Terry Anne Starko

I had good things going for me though. One my principal. I asked her if I could paint. She said yes and simply left me to it. She also got me a new floor (lino) and rug that I picked out for the block group area. I also have been teaching for many years and have materials of my own. However, I did not have house furniture tables or chairs etc.I began the second week of July, with the sanding and prep work on the walls. I am not an expert designer, painter, etc., but I literally lived this project through the summer.Past parents came in to help me and as one wall was finished being painted I found I could strip off some of the arborite and then sand and paint the wood. I had to reface a sink area and waterproof it, paint shelves, furniture, find furniture and design it. As I went along I became a daily visitor to the paint store, retrieving information and sharing. The same thing happened at the hardware store.For fun I ended up painting a shape collage on the house corner table and doing soft leaf prints on a table I found and painted from one of the furnace rooms. I lived at Ikea™ and purchased furniture to help make a modern fridge (Kampe unit with the rationale fittings) and even built my own kitchen sink area. I installed shelving that held every container I could find for the materials I wanted to make accessible to the children, and I found out how to drill into metal.Mirrors came next, then shelving units, bulletin boards for dividers on the back of shelves, mailboxes for the children, etc.

I chose the softer hues of all the colours. The wall is actually a beautiful yellow called light toast. It goes with every colour imaginable. The shelves and bulletin boards were painted apple peel white (a warm white). For the art studio I outlined one of my shelves with a poppy red and the other shelves were painted poppy red. I have poppies in a vase standing there and the sand table is the same. These areas call to the children and are “theirs”.

The room looks twice the size and is bright and beautiful. I have suggested a loft to the parents as that is my next goal. A parent project for them as well as the children and myself. It was the unpacking and moving that nearly did me in and it is only now that I can reflect on the experience and begin some sort of catch up work.

One thing did come through. If I had not studied Reggio principles in the last 4 years or read books like the Atelier, have visited Reggio etc. this classroom would not exist as it does in its present form. Three years from now it will probably be a bit different again. Change is not always visible to ourselves. It can occur so slowly that perhaps we are unaware of the true impact of this study of Reggio that so many of us have embarked upon. Sometimes we get lost in the struggle and cannot measure the markers along the way.

One thing is now clearer to me. The classroom had to be shaped and designed this way because of the kind of work that is now taking place within it. An adoption of new understandings, an enlightening and giving up of ‘cultural knots’, a designing of the environment so that it can be a teacher, so that it can highlight the documentation the work that goes on there, so that children can make it theirs and invent their own wishes, desires, creations within it, a place we can call ours. I have changed and the classroom reflects much of what I owe to so many others. It is kind of like a tiny revolution happening all over.Contact Terry at starko@shaw.ca

 

Shelves for the Children

I took off the cupboard doors and opened these off for marvelous junk. They are grouped by categories the children created and stored in baskets. Paper is on the bottom shelf.

I have included a mirrored surface here to be used for 3 D art work when needed. Now it houses our spinning ball water fall and scarecrow provocation.

This shelving matches the shelf unit on the other side that is also filled with junk materials that are set on a mirrored surface. There are some drawers in that shelf unit.

 

 

 

The Mailboxes

These mailboxes are part of the message centre. I would probably not use the balloons but they were given to me. The shelf has drawers that hold stamps scissors, tape, glue, etc. We also have reading binders on these shelves.

In the foreground of the photo you can see the Sunflower Seed Farm Area where children can explore and contrast this thinking with the Building of Cities work going on in the block corner.

 

 

The Message Centre

I put the leaf prints on this table that are very subtle. All the pens and utensils are kept in the metal cups, and the crayons are kept on shelf. My intention is to show these utensils grouped by colours.

The box is full of coloured pencils that are also grouped by colours and it is portable. It is kept by the art table.

The magnetic board is our word board for the message centre and the alphabet is put up with stops (stickers) as in the alphabet song. This phrasing makes it easier for the children to sing the song and find the letters.

 

Kitchen Table with other pieces.

I made the sink using Ikea™ things. The table has the shapes painted on it for a surprise. The rug makes it comfortable.
The unit in front now holds dishes in it and can be reversed to serve as a store when needed. The box can be added to a store, or whatever they create, at a later time.