CHAMPAIGN – Teachers and students will begin using the addition to Garden Hills Elementary School after spring break, and the move to the new space has begun, with rooms beginning to fill with chairs, books and tables.

Garden Hills students got a sneak peek at the newly completed addition just before they were dismissed from school Thursday to begin their break.

With exclamations of "Cool!" and "It's so big," they toured the new gym and cafeteria, learned where the main office and principal's office were and looked around the new kindergarten classrooms. They also saw the courtyard, with its space for an outdoor classroom and teachers' handprints in the concrete.

"I think this is going to be our PE room," one first-grader said as she and her classmates walked through a wide hallway inside the new entrance to the school.

Jessica Birky led her kindergarten students into their new classroom. The kids giggled as they checked out the bathroom.

"Do you know why I'm happy?" Nia Wilson asked her teacher. "Because this has got a bathroom."

(Birky does not have a bathroom for her kindergartners in her current classroom.)

In another room, children began claiming the cubbies they wanted, based on the color the inside was painted.

"The blue one is mine," said Xavier Clark-Gordon.

Other students found where books were stored and looked at their classroom globe. One girl tried to climb inside a bookshelf.

The adults enjoyed visiting the new space as well. First-grade teacher Robert Holthusen joked about where his office might be located as he pointed out the new areas to his students.

"Look at this, Mrs. Kleber," Holthusen said to first-grade teacher Angela Kleber as he opened a cabinet door. "This is all teacher storage."

When the kindergartners move into their new rooms after spring break, remodeling will begin in the kindergarten wing in the old building. The cabinets will be replaced, as will the lighting, and the rooms will get Smartboards. Next year, they'll be fifth-grade classrooms.

The rest of the classrooms in the older portion of Garden Hills will get similar remodeling this summer. All the work on the building is scheduled to be finished by the start of school this fall.