Meaningful Classroom Decor

I love bright colors, patterns and sparkles as much as the next Barbie girl, but I also want to make sure that my classroom decor is helpful and not distracting. Here are some of the things I include in my classroom that are meaningful to my students.

 

Classroom Posters

Instead of pre-made posters of shapes and colors, have the students help you make your own. This is something I do every year during the first few weeks. Not only does it save me money by not buying pre-made posters, but it also gives me a sneak peek at what my kiddos know and can do already. For colors, I have the kids use their pincher fingers/bird beaks/baby shark fingers to rip paper into small pieces. I might even break out some scissors if I'm feeling adventurous and have the staff to stay at this center. For shapes, I sit with the students to monitor their scissor use and have them cut, using an outline in a square or rectangle shape, rather than cutting out the shape super detailed. While we're working, we talk about the colors and shapes they see so I can get an idea of if they have any of that vocabulary. The next step for both of these activities is sorting. Using the pieces they ripped/cut (and some of the ones I cut for them if we need more), I have students sort into the proper categories. Usually I start with two choices that are very different (yellow vs purple, for example), but I can adapt as necessary for the individual students. Then we turn them into posters or books. I get to see how they work with a glue stick and their ability to sustain attention during a teacher-directed task. Then I will laminate and hang up our new decor, or bind the pages into a book (you might hang them up for the first part of the year and then bind them later, or wait until the end of the year so you have a model for next time).

You can also do this activity with feelings, letters and numbers! You might make a letter book or a sound book to keep in your library with different pictures of things that start with each letter/sound, or different fonts/colors of letters. We do lots of collages in my room! 

 

Student Work

This is a must! As you know, we should put student work on the walls. But rather than a simple gallery wall, how can we turn these into displays of learning? Here's a great video with ideas.

Personally, I like to show off multiple projects or examples of differentiation in one display, modeling how all of my students' work is valid and meaningful. And then I highlight a few of the learning intentions, and include quotes from students. One of the districts I worked in organized our curriculum in a way that it had specific tasks each class had to complete, with directions and standards already selected. I printed them out. They started on my "learning intentions" section of my whiteboard that listed what we were working on during the unit, and then moved them to the display. Admin loves when they can see the standards on the board!

 

Visuals 

Visuals, visuals, visuals! It's like the location saying for real estate, right? As a preschool special education teacher, I can never not have visuals in my room. What kinds of visuals? I'm glad you asked.

I always have a visual schedule on the board, and sometimes have mobile ones for individual kiddos. Most of the time, the schedule is where students can touch it and make changes, though it does sometimes get moved if needed. We also have visuals on our calendar to remind kids of upcoming events like early dismissals and celebrations.

 

We also have sign ups for each center so students can see how many spots are open, examples of what playing in each center looks like (pictures of the students!), and reminders of expected behaviors. I always try to go for non-fiction pictures (aka photographs instead of cartoons) and bonus points if the pictures are of your actual kids! Because I've been teaching in ASL and English, and often use Spanish as well, I use multiple languages on my signs.

You might even include reminders for individual kids disguised as or used as reminders for everyone. For example, I had a kiddo who was working on slowing down his speech with the SLP, so I put the "turtle talk" visual they used on our board during circle times to remind everyone (but especially that kiddo) to think and then stretch out their words.

 

What are your must haves for classroom decor? How do you balance fun and meaningful? Do you highlight certain vocab? Use student-made posters? Share your thoughts!