Just roll with it

So usually I try to prep the children for when a big change is coming. One day I knew I was going to do some major re-arranging of materials, so I warned them beforehand that things were going to be a little different when they came back on Monday. Rather than being confused they were actually excited to try and find where I had moved things to and adjusted pretty quickly.

So when I heard we were getting our new carpeting installed over the weekend I told the children what to expect on Monday. Well Monday has come and I wish someone had told me what to expect! Due to a measuring error our new carpeting was an extra two feet wide and two feet short in length. Can you say oops? So I re-arranged the shelves, blocking off the area the carpet didn't quite reach and using other shelves to help hold down the temporarily taped down edge of the carpet.

Oops...

The children and I spent the day admiring the new carpeting and navigating the room length bump caused by the overlap onto the tiled area. I actually think they rolled with the situation better than I did. They were more excited about the new color and extra space my re-arranging had made. Let's just say there was a lot more reminding about not running or twirling in the classroom.

So even though I can't prepare them for everything I'm glad to see that all my students are comfortable in the room so things like this don't bother them. After the initial excitement we got right down to work. In fact they were so dedicated that in order to give presentations I had to wait until they finished working and catch them before they got something else out; what a great problem to have!