Classroom/Circle Time

Sis Umm Suhailah keeps asking me where are the pics of the "New Environment" for Maimoonah after we moved.

So finally I got sometime to blog about it. Subhanallaah finding time these days have become a Jihad by itself. May Allaah give barakah in our time. Aameen.

Ok so first of all I was really inspired by Umm Sara and her circle time even though I was having thoughts of making it very official I was a bit unsure how I should do this to suit our schedules and situation. But Alhamdulillaah after her post and the post from countingcoconuts I knew what exactly I should do to make this a beneficial learning activity for Maimoonah and Alhamdulillaah after I put this up I am still getting little little ideas to add up as we go along Insha Allaah!

So First let me show our small classrrom. This is part of our living room. You can see a small floor area. Her Desk and chair, her book cupboard and the big white board.

This is the closer look of her desk and chair.

The books that she uses most of the time are kept in these shelves.

These are the reference books and her Noddy Books kept in her bedroom (due to not enough of space and she loves to see these books while she comfortably sits on her bed smile).

Then these shelves have some of her Montossori Activity stuff, and her collections. When she is in a mood you can see her taking something from here are doing lacing or spooling or puzzles.

Then this is the closer look of the floor area, where we sit together and read, make puzzles, build blocks and she plays and does all what she wants.

This is the white board that my husband forced me to have May Allaah bless him for all his generous help. Aameen. We have a huge problem using the walls for charts so he got me this board which can be used on both sides and would be ideal for displaying charts and bulletin boards and use for other classroom purpose as well. So We will use this for all of this Insha Allaah. Also it has wheels and very light in weight so can be moved wherever you need.

This white board is ready for the next day's lessons.

Circle Time

We used our old white board for this masha Allaah. This Area is seperate from the classroom area due to space issue and also just to give a different environment.

This is how the area looks. (Please ignore some of the colours that you see on the print outs as I am facing a crazy colour issue on my printer, any way I presume it does not look bad Insha Allaah)

Now for some details.

So we have the calandar. This time I included a complete calandar as well. Insha Allaah I hope to change this complete calendar every month, just to make a difference. You can download this and the others from TJ Insha Allaah! We use a magnet to indicate the current date.

Then you get the Hijri Calandar referance chart, Days of the Week both in Arabic and English and The seasons in both languages.

Then I have displayed numbers 1- 100. We count all of them.

Then we have the beautiful weather wheel which I took from here. It has in Arabic and English. So we set the arrow according to the day's weather.

I could not get a decent clock for a reasonable price and My husband said he could get me a nice actual clock for a reasonable price for Maimoonah to use and learn. So until such time I made this small clock with card stock and put it up. I took the template from mrspancake. Maimoonah knows all the o' clocks. So she teaches me the time every day. Gradually we will learn the other timings too Insha Allaah!

And finally I put up the names of the soorahs of Juzz Amma to make it easeir for me to ask Maimoonah to recite a particular Soorah for revision.

Then below the board on the table we have kept the essential books for that week and the materials used for circle time. Also the worksheets, hands on activities that will be used for the week. This way I will remember to pull out all the resources available and use them Insha Allaah! I realized when things are inside the cupboard they just do not get used and its a waste. Subhanallaah!

We also use the Arabic Curriculum Book from Arabicfirst to revise some words, numbers and to do exercises. She likes this. In between the circle time I ask her to do run, turn, jump, stand all in Arabic.

Then on the other side of the table you can see her kitchen. This is the place she uses to cook. Her microwave, refrigerator, cooker and other stuff are there.

So this is the new set up and masha Allaah it is successful so far. We feel we have more space for one thing and Maimoonah is very happy with her classroom to the extent that she only wants to learn. And troubles me to give her some activities all the time.

So what do you think ?