Our school room has gone through a lot of changes since we started this journey four years ago. The biggest change? We actually moved the school room from our fourth bedroom to the loft/playroom! This change took place gradually over the last year, and it was only over the summer that I fully committed to moving everything, including our alphabet lines and posters (this was, by far, the most tedious part of the move1). It took some tetris-like arranging to make everything fit the way it needs to in our “new” space, but I’m very happy with how it turned out!
Corner One–The table isn’t a permanent fixture, but is a useful space for doing big projects (like our Olympics School crafts), and playing board games. I love our huge American Presidents Timeline hanging over the sofa, and I’ve found the children studying it on more than one occasion! The posters by the window make up our science area.
Corner Two–Where the real learning happens! Calendar, weather, and social studies take center stage on the walls around the desks (plus a little grammar and religion).
The Desks–While we’ve had these cubbies (actually, locker crates), for over a year, I just got the idea of stacking them between the desks. It’s a perfect fit, and makes it so much easier for my students to have everything right where they need it!
The Special Events Wall–We’ve still got our Olympics stuff up for now, but our Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff will go here later in the year. Eventually, I may hang up a white board in this space.
The Cabinet–Possibly the best addition to the school room since the desks. This provides a place for our educational games (which used to be kept on a high closet shelf, inaccessible to the children, and inconvenient for me), pattern blocks (which were taking up precious space on our bookshelves), and drawing and writing paper. On top, in addition to the globe, is the large book basket, the smaller flash card basket, the flash card box, and my teacher’s bell. You can also see the stop-light chart hanging on the far wall in the background.
And, as a bonus, our “library,” which is still housed in what is now the guest bedroom, but used to be the school room–there’s just no good place for the bookshelves in the school room itself. I’m not sure what we’ll do when we run out of space on the bookshelves we have (which we will), because we really don’t have room for any more!
Not pictured is the wall space where our Jesus tree hung during Lent. Starting this advent, I’m hoping to have a banner hanging there appropriate to the liturgical season (including the Jesus tree during the season of Lent), but I haven’t made any of them yet. That’s pretty much the last addition I want to make to our school room…when I have those finished, I’ll feel like the room is really done!