keep the kids’ school books in the bins so they will be easy for me to access for planning and for days when we choose to work outside. On top of the bins, I keep my notes for the day, a stapler, and a few erasers.

I keep a weekly assignment sheet with the kids’ school books. I find it is much easier for them to have a checklist rather than coming to me to find out what’s next. I’m often busy working with their sibling, so the checklists make the work go smoothly and helps the kids stay on task.

This learning play area is a new addition to our classroom. I’ve filled it with learning games and plan to rotate new items as the year goes by.

A reminder to the kids before they begin to play….

The kids have a lot of games and fun to choose from…

Sewing, weaving, tumbling tower of math facts, games, bingo, puzzles…

Basement lighting is always a bit difficult, but this old, ugly floor lamp really helps next to an old Subway table we picked up when they remodeled the restaurant near Eric’s work. It’s a great place for puzzles, painting, and play-dough.

It’s hard to find an alphabet for the wall that will fit in our small space.

These flashcards mounted on some scrapbook paper work great! I just punched holes in the tops and strung them up onto the wall using twine.

Having been re-worked several times to adjust to our changing needs, this area isn’t quite perfect. Still, it works well for our morning meetings, giving the little ones a chance to count, record the weather, and practice saying the months of the year/days of the week.

Our school trash bin… It makes me smile!

Our messy book storage… Nothing more than a “gorilla rack” and some plastic storage baskets. The baskets allow the kids to look at the covers of the books easily without taking books off the shelf. It’s also easier for the kids to return the books to a basket. I’d like to organize the books by type, color code them, and assign groups to certain baskets. Um… yeah. We’ll see about doing that next year. Or the year after that.

Our learning space is ready and the kids can hardly wait! Our first day back to home-school is Monday… It will be such fun!

Now, it’s your turn. Link-up and share your learning space and ideas! Show us your public-school classroom. Show us how you make that kitchen table classroom work or that new light fixture your “honeydew” just installed. Show how your living room by night becomes a classroom by day! Can’t wait to see your special learning spaces and the creative ways you make them fun for the ones learning there.

The rules.

1. Anyone who teaches children may join in. Mothers, homeschoolers, preschool teachers, classroom teachers, Sunday-School teachers….
2. Link to a specific post, not just your main web address. That way, we don’t need to search for your post!
3. Check out a few of the other posts and leave a comment, please.

And if you have time… Share our linky party with some friends. You can add a link back to this page on your post. You could share a link on Facebook or Twitter. Or, you could do all of the above and that would really make my day!