Forget BC and AD. Classroom life for me is BNFC or ANFC: New Fire Codes. I have been in 8 classrooms in my life, and when I think back to how I have decorated them, there are the ones I loved (BNFC) and those I tolerated (ANFC). Back in the good old days (boy do I sound old!), teachers could use curtains, rugs, carpets, couches, lamps, hang things from the ceiling, and cover every square inch of wall with beautiful children's work. But now, at least in Florida, all that has come to an end. For those of you still fortunate enough to be able to make your room feel like home, here are some of my BNFC touches that I miss the most. (By the way, if you'd like to see more, visit the old classroom tours pages).
Couches and non-fire retardant rugs made a HUGE difference in how welcoming my room felt! These were 60's mod couches I inherited from my grandmother. In one school I created a cozy reading corner with them (I held parent conferences there, too) and in the another I had it as part of my whole-group rug area. Students who listened and participated in the lessons were given the extreme honor of sitting on the couch while I taught! It was the best motivator ever. We're allowed to use plastic chairs ANFC, and I may try that again.
I miss my funky IKEA lamps most of all. I HATE overhead florescent lights, so I filled my classroom with nearly a dozen lamps and left the window blinds all the way up.
I used a cheap beach blanket to create an inviting area for students to gather and for me to pull small groups to. Area rugs are a cheap and easy way to make a classroom feel like a home.
My favorite ideas for making a classroom cozy (A.N.F.C.)
Okay, enough of my pity party (the way we were...) :-) These days I get the opportunity to be really creative...
I wasn't allowed to hang anything on the walls in Miami because we had a fresh coat of paint (and this classroom had no windows, so it was starting to feel like an asylum), so I strung up yarn like a clothesline and clipped on paper cut-outs of clothes, which served as our word wall. I highly recommend this set-up even if you don't use it as a word wall (hang posters or kids's art- just nothing too heavy) if you are not allowed to cover much of your wall space (in Florida, no more than 80% can have paper on it).
Rocking chairs and lots of colorful borders help. I also had a large fake palm tree. I had to leave these thing sbehind when I moved to my latest school, much to the delight of my former coworkers.
Putting bulletin board borders around the windows makes them seem larger and makes the room very inviting. I also had art and some tropical plants on top of the bookshelf, which served as a focal point when you walked into the room. Plants are an excellent way to add some color and life to a room ANFC, but make sure you don't get anything with a scent that someone could be allergic to. I don't think I'll use plants anymore, though, because I have a black thumb and everything kept dying. (Perhaps not watering them had something to do with it....hmmm... A few kids took over the job of plant waterer and that helped, but I just couldn't keep track of which plant needed which amount of water.). I had the kids send in new plants periodically throughout the year but I could only make 2 last more than a few months. Hopefully you'll have better luck, because the plants are a great addition!
What to do when you don't have a lot of wall space/ bulletin boards
Mrs. Ginter, 1st Grade
My former colleague Ginter calls this her 'Career Center'... it's actually the class bathroom! She figured if the kids were going to be in there everyday, they might as well be looking at something! I used to do this when I taught HeadStart: I had pictures of everyday objects and word labels under them. Then I realized that some kids were spending 10 minutes in the bathroom because they were looking at the walls! :-) A simple idea like Mrs. Ginter's seems to work.
Mrs. Norton, 1st Grade
Another way to solve the dilemma of limited bulletin board space: clip papers to the window blinds! I did this in my room in 2003 with yarn and it worked really well because I could still open and close the blinds.
Ideas for Inexpensive Decorations
-Make them! Craft stores sell special markers that let you draw on windows. Use the die cutter (if your school has one) to cut out shapes to spruce up wall displays. Use what you have, your school provides, and other teachers are willing to share to make your classroom beautiful.
-Have kids make them! My kids have made posters explaining how to solve math problems, displays of different geometric shapes in the classroom, a ‘quilt’ of their favorite books, etc. Use their work rather than store-bought posters. It’s more meaningful to the kids, and tells visitors more about what’s happening in your classroom. Large paintings done by children always look beautiful, no matter how young the students.
-Focus on useful displays. A pretty poster is just taking up wall space unless it’s helping the kids learn, retain, and utilize their skills. Hang up your text connection poster, tricks for remembering multiplication facts, directions for how to do long division, a calendar with important dates and events for your students clearly marked, the correct friendly letter writing format, etc. Refer to the posters often and your kids will, too.
-Retiring teachers: One retiring teacher I know set up a store in her room on the last teacher workday of the year. Everything was free for the taking, although donations were requested. There were tons of resource books, none of which she wanted to lug home to store in her garage!
-Teacher’s Magazines: Lots of times there are free pull-outs in teacher magazines. If your college or public library subscribes, ask if you can take them out.
-Don’t change decorations frequently: There’s no law that says you have to have new bulletin board displays for every holiday. Pick bulletin board paper that will work all year long and change the border, if you must. (For example, red is nice for fall leaves and apples, and then for Christmas, later for Valentines’s Day, and then for a general or thematic display towards the end of the year). I buy one versatile set of borders for each bulletin board I have and leave them up. I have frogs, planets, calendars, paintbrushes, designs, plain colors, and other themes not associated with any particular time of year. Also, remember that your border does not have to correlate with the stuff that’s on the board, as long as the colors and styles complement one another. A train bulletin board does not have to have a train border: a plain blue one will work just fine.
-Display a minimum of seasonal decorations: I try to pick borders that don’t need to be changed- I have way too much to do to worry about having snowflakes up in May! In fact, I rarely display kid’s seasonal work, focusing on thematic displays or things that look good all year, such as “Our Best Work”. When I do hang seasonal work, I try to do it at least a month before the occasion to get the maximum usage out of it.
-Go online to find ideas: type in the materials you have, or the end product you want, and check out other’s teachers’ ideas.
