Throwback! IKEA Adventure

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Welcome to the Wayback Machine! Before we'd even opened Blue Sky School, over two years ago, we gathered a bunch of youth together and went to IKEA to talk about how to furnish our dream school. This post has sat in our blog archives ever since!

 On Sunday, June 11th, 2017 twelve Blue Sky School Pioneer Students, Student Advisors and Future Students met at IKEA Pinecrest, enjoyed an awesome Swedish lunch and took an adventure around the enormous store to design and plan the furniture for our new space!

We thought about the spaces we like to learn and work and wondered: how might we create those kinds of spaces for all learners at Blue Sky School to work. learn and explore?

We checked out the blueprints for the school and talked about the types of ancient gathering spaces we are inspired by. We want to design spaces that are like Caves, for independent, cozy learning; Campfire, for circling up as a group and sharing ideas at an equal level; Watering Hole, for drifting in and out of, sharing ideas in small groups and working alone; and Mountaintop, for sharing in front of a group. Learners had creative and outside the ideas for how to furnish our school. We are considering beanbag chairs, loft bunk beds (!), kitchen tables and lots and lots of comfy couches and chairs! We did look at some tables and desks as well!

Here's what some of the participants had to say:

Mikey (grade 5): We went to IKEA to find new furniture for Blue Sky School. We looked at the blueprint and decided what kind of stuff we needed to find. Then, we found places where desks had to go and I found an uppy-downy desk that I really wanted. It is $600. Maybe I'll have good luck and find it in the AS-IS section. I might just get the $300 cranky one though.










Madison (grade 6): Yesterday, we went to IKEA to pick out furniture for Blue Sky School and it was very fun. Apart from the shopping and the great food, we got to meet a lot of the people who will be at BSS and make some friends.

Grace (grade 6): IKEA was extremely fun. We got a chance to do project based learning and I got a taste of what BSS will be like., I met a\ lot of new friends, I explored IKEA and that’s always a lot of fun. We were looking and finding the furniture for Blue Sky School.


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