Decorating the classroom: Have I been doing it wrong?

I go back to school in two weeks! So right now, I’m in full gear up mode. (Seriously – you should see the length of my to do list!) One of the big things I have been working on is my classroom theme. I am trying to pull together a cohesive theme in both of my classrooms throughout the year that is inspiring but not distracting.

In my research, I read this post at Schoolgirl Style, and I realized I’ve been doing my bulletin boards wrong all this time! I have one long bulletin board in each classroom. I divide them into two or three different sections, and each section is trimmed in a different border with a different colored paper. I have learned that can make the room too busy and disjointed. From reading her post, it all makes sense (and her classroom looks amazing!).

Today, I took a trip to the teacher store. I wanted to find a main border that had a vintage feel to it. I also planned to get a coordinating bordette and a second border in a solid color. I am happy with what I came away with. I think it will really pull my everything together, and it should look good with my classroom theme.

Bulletin Board Set

The decorated border is a tan paisley with a blue strip at the top. The paisley is decorated which stars, so of course I really like it. I actually used this border on one of my boards last year. I then have a gold solid border for a few places that might need border doubling. There is also a brown bordette that I plan to use to frame the paisley border. Finally, I have chocolate brown letters for all of my titles.

The only thing I have not decided yet is what color of paper I will use. I may use two colors to differentiate between areas of my board I plan to divide. My decision on the color I use will be based on the colors of butcher paper available at school when we go back. (Although I have thought about getting one fancy paper for focal points.)

I am excited to see how this all looks once it is actually up on my bulletin boards. I imagine I’ll have a pretty good idea by next week since I plan to work on my classroom a lot next week.

Finally, I’ve been working on posters for my classroom. I have the set of posters from Kennedy Space Center that I have wanted for a long time and plan to get some of the vintage style solar system posters as well. (See this post for more information.) But I also decided I wanted to create a few posters of my own to really pull my theme together.

I am excited to share my Explore poster series. If you like the posters, you are welcome to use them. If you repost them somewhere online, I just ask that you provide a link back to my site (attribution). I am also working on some higher resolution versions that I will upload to my Flickr page by the end of the week that will be suitable for poster printing.

I am hoping my classroom looks much more cohesive this year in terms of the decorations on the walls. What are your thoughts on classroom decorating?

ExplorePoster

Geology

Hydrology

Meteorology

Astronomy

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Categorized as Classroom

By Janelle

Space geek, science nerd extraordinaire. That's me! Want to know more, visit the About page.

7 comments

  1. Cute! I’ve always loved fabric instead of paper because it seems to hold up better…especially if you take down and change things around often.

    1. Thanks! I probably should consider fabric. I tried it once, but I got fabrics that were a bit too thick. The nice thing about the butcher paper at school is that it’s free!

    1. Thanks, Denise! I did a lot of Photoshop tutorial research before making these. I’ve just been using a free trial hoping I can get a full version through my district once school is back in session. This site: http://www.sxc.hu/ is really good for free, stock images.

  2. Wow, thanks for the resources, Janelle. I have a folder for images on my Diigo account. I always appreciate new resources! Here’s to a full version of Photoshop for you.

    Denise

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