Rethinking the colorful kindergarten classroom

[Kathryn]

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/rethinking-the-colorful-kindergarten-classroom/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=fb-share&_r=0

 

I thought this was an interesting article. Do/did you decorate your "classroom?" If so, do you think your children found it distracting?

[In The Great White North]

Waldorf kindergartens have "less distracting" walls also

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=waldorf+kindergarten&espv=2&tbm=isch&imgil=5gULAJv29pSBZM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcSxSk8bTTCykcAd9usDr4DPXNAsPlIa4DkKjc6L3HrPf9T-HkgU1g%253B300%253B224%253B6N4wHSgJTGO9qM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.cincinnatiwaldorfschool.org%25252Fkindergarten%25252F&source=iu&usg=__gLlEB2y1I0E3VqnC12-0lNnkSwQ%3D&sa=X&ei=EomXU4zlK8jf8AHO8oHQCg&ved=0CCMQ9QEwAg&biw=1310&bih=596#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=nAWuxhw23HzziM%253A%3BieAZVXfGMo3U_M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F4.bp.blogspot.com%252F_eGyyPSYqaqQ%252FSR4KBTa2wOI%252FAAAAAAAAAcY%252FIsJKlVLiZoI%252Fs400%252Fwaldorfkinder.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgermantownavenueparents.wordpress.com%252Fcategory%252Fschools%252F%3B400%3B266

[Katy]

It is interesting.  No, I didn't decorate.  I read an article on some alternative school ages ago (waldorf or montessori maybe?) about basically minimalist, sophisticated decor in schools.  I can't remember whether it had any learning effect,  but I recall liking the asthetic and I've more or less done something like that. 

 

We all have some form of ADHD though, and I've always liked large clear desks if I want to focus on something, so maybe I intuitively knew that, at least for my family?

[Guest]

Thank goodness!  Now I can call myself insightful instead of lazy.  :0)

 

[BarbecueMom]

We had a room downstairs that we tried to use as a school room.  It's painted with "oops" paint - one color per wall.  The Orange/Light Blue/Lime Green/Yellow makes a great play room, but a terrible school room!  We focus better in the more serious looking living room.

 

My fifth grade classroom was yellow-painted cinder block walls.  I had a headache every day.

[RebeccaS]

Thank goodness!  Now I can call myself insightful instead of lazy.  :0)

 

I was about to post that I was way too lazy to do any decorating.  I like this much better.  ;)

[Farrar]

The first classroom just looks uninviting and stripped, not purposefully minimalist.  The second one is just a busy mess.  I think the ideal environment would be a little more homey.  And I imagine putting one or two educational reminders up isn't a negative thing.

[nd293]

Montessori schools are against over decorating. Our school is highly traditional, I'd say, with a 'direct line' to Maria Montessori (school's founder was trained by Montessori herself, and the founder trained the current head, who in fact attended the school herself). Learning is the child's job and doesn't need the incentive of 'prettiness'. Learning, for the child, is it's own reward. Beauty is built in to the learning process though - they can arrange flowers or make things etc, but neatness and order is more important than beauty in the learning environment. (My interpretation of what I have seen in the Montessori environment.)

[Cosmos]

I agree with farrarwilliams that there is a difference between serenely minimalist and just plain bare.

 

But my biggest issue with both classrooms is no windows. Ugh. I think kindergarten classrooms should open onto the woods. Okay, so that's not practical everywhere, but a room without even a window is such a dismal thought.

[reign]

I decorated our classroom in "kitchen chic."

 

In general I'm pretty minimal in my decorating. I think the one class has way too much going on. The bare class just looks boring. I would hope they could come up with something more appealing.

[MaeFlowers]

Our schoolroom is our dining room and, to be honest, its pretty drab. I do catch ds staring out the windows quite a bit. I think that can be equally as distracting. This makes me think I need to turn his chair where is back is to the windows...

 

Ds was in ps until 2nd and his classrooms always overwhelmed me with all the colors and posters on the wall. Only one tiny window though.

[mommymilkies]

I like minimalist and natural.  I can't stand the visual clutter and bright colors of a lot of elementary classes I've seen (and been a student of).  It's highly distracting to me.

[trulycrabby]

There's absolutely nothing on our schoolroom walls; my ADHD kid doesn't need any help getting distracted. Bouncy ball, si! Decorations, no! :)

[shukriyya]

I used a Waldorf-inspired approach when decorating our playroom/schoolroom which would have been our dining room had we chosen to use it traditionally. Like a few pps it had to work for my aesthetic or it wouldn't work at all :lol: I didn't regret it in the slightest and the room blends into the rest of the house fairly seamlessly.

[Alessandra]

No separate schoolroom here. I went through a brief teacher school phase when dc were toddler-K age. Then became interested in Waldorf. Once you decide on Waldorf (or Montessori, etc), bulletin board sets begin to look pretty trashy.

[Guest]

I really didn't have much choice in decorating.  Our school room was the kitchen able, and two of the walls were "windows", and the remaining wall space was brick or wallboard behind the couch.  It was a lovely place to be, and we hung up bird feeders and had countless species come right to the window.  Very distracting, but in a nice kind of way.  And doors out to the patio.  So I never got to hang up the posters of the "bones of the human body" or whatever.  We DID manage to attach a scroll timeline to the brick, and it could be rolled up to the base after we were done with it.  We used that scroll space for a LOT of things.  :0)

[jhschool]

I decorated our classroom in "kitchen chic."

 

In general I'm pretty minimal in my decorating. I think the one class has way too much going on. The bare class just looks boring. I would hope they could come up with something more appealing.

Pictures please?