5 cheap ways to refresh a classroom
5 cheap ways to refresh a classroom
Ample studies have been done on the environments children learn the best in. And we all want the best for our children. But we can’t all build modern Learning Centres – it’s just not going to happen that quick, so we need ways to upgrade the appearance of our classrooms within a budget.
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Following are 5 ways to do this simply – remembering that simplicity is best, less is more..
Strip the walls
On the last day of the school year, we go through and remove all the certificates, projects, photos, letters, award charts and stacks of other clutter from the walls ready for a new start next year. Recall how amazed you are at the new look of the classroom?
The easiest and cheapest way to give your classroom a refresh is to do just this - mid way through the year. Yes, it takes a while, and some items will need to be pinned up again (somewhere else in the classroom) but its well worth the trouble. The students will be amazed when they come back to school. Tip: You can make this into a fun project for the kids to do themselves.
Cost: $0
Shake up the furniture
Whilst teachers are fast changing to more open plan Learning Centre type environments, they’re often quite traditional type people - keeping the same classroom set up year in year out. Shifting the reading corner to the opposite side may require a couple of screws to be taken out of the book shelf – but pretty minor effort to give a whole new look. Literally turning your seating arrangements to face the opposite direction is a refresh that will be noticed and appreciated by all. Possibly the most cost-effective change you’ll ever make!
Cost: $0
Paint the walls
Even though the low-odour enviro friendly coatings used in classrooms nowadays mean there’s barely any smell, a freshly painted classroom always has that new refreshed feeling. I find it gives you that i-feel-like-exploring-new-ideas type feeling!
The inclination is always there to go bright and multi coloured walls. But bright coloured paint is up to twice the price of more neutral colours. And using a wide range of colours also adds to the cost.
Think back to what you’re trying to achieve. The classroom walls need to be fresh and clean and provide a backdrop for the kids posters etc. So our advice is to decide on a single neutral backdrop colour, and the compliment this with 1-3 feature colours. Read How to pick a colour pallet for more help on this subject.
Cost: $1,000 - $2,000
Install acoustic panels
While painting the walls, another common option is to ‘kill 2 birds with 1 stone’ by installing acoustic wall panels at the same time. This has a two-fold effect – 1). It gives a modern stimulating face lift. If painting lifts the appearance by 30%, acoustic panels lift it the remaining 70%! And 2). They lower noise levels in the classroom, making it an inspiring place to work and learn. Read What do Acoustic Panels do for learning to understand this more.
Cost: $4,000 - 12,000
Upgrade the furniture
An apology….. this article was on cheap ways to give your classroom a face lift. And refreshing the furniture is the opposite of cheap! However I had to include it here, because, if done right, it’s like the final BOOM to your classroom refurbish. There’s no need to pay an expensive designed to do this for you,. Just go to websites such as Knight Group and Crestline to find a wide range of options. We advise you to start small a build on it. A complete furniture redo costs 30 – 50k per classroom, so you may be best to purchase a couple of pieces and do it slowly.
Cost: $30,000 - $50,000
