To Do: Tour the New School

I think most of you know why we live on Sesame Street--No, not because we love Elmo. (Not yet anyway).  We loved our house because of it's open backyard that faces the elementary school.  This is a view looking from our house to the brand spankin' new Prek-5 school.  School buses and mini-vans filled the parking lot today as the school bang rang for the first time at 7:40am (whew, that's early).

Last night was the ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening.  I don't even had kids going off to school and I was excited.  I mean, watching the construction is my daily entertainment.  Plus, Matt keeps saying this is our forever house so I'm optimistic that Parker will be getting his First Day of School picture there before too long.  

Now take note that the tiny school we both went to is old.  And small.  Did I say old?

I knew it would be wham-bam holy cow man...but, yowzers...it was jaw-dropping stunning!  Definitely 21st century!  I whipped out the camera on my phone so I could share it with you.  I have a feeling I know some teachers who may be a bit jealous.  

A view down the hallway.  Hello kid-friendly.

Half of the gym.  The other half has a stage (which also opens up to the cafeteria...genius!).  It's hard to see, but those bleachers--they are padded.  Seriously?

Here's that cafeteria. 

Now let's go to the library.  A humongous library!  See that smart board?  They are the latest versions.  Gone are chalkboards.  Smart boards were in every single room.  Even in Art and Music.  I heard that the Pre-K and Kindergarten rooms had individual boards for each kid, but I missed that.  

Uh oh.  The library shelves are empty.  No worries--I saw boxes and boxes of Scholastic books ready to be put out.  Never thought that the school would have to order all new books.  Whew--that's a task!  You may also notice there was about 20 computers back there, 2 study rooms, and a giant fish tank.  My neighbor is the IT guy and he said there is like 300 computers in this building.  Did we even have 300 kids in our school??

And how cute is this?  It's a section in the library just for storytime!

Yep.  I did.  Took a photo of the bathrooms.  Had to laugh at the hand washing station in view of the teachers :)

OK...drumroll...the classrooms!  

Try to picture this.  There are 4 classrooms, each claiming a corner.  In the center of that giant square is a big open room, with windows into those classrooms.  

That center area has computer stations, leather recliners, tables, and probably more.  It was designed so that teachers could send a few students out to this area for different centers to to work on other projects, but yet, still have a good view of them.  It just makes each grade seem like friends.

The classrooms were huge!  But then again, they have 25 students.  Eeks!  Check out those snazzy lockers.

The Pre-K and Kindergarten rooms (maybe even 1st), have these adorable carpeted circle times.  It's hard to see, but those are letters randomly on there.  

Lastly, it's like every little detail was thought of.  Even display cabinets in the hallways!  

Hope you enjoyed the tour.  Now we just wait for the basketball court, the soccer field, and baseball diamond to be done.  Ok, just be done digging all that dirt!