I love to visit schools and see different teachers' classrooms. I almost always get a new idea. So, here's mine. A picture is worth a thousand words, but I'll explain a little anyway.
We had been studying the Dead Sea Scrolls and had made some scrolls ourselves with Hebrew letters, and then I found this lovely book. It was the book of Ruth written in Hebrew with beautiful block prints. The watercolors were being used for another art project, and the wooden puzzle folds completely into a square. One of the students earned that by getting ten As on tests and quizzes.
Twice a week we sing, and twice a week we play our instruments.
The astrobrights were for our iris paper folding. The jar was our chicken-bone-in-vinegar science experiment, and I always have several brain games like tangrams out.
In the background are our Europe map for history and a keyboard for students' daily piano practice. (Last year we had a real piano; this year this will suffice. Next year's goal: a real piano again.) Also on the table are a model of the lighthouse of Alexandria (another history project), a hanging spring scale and weight for an elementary science experiment, and a clock and linking blocks for the second graders math class.
