I like things to look clean, but at the same time I notice my classroom isn't all that inviting. Sterile white walls, etc. What do you do to make your room warm and inviting?
ooo I love this topic! I have to say that this is the comment that I get most about my room (besides that it's organized). I have rugs on my floors to designate meeting areas. I have my desks in groups/clusters so that the students work together. Most of my walls are actually partition walls so they are brown and not white. I have lots of color everywhere. Curtains hiding my "stuff" space. Table skirt around my computer table to hide more "stuff".
I get told my room is sterile too! I think it's my responsive classroom training. I tried to only put up student work. I don't like it all cluttered.
Kids' art on display Colorful baskets and bins for storage Window clings and other seasonal decor plants bean bag chairs scatter rugs fabric curtains over ugly storage (this is a goal of mine)
I had a jungle theme until recently. I had bamboo blinds up, (I still have them). I had 6 large palm trees, 4 in a reading corner with bamboo chairs. It looked cool. Kids loved it. A leopard rug. I painted the walls blue, added clouds and I painted another palm tree on the wall. All my baskets and book shelves were black. Now, our school is going away from decorated classrooms to blank walls in order to hang charts we create during reading workshops.
I like to keep it simple but organized: Single color bulletin board paper Neutral color baskets Chart paper with current learning objectives surrounded by student work bean bag chairs on carpet by library shelves teacher/student meeting area with matching colors artificial flower vines from dollar store framing chalkboards baskets of artificial flowers to add color pillows and cushions on extra chairs
I put educational posters up. I love posters. They decorate the room, and, when the kids aren't paying attention, at least they're reading something that's a review/educational for them.
I made bulletin boards on my walls by just taping up paper and putting a border on it. I tape up all my student's work on the walls that they give me-- art type stuff. I take pictures of them working and develop them and put that up on cabinets. I have a part just for science news, homeroom news/school news, extra info on the units we're doing. I have my classroom seperated into two parts--- desks together for easy discussion without screaming and an open space with two demo desks that we can move to sit in a circle and discuss what we're doing which is right next to my desk. But I do cover my walls with anything I think might interest the kids.
I was given what was the "milk room" last year. This is a room that held a juice machine and a milk fridge, and that was pretty much it. The walls were drywall at the top, and cement at the bottom. What I did was turned the whole wall into a bulletin board. I did the same thing on my other walls. One wall is split in half by a big wire, one half has a poem on it, the other half has student art work. The other wall just has a whole whack of character posters up (covering up gashes that were in my wall).
Ok so I bought two plants. Refurbished an old lamp and bought a new one. Will put up some curtains and cover a table with a nice green twin sheet I got for two bucks. Bought some new book bins and a wooden basket for my desk.
Fire Inspector? I recently had to take down everything off my walls that was 3 feet or closer to the ceiling. How do you do the fun classroom things (jungle theme) if you have fire inspector who doesn't understand elementary school? Any thoughts?
In short... you don't. (I'm just waiting for the fire marshall to come into my room and see that the whole wall is covered... but I haven't heard that I have to take it down, and the walls are ugly, so I'm covering them until I hear otherwise.)
Our school district is so varied on whether or not decorations are "fire hazards". Some schools are allowed to hang things on their windows and to use clothes lines and we have been fined for those same things so now, we just don't hang up those things. I'd love to have curtains and table cloths but they frown on that too.
Reading this thread, I was wondering about this. The large district that I subbed in ruthlessly enforced very strict fire codes: nothing on the door, nothing over a certain size (ie no posters), everything must be laminated and no more than a certain percentage, I think it was 20%, of the walls could have hangings. I subbed high school, so I don't know what the elementary schools looked like, but the high and middle schools were just plain white cinderblock rooms. Hard to do much else and not run afoul of the fire codes.
Not alone Well, Thanks for the info! I just get so frustrated and I want to do cute things, but don't wanna get yelled at (any more than usual ) I do know of a teacher that has the strict codes as well and couldn't handle the white anymore and painted her cinder blocks. I wonder if that is a way to get around it... I can imagine the scolding though. Thanks everyone! Good topic!
I love having a warm and inviting room, and many times, that can be tough! I always use lots of lamps (garage sales are the BEST for this), live plants, a single color theme (too many colors and different borders will make the room feel kind of 'busy' even when its very organized) and calm music is always playing. I like Jim Brickman, Enya, or George Winston. Good luck!
