Classroom Must Haves
You might be lucky enough to have a budget for some new resources this school year- but how do you decide what to buy?
In 2016, Charlotte and I moved into an empty building and had the opportunity to purchase the resources for a new preschool.
Educational resources do not come cheap. You need to carefully plan your classroom budget to make sure that you are getting the best value for money with every purchase. Charlotte and I have spent many hours flicking through educational catalogues for inspiration. The three things we aim for:
Flexibility in it’s use. Can we use it for more than one thing?
Resources to inspire and motivate children to play. Will it be motivating for more than one child?
Durability for frequent use. Will it survive a busy preschool if used everyday?
These are the resources that have continually enabled us to provide pupils with a variety of different learning experiences and opportunities.
3 x Tuff Spot Trays
As educators you will appreciate the value of a tuff spot tray for creating invitations to play. Pinterest is full of ideas!
Buy at least 2 so that if you engage in a messy play activity in the morning, you can use a clean one as a lid to support transitioning between activities and avoid cleaning until the children have left at the end of the day.
A Light Box
A light box really attracts attention and can be used with any resources you might normally use at a table, creating a seemingly new activity.
A UV Light
Using UV light and fluorescent resources can turn frequently visited activities into a seemingly new learning environment which is visually appealing and fun.
Paddling Pool
Can be used indoors in winter for a full body physical and sensory play or taken outside in summer for some water play! Changing what is inside the paddling pool, changes the learning opportunities available.
Switch Box
Any electrical appliance/object can be plugged into a switch box. Common things we might use are: hairdryers, fans, popcorn machines, blenders, disco light/lamp. You can also buy a variety of switch adapted toys. See a previous blog post for how switch-based activities support learning.
Cardboard Boxes
Remember to keep your cardboard boxes after the delivery of your new resources and any other exciting packaging. They can create endless opportunities to play and are great for physical and sensory development.
Boardmaker Symbols: PCS and Boardmaker are trademarks of Tobii Dynavox LLC. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
We will be posting more about the resources we have and how we use them to help you make decisions of what to buy if/when a classroom budget becomes available.
Good luck for the new school year!
The Springboard Curriculum is available to buy here as an immediate digital download. You can follow the link to view sample pages before you buy. The reason we decided to share our work? To allow educators to use their time creatively to maximise play and tailor the learning activities to the strengths and challenges of each pupil.
£1 of every sale goes to the school’s charity to give back to the educators and pupils who inspired the curriculum.
