Rugs – we use them because they are cozy, comforting and add a touch of style to our home. However, do you know that rugs are also important items in the design process of the classroom? They contribute to the overall environment and atmosphere of the learning space. A classroom should be safe, fun, inviting, and stimulate learning. Rugs can help to achieve all those criteria. Check out this article for the benefits of rugs, and a few great rugs recommendation from us!
I/ Rugs Support Play and Learn, and Are Perfect for Early Learning
Rugs are made to be played on. Compared to desks and chairs, they offer much more room for children to move around. Children can get up without making the screeching chair noise and disrupting their peers. Rugs have more traction than hard floor – which tend to become slippery when wet. They decrease the impact of slips and falls and lessen the chance of injury. Rugs are also durable and are made to last for years.
Background noises from inside and outside of the classroom, such as conversation, moving desks, chairs can affect the learning process of children. Hard floors and walls can echo and give students a hard time focusing. Rugs, or carpeted surfaces are some of the best flooring options as they can help to reduce sounds and ground level vibration. This helps to create a calm learning environment where students can focus with less distraction. On the rug, everyone is facing one direction: the speaker. This makes the communication process with students easier, and teacher can quickly identify the students who are not paying attention.
Classrooms rugs can also be designed to feature key development topics such as: alphabet, numbers, shapes, language, geography, history and even emotions. These learning rugs usually include eye-catching pictures/drawing, with simple, effective layout to help the young ones learn seamlessly. Children look at the pictures/drawing on the rugs and this can help them familiarize with crucial concepts, which is a necessary process for early childhood learning.
Sunny Day Rug features colourful learning blocks, where each block is a letter of the alphabet, and each cloud contains a number in them. Young learners will enjoy practicing numbers and letters, while exploring weathers, and colours. The beautiful, bright pattern makes it a perfect item for a positive learning environment. Every day is a sunny day!
Look at how stunning the colours are!
Continental Wonders Rug features a map of the world, with the names of the oceans, continents and highlights many geographic icons across the globe, such as Christ the Redeemer statue of Brazil, Sydney Opera House, and of course, the Canada Maple Leaf. Let children learn about geography, and explore different cultures using this rug!
Can you name all the icons on the rug?
Canada Rug includes multiple great visuals of Canada: a Canada map, with each colour representing different provinces, detailed province’s flags, and different figures such as a goose, beaver that emphasize Canada’s multicultural heritage. Children will take pride in identifying their provinces and flags with this beautiful rug.
Let children explore Canada with this colourful, and informational rug!
Medicine Wheel Rug symbolizes traditional North American First Nations Teachings. The Seven Teachings identify the core values of truth, honesty, love, courage, respect, humility and wisdom. The Medicine Wheel is symbolized by the 4 colours at the center of the rug, each enclosing an eagle feather.
The Seven Teachings.
II/The Sharing Circle Where You Relieve Your Stress
Rugs provide flexible seating options in the classroom. On the days where students feel more relaxed, or there is not much work to do left in the day, teachers can go with the flow, and ask students to switch to sitting on the rug to study or play games. Rugs offer comfortable cushioning for students to sit, play, or even lay on top of. Bring children together for study, group games, or reading sessions!
Rugs also bring an important benefit to the classroom: warmth. They are excellent thermal insulators, as the fibres in the material trap heat, keeping the room warmer for longer, and stop heat from escaping through the floor. They are essential for the classroom in the winter. Some rugs are warm, rich colour, which also brings the cozy vibe to the classroom.
Lastly, rugs are stress-relieving. Some rugs have calm, relaxing designs which help students, and even teacher to feel at ease, and unwind the worries of the day. Teachers can rest on the floor after standing all day long. The class can gather on the rug, talk about their day, or practice mindfulness. Compared to desks and chairs, sitting together on a rug feels more personal, connected. It’s a smaller space, so everyone can hear each other, and speak their minds.
Mindful Seating Rug is a great example of how rugs can be stress-relieving and support mental health. This calming classroom rug is great for practicing present-moment awareness, and helps young students constructively manage their emotions. The design is simple, and by using natural colors and textures, children can use this attractive rug as an area to decompress, regain focus, and practice the important skills necessary for sound health and well-being. The rug features the colourful circles, each act as a designated seat for students, so they can have their own space and respect others’ boundaries
The calming circles are great to sit on and practice mindfulness.
Just like the name suggests, Peaceful Tropical Night Rug captures a cool, and calm tropical night. Peaceful starlit skies, calming greenery and some silly frogs create the perfect environment for quiet time, story time or any group gathering. The calming features of the rug help to ease the mind of not just the young ones, but also the teachers.
Don’t you feel like the summer when looking at this?
Campfire Fun Rug can bring the outdoor inside, and give students the warm, cozy feeling of a camping night. Gather around the campfire for an afternoon of sharing, storytelling and group activities. Create a dramatic play center and “cook up” pretend smores for an easy camping theme that is certain to delight children and adults alike! Fun activities like this can help students get laughs and relax their mind after a tiresome day
Who wants to share a story?
Children of Many Cultures Rug emphasize multicultural heritages with charming children in native dress. They hold each other’s hands, meaning that no matter how different we might be in features, culture, personality, we should respect, and treasure each other’s beauty. This rug is a great tool to build an inclusive classroom. The design of the rug gives off a feeling that everyone in the rug is “included” – everyone is respected and heard. Teachers can use the rug as a tool to break the ice and get closer with students. Let them share their feelings, struggle, and introduce new class members using the rug!
Respect, and treasure the difference in people.
