Empowering Students with Classroom Decor

Building classroom community is so important for a successful school year. A great way to do this is to spend the first days of school setting up and decorating the classroom with your students. Empowering students with decisions on classroom decor and set up gives them ownership of the classroom.

Why is it Important to Include Students in the Classroom Set Up?

Your students are the ones that will tell you what you need in your classroom. Every year may be different; rules and jobs can be tailored for the classroom needs. Also, students have really great ideas! They might think of something that you haven’t.

I want you to think about having your students help decorate the room, give them ownership, and what better way to spend the first few days of school? Students will have things to show their parents at Open House that they have created, and it will help the classroom feel like HOME.

How to Build Classroom Community by Decorating your Classroom with Students:

Here are some suggestions your students can help you with. Do a few a day or whatever works for your class and your room.

Classroom Rules: Brainstorm classroom rules for the room. You can have an idea of rules that you might have in the classroom, but having your students come up with them gives them ownership and responsibility. They will be more likely to remember and follow them! I would suggest between 1-10 rules. Break students into groups and have them make a poster for each rule. Hang these posters in the room.

Classroom Jobs: Decide if you want classroom jobs and make a list or if possibly you just want a “student teacher” to help with all the jobs each day. Help students decide how students are chosen for each job, and then they can make the job bulletin board.

Classroom Library: Do you have to pack up books every year? Have them help you unpack! Talk about the best way to organize the books. Of course, you can have an idea a little of how you want this to go, but let the students help set up, they can make labels for the bins. This also gives them time to look through your books and get excited about READING them!

Math Manipulatives: Same as with the classroom library, let students help organize, and label the math manipulatives. They can check to make sure they are all clean or sort them by colors or make individual kits. They could count and baggie them up. However, you need them organized for the year.

Math Posters: Have them show how to represent numbers from 1-20. Also have them make shape and color posters.

Indoor Recess Materials: Use this time to get out your recess materials, let them explore them and organize them in a way that makes sense. You will be able to see which may be favorites this year and if you can maybe put some away and not use them this year.

Alphabet Chart: This is always one of my favorites. Instead of hanging up a commercially made alphabet chart, why not come up with pictures for each letter, and then have students each decorate a letter.

Sound Wall: Same as with the sound wall. Let students come up with pictures for each sound on the wall. If you want pictures of mouths, which is really popular, why not take pictures of students in your room making the sounds? How fun would it be at open house for students to point out their mouth on the wall?

Will including students in the decision-making process take longer?

Maybe, maybe not. Think about all the extra SUMMER you will get not doing everything yourself. I think the time and effort you give to building classroom community with pay off all year long. You can add to your rules, make changes to the classroom library and so much more throughout the year. Plus, I see teachers asking all the time for first week of school activities, these will fill your days up quick!

Sound like a lot? Just try one thing this year.

What about all the cute things you bought? Use it to decorate your space in the room, or nothing says you can’t incorporate it in the classroom. Just think about how you add the students into the design a little this year.

I hope you have a great year!

Do you have something that you do to build community at the beginning of the year? I’d love to hear it! Send me a DM on Instagram!

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You might also like this BLOG post about using blending drills in the classroom: CLICK HERE TO READ