Wake up and smell the DIY

IKEA. If we've learned anything this week, it's that the five of us can find a classroom purpose for nearly every item in the store. We resisted the plush kitchen sets and decided against furniture purchases, but next year - when we've had a year to fund-raise and we're fully funded - we're going to go WILD on our classroom shopping trips.  


Favorite purchases include bath sponges for painting, floor pillows for our reading corner, plates and cups for snack time, a class "pet" for each child to adopt for a night, a bright blue rope to help us line up for field trips, colorful straws for counting and art, and plenty of paintbrushes.

Our art center supplies

We are so, SO appreciative to our friends at the MXCC Preschool at Macdonough School for trusting us with their wonderful classroom! We moved in today and set up all of our centers - reading/writing, dramatic play, art, math/science - and arranged our "circle time" area.

Back in the conference room, we sifted through materials from the lab's storage room and found phenomenal books and posters for calendar, weather, counting, sorting, and graphing lessons.

Anna's full trunk

Anna also brought over a car full of toys (including cars, trains, and kitchen supplies for dramatic play) and blocks from her house that her kids are graciously sharing with us for the summer.

The Kickstart team and our classroom

We're drafting our first newsletter - come Monday morning, each child's cubby will be full! Tomorrow we'll finish setting up the classroom and preparing for the first day of Kickstart!