Classroom Decorating Made Simple

Classroom decorating can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you are a first year teacher. You want to make your classroom the cutest on the hall and you may feel like you have to have every wall filled. STOP. This is not true. I am into my third year of teaching, and I have learned that decorating your classroom can be simple and cheap!

Before you begin to decorate your classroom, you need to decide how you want your room to be set up. I have sat in my classroom for over an hour trying to decide the best way to place the furniture. I would move a table to one place, and the next minute, decide to move it across the room. I like to make my classroom feel open, with as much space between the furniture as there can be. You may adjust your room several times throughout the year to find what works best for your classroom.

When you are starting to think about decorating your classroom, find decorations that are cheap and can be used throughout the year. Hey, if you are great at DIY, it's the best way to go. For my classroom, I decided to make and hang pompom balls from the ceiling to make the room feel less like a classroom (made from tissue paper). I used a rug and a lamp that I had in college for the reading area. I was able to find calendar and birthday posters from  Amazon. I then found beginning of the year posters from Teacher's Pay Teachers; this included color names, ABC chart, and numbers up to 10.  Your classroom does not need to have everything that you would learn up at the beginning of the year.  I put boarder around the white board to add small decorations. I also created a bulletin board that I could post anchor charts for what we were learning. This past year, I added a desk cover and valencies in the windows to make my classroom feel more like home, but this is not necessary.

It is so much fun to decorate your classroom. Don't get overwhelmed by feeling your classroom is not as decorated as everyone else. Your classroom may look like it does not have much at the beginning of the year, but I promise that you will have student work, anchor charts and posters covering all of your walls at the end of the year. You will also find more decorations throughout the year that you can add to your classroom. Your classroom will look drastically different at the end of the year!

Enjoy decorating your classroom!!

For more ideas on how to decorate your classroom, follow Mrs. Peay's Kindergarten Adventures.

Thank you to Lindsay Catanzaro for helping make the beautiful door!!