rollin'

At the first center I worked at, they added another room onto the center and put the room I was working in, in that room. I worked with toddlers ages 12 months to 18 eighteen months. The room we were in before opened right out onto the playground. The room that was added on that we were moved to opened up onto the older children's playground (2-5 yrs). This meant we had to walk around the corner, walk by the side of the building, then turn the other  corner at the other end of the building to get to the playground. This in my opinion was not smart and I don't know what the director or owner was thinking. They had the children who either couldn't walk yet or who were still learning how to walk go the longest distance to the playground. They put the 2's classroom in our old classroom that opened up to our playground so now the 2's were in a room that opened to our playground and we were in a room that opened onto theirs. It made no sense to me.

For the first few months of being in this new classroom, every time we opened the door to go outside there was a little boy that rolled down the hill. We would get the children around the corner and this little boy would lose his balance and roll down the hill. This happened on the way to the playground and the way back in. My co-teachers and I saw the humor in it, but we also were consistently asking that a fence be put up so that it didn't continue. We eventually made sure that one of us had this little boy's hand whenever it was time to go outside so that he wouldn't roll down the hill. We also  eventually got the fence, but even then it was still hard to get the children to and from the playground. If the teachers of the older classes were outside some of them would help us get the children around the corner.
The center eventually got a new director and she didn't like that we were back where we were and that the playground walk was so long. I left the center shortly after the new director took over so I don't know if they eventually moved the class again. I hope so...