Classroom DesignMs. Haskins’ Kindergarten

ClassCairn Jones3/3/15

Security and Shelter

Ms. Haskins’ class offers security and shelter not only by being warm, inviting and aesthetically pleasing, but also by having multiple methods for keeping accountability of the students throughout the day. Ms. Haskins has a pouch she takes with her whenever they leave the classroom that has each student’s name on it as well as first aid supplies and drills; she also has all of her safety & crisis drills displayed by the door, and she has a chart in the back of the room that allows her to see which child goes where after school; this chart allows her to move each student’s name around should anything change per day/week/month/year.

Social Contact

I wasn’t able to take pictures of Ms. Haskins’ actual classroom desk layout because the students were sitting at them the entire time I was in the class, but it is very similar to the picture on the left. It promotes social contact because the students are grouped together at 3 different desk clusters, with 6 students at each desk. There are only 3 boys in her class, so she has them spread out as evenly as she could. The students each have a colored trash bin at their table, which designates the color that is assigned to their table. She also has two designated carpet areas where students can sit together to read, participate in a group activity or receive group instruction.

Symbolic Identification

Ms. Haskins displays all of her student work in the hallway, probably because there is no room inside her classroom due to all of her anchor charts and word walls. Displaying student works makes them feel as though their work matters and is important, and can instill a sense of pride in each student whose work is displayed. Each piece of work is labeled with the student’s name so that everyone can see who created what, and compliment them on their work if they wanted to.

Task Instrumentality

Ms. Haskins has made every bit of her classroom work for storage space and has done so without making it seem clustered or unorganized. She has bins on top of cabinets labeled for different months and themes, and has baskets of books and supplies stored on top of student cubbies. She has the weekly class schedule of specials on the board next to her desk and has a filing system in the back of the room for each student’s work. She also keeps up with classroom jobs and changes them weekly and has this displayed on the wall with classroom and school rules.

Pleasure

Ms. Haskins’s class is very colorful, well-decorated and makes it an inviting and exciting place to learn. The theme for the school is Dr. Seuss, and Ms. Haskin’s class harbors that theme very well. There are also word walls, color & number charts, and alphabet strips everywhere. This environment is very conducive for learning and I think it is definitely age and grade appropriate.

Growth

Ms. Haskins uses a clip chart to track the students’ behavior and progress throughout the day, she allows the students to move back up if they go below green. This helps students not become discouraged should they be on the wrong path, because they know they can always work their way back up to green or past green if they change their behavior. Ms. Haskins also keeps track of who moves up to purple (Outstanding) and how many times they achieve purple a month. At the beginning of the next month, she announces who made it to purple during the last month and how many times they achieved this color, and all of these students are allowed to come to her desk and choose an item from her treasure box. The box has goodies that range from candy to small trinkets and I was able to watch the “purple ceremony” this month and observed as all the students sat quietly and excitedly waited for their names to be called. Most of the students had gotten to purple at least once in February.