Surroundings That Impact

I spend so much time online looking at all of these absolutely beautiful classrooms in complete awe.

They are gorgeous, show stopping and yes, I'm insanely jealous. And most of them are spot on in the material they have up on the walls.  How do they do it?

Children really do reference the material on the walls around them. It is so important that the information up there is relevant, at their level (both physically and academically) and it needs to be consistent.

​Here are  some pictures of my past rooms and I distinctly remember students time and again referring to something I had posted on the walls. After looking through some old photos, I've decided to recognize my all-star wall posters.

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 Here are a few tips and tricks that I've learned over the years:

​1. Keep subject matter together so kids know where to look for their resource and can efficiently access it and move to it.  I have the calendar and 100's chart on the front wall because we use that daily for multiple lessons.
As we continue to move to the right, we approach my Focus wall for reading.  Always make sure that everything put up has a purpose other than to fill space.

2. Tip: I laminated sentence strips and used a pocket chart - SO easy to change out my weekly spelling words, story titles and the like.  Actually, during fun Friday, some of my 2nd graders used to ask if they could have the honor of writing the spelling words for the upcoming week.

3. Use odd nooks and crannies for things like class rules and hand signal reminders - which if you haven't tried using signals in your classroom - I highly recommend them. Sorry the picture is so blurry - but you get the idea. I can't remember where I got these - I'm sure some wonderful seller on TpT - I have had them for ages!

4. Leave room for student work. However, during meet the teacher night, parents and students seem to feel better when they enter a room that feels finished and purposeful.

5. One last thing - this was the best advice I received about classroom decorating (okay two things). First, if you must staple your items on the wall, try to put the staple along a black line, that way the holes aren't as obvious. The best advice I received was to invest in clear thumbtacks (usually in the school office closet, so they're free) and use those to hang everything up.  It takes me all of 30-40 minutes at the end of the year to take down all my wall decor. And it's even something that the hubby doesn't mind doing because it gives him instant results!

Take care,
​
​Rebecca