Category Archives: Classroom

This school year I have decided to run with a water theme to help incorporate a few things that I feel will connect with my older students as well as my younger students. I have added some stuff from Finding Dory in my room as well as water Pokemon to connect to the Pokemon Go craze!

I like to spread my theme across the school in a couple different ways. I have my hall boards that reflect the theme, I have the kids create projects that relate to the theme, and the past few years I have been having the staff a the school draw/color/design something that relates to the theme and display it outside of their classroom.

Here is my classroom before it was completely done and in progress!

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I love decorating my room! It takes a while especially when I decide to draw out new decorations but it is a great way to get into the swing of school. This year my two year old was “helping” me get my room setup so it took a bit longer that I expected, but it is ready for school to begin!

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Hope you all have a great school year!

My hall boards were installed a few years ago when another school donated them. I have been decorating them as well as having students help me at the end of the school year to create unique designs for them that relate to the theme in my classroom.

I have three boards that are displayed across the school. The decorations have to be appropriate for all ages since they are hung in a Preschool through 12th grade school. They also have to get the kids all excited about Art (like they really need a poster to get them excited about Art!)

In the hall closest to my little ones I have a Finding Nemo / Finding Dory themed board. I drew out Crush and Squirt and laminated them before I added them to the board. Might need to add a few more things to the board but they were good enough for our school’s Open House.

The next board that I created was from Finding Nemo as well. I love Bruce from the movie and thought that he would be a great board. I also so a similar idea on Pinterest but adapted it for Art! I painted Bruce directly on the blue paper that I hung up.

The last board that I created was inspired by Pokemon Go. I saw a similar poster on Facebook and had to incorporate it this school year. I also drew out the Magikarp and Gyarados then laminated them before I hung them on the wall. I made sure that I used the team colors from Pokemon Go as the background colors!

These boards are one of the ways that I get back into the school mood. I get myself excited as I plan to get the students excited!! Looking forward to the new school year!

With my room I have been having fun creating decorations that relate to some sort of theme. I have also spread that theme into the students projects as well as different activities throughout the school. Here are some of my video game inspired decorations!

I am lucky enough to have two doors to my classroom. I have a student door and I have a “teacher” door. For my student door this school year I decided to have Pokemon battling in a classic Gameboy! So many fond memories for me and a connection to students who are just getting into the games! Since I have so many different age levels of classes I like to have the students activities for the day listed on the board. To entice the students to look at the board I create a drawing for the month which relates to my theme. I teach in multiple classrooms because I also teach Computers so I make sure that the boards match each other in theme across the rooms! Here are a few that I created this school year.

I have a few boards in the hallways that I like to create or have students create decorations for. This school year I decorated them with Minecraft and Pac Man to get a variety of generations excited about Art!

With the wide range of student ages that I teach, I found ways to divide my supplies to give each level their own space and responsibilities.

I have given the elementary students kits that have markers, pencils, and colored pencils in them which match the colored table they sit at. This gives them a feeling of connection to the room and the opportunity to get their own supplies but make it easier for them to accomplish.

Each cubby in my kits system is numbered in a specific color that matches the kit that is accompanied with it. The colors coincide with the colors of my tables, which are wrapped in kraft paper to help with basic clean up time. Each table gets two kits, example my red table gets kits number 1 and number 7. I have six tables which are the colors of the rainbow. This system allows the younger students a chance to get their own supplies, help with setup and cleanup, as well as give them their own responsibilities.

While I have the older students supplies separate and in various locations where the elementary are not allowed into, to give them a sense of trust that comes with the older ages. I have labels on everything that is accessible for the students so that they can finds things easily (if they decide to take the time to read them!!!) as well as a way for me to explain where they are located.

Each of the students are responsible for getting their supplies out, cleanup, and taking care of the room to ensure that it is ready for the next students, no matter the age. This system has worked very well over the several years that I have perfected it, the students seem connected to the room and feel as though they are apart of the everyday events.

Since I began teaching I have been playing around with how my classroom should be setup. My first few years were focused on going through all of the things that were found within the room, trying to understand what the previous teacher had left and how they had organized the room.

Once I found where everything was it became an organizational game making sure everything had a place and was easily accessible for the students. As soon as I figured out all of those things I was moved into a new room.

There were pros and cons to the move. Pros: I was out of the basement (which I was by myself with no other teachers or classrooms), I was given a bit more space, there are windows, and I had more control on how the room was laid out. Cons: There was a bunch of packing to undertake, the room has carpet not linoleum, cabinets were exchanged for closets, and I had to make up how the room was laid out with all of the stuff that was traveling.

The new room is fitting me nicely and has given the students more space and better lighting for various projects. I decided when I was looking over all of the parts to my room that would be traveling, that I wanted to have an area for me and my older students to be able to use, but not the younger students to have some control over how things were organized.

I created a fake wall by taking my shelving units and backing them up against one another so that I could divide the room in half. In the back half is all of the closets with my extra supplies, my tables for 3D work, my drawers for older student portfolios, and my desk. Each of my closets are labeled with various medium so if the older students need to get extra supplies they know where to find them.

In the front half of the room is the student tables, shelving for sketchbooks and various supplies, my projector and document camera, and student computers. The elementary supplies are in the cubbies and are labeled with numbers and colors so they know which ones they need to get for each of the tables. All of the students can use the computers, but they are normally their for the older students if they are researching a topic.

The island in the center of my classroom is a new addition this school year. The maintenance department was able to mount my projector to the ceiling over the summer which made me think of where I wanted to setup my document camera. The center of the room was a natural place for it so I moved an extra cabinet between my tables for that purpose. It has been working out wonderfully!

My classroom is constantly changing, since I am continually trying to see where things will work best and how the students work with the room. Overall though the students have a great understanding of how things work and are labeled! It leads to creative students and classes that run smoothly!