IV/ Rugs Make Classrooms Fun!
A furniture’s benefits lie in its functionality, and decoration value. We already talked about the functionality, the educational, stress-relieving benefit of rugs, but at the end of the day, what rugs do best, is add beauty and style to the classrooms. They brighten the classrooms with their colours and designs, make the room more aesthetically pleasing, and inviting. The majority of children love a stimulating and colourful environment, and rugs help to make the classroom a more playful, enjoyable place. The process of selecting the rugs is fun, too. Pick the rugs that match your classroom theme, and be creative with your choice, as there are rugs of all different colours and patterns out there!
Kidsoft Animal Patchwork Rug include cute animals for children to learn and identify!
What’s your favourite animal? Mine is the penguin.
Off Balance Rug include slightly off-balance squares will work equally well as an accent rug under a table or a cool place for children to “kick back”. It also gives off a very artsy vibe!
Can it get more colourful than this?
Choose Kind Rug is inspired by the quote from the movie Wonder “When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.” The word “kindness” is written in 20 languages. It provides a sense of peace and community in your environment, as well as reinforcing learning with literacy.
A great option if you want to make your classroom a more inclusive place!
Note Worthy Carpet assists students in developing a lifelong appreciation for music. Children can practice math skills, simple and complex rhythms, recognition of basic musical symbols and note matching with this rug.
Learn music theory with this rug!
The Circle Rug introduce children to First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures. Each symbol is designed not only as a sitting space but also as a tool to provide unique insight into Indigenous life.
Introduce children to First Nations culture!
III/How to Maintain Rugs
A properly selected, installed and maintained rug can lasts up to 10 years and sometimes even longer (our vendors Carpet for Kids and Joy Carpets offer 10-year warranty on most of their rugs). That makes rugs a very cost-effective flooring option, which is another benefit! However, knowing how to properly clean and maintain the rug is also important, as it can greatly affect the quality of the rug. The most efficient and cost-effective method of maintaining clean rugs in schools is vacuuming. The majority of dry dirt can be removed from the rug by performing regular, scheduled vacuuming. Make sure to avoid vacuuming over the serge, as this can cause serge yarn to become frayed and torn. Schools are advised to have and follow a maintaining routine for rugs. For active areas where there are a lot of footsteps, daily vacuuming is suggested. Once or twice a year (before school year, and winter break), professional cleaning services or skilled custodians should come and examine the rug.
Besides vacuuming, there are different cleaning methods for rugs such as: spot cleaning, steam cleaning, and various detergents to choose from. Depend on who the manufacturer of the rug is, you want to follow their cleaning instructions. However, the general rule is to never use soap, ammonia, laundry detergent, automatic dishwashing detergent, washing soda, or any strong household cleaning agents intended for use on hard surfaces, i.e., woodwork, linoleum, tile, as these cleaning agents could damage the rug. Avoid any cleaner with bleach, strong chemicals that would cause the dye to run. When cleaning, always blot, never scrub or rub abrasively, as this may create a fuzzy area. Some rugs are also washable with cold water, mild detergent, and gentle cycle setting.
Let’s talk about the biggest foe of all rugs: mold. Leaks, spills, dirt can all result in the formation of mold in various parts of the rug, especially if this is followed by an extended period of high humidity. To protect your rug from mold, do not install it in areas that are likely to be exposed to high moisture. Make sure everyone takes their shoes off before entering the rug and consider keeping all food away from the rug. If any water, liquid, or other moisture contact with the rugs, make sure the surface is dried thoroughly afterward.
Every rug contains a flammable risk, so make sure to install them correctly, and choose rugs that have high level of fire resistance, from reputable vendors. Our vendors Carpet for Kids and Joy Carpets carry rugs that are Class 1 rated according to NFPA standard, which is the best rating for fire resistant a product can receive.
IV/ Seating Kits and Sharing Circles
Seating Kits and Sharing Circles deserve an honourable mention! They have more mobility than the usual classroom rugs and help kids with physical distancing seating. They give ample room for kids of all ages while providing flexibility to arrange seating as needed. You can use them for playing games, circle time, or marking quiet spaces.
Greenspace Artificial Grass Seating Circles temp you to kick-off your shoes and enjoy the relaxing and inviting grass texture. The grass blades are specifically engineered to resist matting and crushing and will maintain their original beauty in even the most active areas. Comfortable, casual and low maintenance, this vibrant and versatile artificial grass rug can be used anywhere!
Manufactured from premium, eco-friendly synthetic fibres.
Farm Animal Seating Kit have fun shapes, colors, and farm animals’ drawings. Kids can learn and pick their favourite animals!
Old Macdonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o!
Learning Blocks Kit include easily identifiable images that help children learn about the sounds of letters. Each colourful square illustrates a letter of the alphabet with a matching icon that makes learning fun.
A is for Alligator, D is for Dog, Q is for Quality Classrooms – the best quality at the best price!
Rugs are essential for every classroom. They add beauty and style with their vibrant colours, bold patterns, and interesting textures. They retain warm air longer than other flooring types, so they provide warmth and comfort in the winter. For the young students, carpets and rugs are great to sit on, play on, and due to their surface, carpets and rugs decrease the possibility of slips and falls and reduce injuries when falls occur. Most rugs designed for children include teachings of fundamental topics with relaxing, inviting graphics and that’s why they are great tools to assist learning and take part in the development of the young minds. Take care of your rugs by vacuuming them daily, follow the manufacturer’s instructions closely, and get professionals to check on them once or twice per year!
Feedback from the customer. Lovely!