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A friend of mine recently started teaching in a Montessori school. There are 30 students, age 3, 4 & 5, two teachers and an aide in the small room (they do not have "social distancing"). It is a typical, old style, classroom, with a hard floor, hard ceiling, hard walls, hard windows and hard wooden tables & chairs. With all those young children, doing many different things at the same time, it can get rather noisy. The children and teachers aren't talking loudly but just all those people walking around, setting materials on tables, returning the materials to the hard wooden shelves, etc. make it noisy. My friend asked if I had any ideas for her to try to lower the extraneous sounds.
Before I retired from teaching I used to see large fabric wall hangings (some were soft and floaty and others were like rugs or tapestries) for sale to use in classrooms to help decrease the echo and muffle sounds. I was looking online for something like that and couldn't find anything. I was thinking that they may have changed the fire codes and things like that are not allowed anymore.
Does anyone here use fabric wall hangings to help decrease the sound in your classroom? Does it work? Do you know what company sells them? Some teachers, in my old former school, also made their own thick, lined, fabric curtains (to help brighten their classroom and to help deaden the extra sounds). Have you tried that? Does it work?
I found a variety of "sound reducing" felt or foam panels or special bulletin boards to use on the walls. Do you have that in your classroom? Do they help?
Making sure students are all wearing masks should help in the short run. Tapestries on the walls and rugs on the floor will help in the long run. Whether or not they meet fire codes is questionable. Perhaps if you buy them at school supply stores they will have been treated? Washable vinyl tablecloths on craft tables help too.
Schools typically have annual fire inspections and each classroom gets notice of any violations.
When I taught in California our rooms were also inspected for earthquake safety. No heavy items up high or glass that could cause injuries (windows were an exception).
In Hawaii that doesn't seem to be a concern. Many classrooms have old CRT computers (and TVs) stored up on top of tall cabinets where they could fall on kids in an earthquake. No one seems to know why they keep them. They will never be used again.
Perhaps so schools can claim a higher ratio of computers to kids?
Back when I didn't have enough money for fine art, I found a salvage store that had all these amazing beach towels that we also used for decorations at home. We had an animal alphabet, a Metropolitan Ballet towel with the basic positions, and an abstract southwestern with a coyote, and some others I don't remember anymore. As long as you don't wash them, they won't lose the sheen that they have when they're new. I imagine that they would have some effect on the sound.
Thank you for the suggestions. Please feel free to add more comments and ideas.
I think you may be seeing some of the hangings now with teachers having to repurpose a room in their homes to facilitate online teaching.
I know I had to repaint the spare bedroom (which in all honesty was needed anyway) and Mrs. NBP has put some sound deadening decorations in it, mostly to cut down on outside noise and echoing. And just to recreate some semblance of a classroom, too.
Not sure what the new cleaning standards are with COVID and such, so your friend would have to check, but we used to have strips of carpet or floor mat that we placed on the hard wooden shelves (they weren't tacked down or anything) so that when bins were put back, they slid over the carpet rather than clattering loudly onto the wooden shelf. I'm sure there are already tennis balls on the chair and table legs, but that can help if they're screechy. I like the idea of vinyl to cover the hard table surface. I would think you might even be able to put a layer of fabric beneath the vinyl to dampen sound further if you have access to a washing machine on campus and could keep it clean.
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