Watch Part 1 to See the Beginning of their Journey.
We are so excited to finally share this project with you all! Let me tell you, when the grade 4 students at Nundah State Primary entered their classroom for the first time at the beginning of the year they had no idea how it would be transformed in just a few short months.
They also had no idea that they would be the ones designing it.
Grade 4 teacher, Karen O’Connell wanted to shake up their traditional classroom setting, and she wanted it to be a purposeful project that her students could be involved in.
It all started with an idea.
What if we could get the students to design their own classroom? And how can we achieve that?
With glowing consent and enthusiasm from Principal Deb Cox, and with help from the BFX team, she was able to start the journey.
The students were broken up into 7 groups and worked in teams to design their dream classroom using the BFX 3D Room Planner.
Learning how to use the technology was just one of the activities around classroom design they did.
Their teacher took them through different kinds of activities such as creating vision boards, drawing 2D floor plans, and writing proposals and speeches to present to the class.
The whole project engaged students from start to finish and the skills they demonstrated stretched across Maths, Design & Technology, English, Art and even Science.
To find out more about the activities the students did and even some suggested activities you might like to do with your students, check out 9 Activities To Get Students Involved In Classroom Design.
Watch Part 2 for the Amazing Transformation
The project was a huge success. The furniture was delivered and set up on a Friday and the BFX team was there ready to capture the student’s reactions when they arrived on Monday morning.
There was tremendous feedback from the students and their parents. Parents were blown away by their children’s new classroom and the fact they had designed it themselves.
The key furniture settings that the students chose were:
- Huddle Intensive
- Support Table
- Happy Daze Booth
- Stack-A-Mats
- SmarTable Carve Student Tables
- Pozzi Chairs
- Happy Stools
- Cookie Mobile Tote
- Trolley
The furniture pieces that were selected all serve a particular purpose and offer opportunities for flexible learning.
“I see the Happy Daze Booths being used most often in collaborative tasks, in small groups and I’m really trying at this age to have the students take more ownership of their learning. It just helps them to feel almost like a mini-community tucked away in their little learning space.”
The students loved being able to have a say in what their classroom would look like and seeing their own design and their own furniture choices come to life was really special.
One student said, “My new classroom is amazing because it allows you to sit in flexible areas. With the Happy Daze booth, it’s very cushioned and you can easily move them around, and the Carve Tables, you can take them out and have a desk by yourself or put them back in to work with other people”
“Having that guidance through the BFX resources, their digital resources and through the Room Planner, helped us to construct an area that really will take us forward for many many years” – Karen O’Connell, Grade 4 Teacher.
We absolutely loved being able to share this incredible project. Thanks for watching!
