Drinking Gourd Elementary School |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
||
How to Reach Us
About Our Facility
The Gathering Room
Our amazing Gathering Room serves as our library, performance hall, dance floor, party room and inside recess hangout. Beginning with an entry gallery for student work, the Gathering Room quickly opens out into an expanse of space large enough to hold our Big Show audiences of more than 100 people. Bookshelves and kids’ cubbies line all the walls. A stage is built at one end of the room and comes in handy during our frequent performances. The room-length skylight panel and the parquet tile patterned floor combine to give the room a bright, cheerful feel. We enjoy every minute we spend there.
The heat source for this room, the North Star classroom, and the office is geothermal. The heat is drawn from under the ground and travels through the floor, warming the building.
North Star Classroom
All our dreams for the perfect learning space have come true in our North Star classroom. The unique design and custom details have created a warm, bright, exciting place to learn. Rather than building the standard 4-walls-and-a-floor classroom, the Drinking Gourd School planned a room with many interesting features.
One section of the room is open and covered with a large solar-system rug. Here the students and teacher sit in a circle for class meetings, singing songs, morning greetings and calendar reports. Some students like to stretch out and work here with a chalkboard for a desk.
Another
area contains several trapezoid tables which can be fit together
to make hexagonal ones – enough table space for the entire class
to work as a group. Other tables and counters are scattered about the
room for use by one or two. Up above these spaces is the “sky” -
a roomy mezzanine level, lit by skylights and clerestory windows. Designed
to be a small-group and individual workspace, the sky is furnished with
a sofa, small tables, colorful pillows and two low rocking chairs. Along
the back wall runs a low counter and bulletin board for students’ personal
displays of projects and exceptional work.
All
the cabinets and tables were designed and built specifically for the
North Star room. All the walls are covered with cork bulletin boards,
making it possible to display things everywhere. The boards were then
covered with cloth in light blue, teal and purple to match the tables
and countertops. The overall effect of the bright colors, lots of windows,
high ceiling and skylights is to make an airy, comfortable and happy
place to learn.
Computer learning is easily-integrated into the North Star curriculum. Six computers right in the room which are networked to each other, makes group lessons possible. A DSL connection speeds internet research.
The
Quail Classroom
The Quail classroom is large and bright with many windows and skylights. The space includes an open area carpeted with a large ocean-scene rug where students work and learn together in their own places in our circle.
A small loft (“the nest”), stage, and “Be Anything” area make space for imaginative play. A pillow pit with book display shelves on the wall creates a comfortable place to curl up and read. Students do not have individual desks where they must stay. Bright-colored tables of different sizes are scattered around the room. Throughout the day students will work at a table, at the computer station, at one of several learning centers, at the velcro/whiteboard, at the painting easel, or on the rug.
The walls are covered with student-created drawings, paintings, writing, and other projects. Artwork and photographs of many cultures and people are always on display. Two child-height sinks and low countertops are built into the room. Two bathrooms are located within the Quail classroom for easy access.
Outdoor spaces
Students play outside nearly every day. Every child keeps a pair of
rubber boots at the school so the classes can go out to play when the
ground is wet.
Outside the school is a beautiful play yard with open space for running,
soccer, t-ball and the students’ favorite tag games. Our giant
sandbox, monkey bars, swings, “rocket ship” jungle gym,
slide, fire pole, and small rock-climbing panel give students plenty
of active play choices. In front of the school students play basketball,
jump rope, bowling, and four-square on the concrete areas. In the fall
and end of spring they can also play on the grass and swing in the hammock.