CHAMPAIGN – The children, bundled in winter coats and hats, got off the bus and walked into the door of their new school Tuesday morning.

A few looked a little unsure, and one girl asked, "Where do we go?"

Teachers and staff ushered them into the cafeteria. "Good morning! Welcome to our new school!"

Tuesday was the first day for Washington Elementary School students to attend school at the Columbia building, their temporary home while Washington is torn down and rebuilt.

The move has required a few changes for the school's routine. Students will assemble in the cafeteria in the morning and be escorted to their classrooms by their teachers. At their Grove Street location, the students would gather at certain doorways of the building before entering and heading to their classrooms.

One of Tuesday's first tasks was finding out where everything is in the new building. The hallways were filled with classes walking single file, their teachers pointing out the office, the other classrooms, the restrooms.

Olga Halpern's fifth-grade bilingual class was carrying floor plans as their teacher noted the finer points of the building – the shining hardwood floors, the light fixtures, and a mosaic tile floor tread.

"It's like a hall of fame," said one of her students approvingly.

In Danerica Hardmon's second-grade classroom, students hung up their coats, sat down at their desks and immediately began working on a handwriting worksheet.

"They were excited this morning in the cafeteria, with all the new things," Hardmon said of her students.

But once they got to the classroom, it was like a normal day.

"It looks just like the (old classroom), except the white board is on the other side," said Willo Townsend, one of Hardmon's students.

She liked the new school.

"It's very big, bigger than the other school," Willo said.

Hardmon's aim was to make her classroom look as much like the old one as possible, to make her students comfortable. As they worked on their handwriting, Hardmon directed her students to bring their bins of classwork to their desks.

"It's the same bookshelf," she said, pointing out where the bins were in the new classroom.

Outside, another teacher was directing her students up a flight of stairs: "Hold the banister and walk carefully."

Hardmon's students finished their worksheet and sat on a carpet in front of their teacher in a corner of the room next to the bookshelves.

"Do you feel like you're in the same classroom?" Hardmon asked. Willo nodded yes. Then Hardmon explained the class would tour the building and find the restrooms and where they'd go to PE and music and art classes.

Next door, Lauren Heckelman was doing much the same with her second-grade bilingual students.

"We'd review expectations regardless," even if they weren't in a new school, Heckelman said.

But climbing stairs is new for her students, and so is having to go down the hall for the restroom. Her old classroom had a restroom attached to it. The students also had lockers at the old Washington school, and now they hang their coats and backpacks on hooks in a closet.

While the first part of the morning was getting used to the changes, little and big, Heckelman and Hardmon said their students would quickly get back to working on academics.

Heckelman planned to start with math, while Hardmon asked her students to think about what they did during their winter break, so they could write about it.

"We'll try to get back to the same routine," Hardmon said.