So we have two buildings which each have two rooms. Each room has a capacity for 30 children bringing our Backyard capacity to 120 children. On average, we probably have 85-95 kids in these four environments. They consist of:
- Beach Boulevard: Four year olds
- Amazon Avenue: Four year olds
- Treehouse Trail: Fives and Kindergarten
- City Circle: Fives and Kindergarten
As you probably saw in the first post, we had some ugliness to overcome. Nasty brown carpet with ugly brown wood panel walls. Thankfully the powers that be made the decision to spend just a little more and hang drywall over the wood paneling and put down some bright white tile flooring. The rooms went from dark and dreary to instant brightness. Originally we talked to a big church decor company we’ve all heard of to mural two wall in each classroom. I can’t remember the quote, but I remember our response… “heck no!” We decided to paint three walls a bright (not primary bright though) color and hire a muralist paint the remaining wall. I’m really not a fan for murals, but these walls are fantastic. Honestly, I like them way better than what the decor company was going to do and the muralist was a fraction of the cost.
To give us some storage space and make the rooms a little bit more versatile, we added a closet and some cabinets. The cabinets are absolutely beautiful in the rooms and give us more than enough storage space. The closets give us room to store 20-30 folding chairs for other meetings making it pretty easy to turn the classroom around into a great meeting spot for other purposes.
We hung a 42 inch TV in every classroom so the primary lesson can be taught via video in each classroom. We usually combine the two classrooms in each building for the teaching time and it seems to work great. Oh, that was something we did as well. We added a door between the two classrooms so kids and adults could go between rooms without having to go outside.
Last of all, we purchased some new tables and chairs for snacks and crafts and a over-sized carpet for the Bible Story. I love just about everything in these rooms and once you’re inside, you don’t “feel” like you’re in a less important classroom just because you aren’t in the main building. Our Backyard leaders love where they serve and the kids love where they attend church.
It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do to a room! Obviously, there is a little more at work here, but the bright colors change everything about this room. Nice work! I’m getting inspired here.
Kenny, what is the video curriculum that you are using with your classroom?