One of the most enjoyable things about teaching is being able to decorate your classroom at the beginning of the year. Seeing the blank slate turn into a warm and friendly learning zone where your students will learn throughout the year is exciting. For me having a well-organized room helps prepare me for the beginning of the school year. So in this post I want to share some of the things I find invaluable to decorating and preparing my room for the year.

Dry-Erase Contact Paper

About three years ago I visited a classroom where the teacher had covered her chalkboards with dry-erase paper. The next year, when I got to my classroom and their were no whiteboards I knew I needed some of this. While it’s not exactly a decoration, it helps me because I have an extreme dislike of chalkboards.

I wish I had a better photo, but you can see I was still in the early stages of setting up. I used that area of my board for things like the date, daily outcome, and homework. Basically, things that I wanted to write every day or close to every day.

Below is a picture of it with the headings up. You can see that the dry-erase covered a perfect amount of space between the Smart-board and my schools IB poster.

Cricut Cutting Machine

I know I just jumped from the most simple and inexpensive item to something that is quite the opposite. But there is no way I can talk about decorating my classroom without mentioning the Cricut. I personally have the smallest one the Cricut Mini that I got on black friday a few years ago for $99. This Mini is all you need to do basic things like the signs you see on my board above. All of those were cut on my Cricut Mini.

If you want to get a little  more fancy and be able to print and cut at the same time or cute a variety of materials you’ll want something like the latest edition Cricut Explore Air 2. My mom has the first generation Cricut Explore. I am using that to design a large vinyl cut out of my school’s mascot this year. I will update you on that when it’s finished.

Using the Cricut you can design all kinds of organizational and decorating items from desk signs to customized t-shirts. I’m a member of the official Cricut for Teachers page on Facebook. The things that other teachers come up with for their classroom are amazing. I have been joking with my husband that it makes me want to be an elementary school teacher just so that I can have really cool classroom decorations. I don’t think middle or high school students would appreciate a camping themed classroom!

Anyways, I hope I have given you some ideas for what I use in my room. I will likely think of more later and have to do a “part 2” version of this post. You can definitely look forward to me sharing what I do in my classroom this year come August.  Thanks for reading!

Martina

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