I am having great withdrawal symptoms at the moment....from classroom decorating. Every year since I graduated I feel like my classroom has looked better and better. This year, being on maternity leave I have no classroom to decorate.
So while I can't decorate a room of my own I can hopefully pass on some tips to help you decorate yours!
Tip 1: PICK A THEME!
Your theme might be based on colour, texture, topic era or mood. Something simple is often easiest to find items for, A specific theme like pink cowgirl might be a little hard to shop for. Make sure it is engaging and stimulating for the students but not overpowering or distracting. My theme in my classroom is purple with some rainbow thrown in,
Tip 2: CLEAN
I have never got to decorate a classroom that wasn't built after the 1970's with furniture more modern then the late 90's. These older classrooms can always be hard to decorate because no matter what you do they always look old and already have a very haphazard feel to them. The thing that I find makes the biggest difference is giving everything a good clean. Its amazing how fresh somethings can look after a clean....you don't know how many decades its been since they have had a really good scrub! Some schools will also let you paint walls and furniture which can give things a new lease on life. (If you are going to paint I BEG you to pick ONE colour....my last class had 8 different colours and none of them went with each other)
<---Before
After--->
Tip 3: COVER UP WALLS WITH PLASTIC TABLE CLOTHES
I love the price, look and ease of table clothes for covering up walls. I find material too heavy to stay up and pin into, crepe paper looks tacky and rips too easily and paper seems to have all the issues of the previous two.
<---Before
Tip 4: THINK PRACTICALLY
Its safe to say you won't be changing out the things high up on the wall very often so make sure they are items you want to stay up for a long time (if not the whole year). Get your students involved in what goes up and show of their work. Ask yourself what value students will get out of each decoration. A display board with a quote and a cute pictures may look great the first time you look at it but what are the students actually getting out of it? Was it worth the time you took to make it?
Tip 5: DON'T OVERDO IT!
You don't have to fill up every space, or have every decoration you've seen on Pinterest. Keep it simple and de-cluttered.
I loved creating this post and seeing how my class has progressed. The before photos are my first year in that room in 2012 and the afters are from the beginning of 2015. I am so excited to see what I come up with the next time I am back in a room.
No comments:
Post a Comment