Back to School Blog Hop

Hey, Classroom Decor Rockstars! It's that time of year. The time when we spend hours on Pinterest, scour the discount stores, and hide receipts from our spouses. (Shhhh! Don't tell him how much those cute pillows cost for my class library.) Well, we want to

help just a little with some decorating tips we've picked up through the years.

We've included our 10 best decor ideas for you here 
and there's a FREEBIE at the end!
Plus...a CONTEST!

Deciding on your color scheme should be one of the first things you do. If you are new, you have a world of choices. If you are a veteran teacher looking to redecorate, then you may want to adapt and reuse some of the things you already own. Limiting yourself to just two main colors keeps your classroom looking clean and neat. Then you can add interest with a splash of a third color here and there. You can check out popular color combos on Pinterest for ideas.

Whether its Pirates, Down on the Farm, Safari, Fairy Tales, Superheroes, or Nursery Rhymes, an interesting theme can be the best jumping off point for decorating your classroom. We love getting really creative with our themes. An awesome place for theme ideas is to check out an Oriental Trading, Stumps, or U.S. Toy catalog. You can find them all online.

Forget that giant paper that fades rips, and wrinkles, PAINT, is the way to go baby! And BLACK is the perfect background for any bulletin board. It just looks awesome with any border and makes your displays POP!!

If double is nice, triple is better! You can make your bulletin boards SPECTACULAR by layering your borders.  The one below even has 4 borders!

Angela draws them freehand but I'm terrible at that! If your artistic, go for it! If not, use your projector to trace your image onto tagboard. Draw it, trace with a black sharpie, then break out the soft pastel chalk. Color over each area with the chalk, then blend it with your fingers. The oil in your fingers helps you blend. Then use a black or dark brown piece of chalk to add shading. Spray your finished product with aerosol hairspray to set it.  You can add white chalk accents after you spray it. Then laminate and cut it out. Adding raffia, fabric bows, buttons, etc. can give it a 3-D effect.

We are planning a blog post in the near future showing you all the different steps if you've never chalked before.

Angela painted the furniture below but don't worry if that is not your talent. There are tons of inexpensive, interesting chairs, tables, etc. at discount stores. Don't forget to check your local thrift stores as well.

Photos, photos, and more photos! Students love to see themselves in action.  Remember to take a photo of each student to match your theme at the beginning of the year. These can be displayed all year.

Here's a first day pic of my cute nephew when I was doing a Safari Theme. The kids adored "driving" the jeep and the pics looked awesome on my classroom door! I added some buttons in the corner and a raffia bow at the top, of course. Then those photos became the cover of a memory book I gave them at the end 

of the year.

Use construction paper or scrapbook paper to mat your students' best work. It will make their projects stand out so much more. Nothing makes a classroom more attractive than interesting student work displays.

Tissue paper pom poms, paper lanterns, twinkle lights, bunting, and accent walls can all make a huge difference in your classroom. They add just the right amount of warmth and interest. Be careful not to overdo it, though. You don't want students to be distracted by too much busyness.

Click HERE for directions on 

how to paint an accent "blob".

Leave a good deal of white space at the beginning of the year, so you can fill it up with anchor charts, graphs and such as the year progresses. It's all about student learning, right!

You can't continue on this 

Back to School Blog Hop 

without a FREEBIE!

We put together this Sunshine Freebie to 

celebrate a big milestone we recently reached on TpT. 

We couldn't have done that without all of our 

encouraging readers and customers. You inspire us!!

Click on the pic below to download this FREEBIE that includes

tons of writing options and a Functional Text lesson too!

AND

You can register for a chance to win an amazing prize pack full of products from the bloggers below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for hopping our way! 

We hope you have an incredible school year. 

Thank you for blessing so many children each day!!

Make sure you visit the other blogs below.

Penguin Love and FREEBIE

Penguins, penguins everywhere!! I absolutely love these darling little creatures, don't you? I know my first graders do, too. There is so much to learn about them and it's so easy to incorporate all subject areas. Wow at the resources available out there!

I started with an anchor chart called "What Do You Think?"  The kids responded to 3 questions by writing a simple YES or NO: Can penguins fly? Do penguins have feathers? and Do penguins live at the North Pole?
We had a great discussion about how we already had some schema for penguins in our brains but that schema might change as we learned and studied more about them. (Note: Nearly all of the students said the penguins lived at the North Pole!)

Next, I introduced students to the wonderful author, Helen Lester, who wrote the Tacky series. We are going to read lots of fictional books about penguins as well as non-fiction so we can contrast the difference between the two types of books. I found an awesome link of someone reading the first Tacky book online that is perfect for showing on the Smartboard if you have one.






Then of course we created our Glyph Girls' Penguin Glyphs to hurry and get something up on that post holiday empty bulletin board out in the hall. I love these little critters because with the little red hearts on them I can leave them up until after Valentine's Day if I want to! 

Click here to go to our Teachers Pay Teachers store and purchase the Little Penguin Glyph with Writing Options!

Here's a short and sweet freebie for you that I made for my Word Work Station. It's an ABC order worksheet with a Penguin Theme.
Click on the pic to download.
 

We also learned this super fun Jack Hartman penguin song that was perfect for some indoor recess activity. It looks a little cheesy, but I kid tested it and it was a BIG hit! More to come!

 

Hot Off the Presses!

FREE Back to School Glyph!! Just a little thank you to all the wonderful teachers who have encouraged us this year and helped get Glyph Girls off the ground. The pencil opens up so you can include a writing piece if you like.  

Click on the photo to download this freebie!

Thank You for Being Fabulous Teachers!!!

Have a Fantastic Year!