Last May I let my students rearrange our classroom. Really! I’m not kidding. We had a Guest Teacher in the morning and they worked collaboratively in small groups to rearrange construction paper pieces on large chart paper. Next year when I do this, I’ll make sure I’m present. I was sad to have missed hearing each group’s discourse — discussions about what, where, and why.
When I came back in the afternoon, I was greeted by, “Mrs. Meacham, which design did you choose?” and “Please pick ours!” There were three designs to choose from. We talked about the elements in each design and the why behind each design. In the end we decided as a class to select elements from all three designs and create a new one. This made everyone happy! We used more construction paper pieces and a new piece of chart paper to plot our decisions. Then we assigned students to areas and they worked in small groups to move classroom furniture and items. I was so amazed at how intent, careful, and eager they were.
Take a peek at our before and after videos:
BEFORE
AFTER
Word of warning – you’ll likely need to revisit classroom expectations, routines, and structures the next few days.
4 Comments
Wow, I really love this idea!!
Truth be told, it was a last minute Guest Teacher activity that I added and it had such an impact– in many ways– that I’ll be doing it yearly!
Is it a shared space that you use?
Gonna try this next year! 🙂
Awesome idea 🙂