I’m not sure that I know any other group besides pre-service educators that spend so much time outside of the classroom researching and learning about ideas to implement inside the classroom. I am definitely one of those pre-service teachers who spend my nights on Pinterest, Edutopia, and Reddit reading about arts and crafts, teacher horror stories, and more. Recently, a trend on Instagram and Pinterest has been #ClassroomTransformations. It’s all about how teachers magically change their classrooms into things like bistros, hospitals, Candyland, etc. in order to provide their students with place-based learning even when students couldn’t travel.
I’ve saved a bunch of the best classroom transformations on Pinterest boards and in my collections on Instagram and I want to share with you my top 5! Prepare to be shocked by the awesomeness and creativity that comes when teachers give their classrooms DIY makeovers.
- Under the Sea
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This teacher transformed her room simply using streamers and paper cut-outs of fish to set the tone for the ocean exploration unit!
- Word Surgery
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This french teacher used plastic shower caps, paper facemasks, and translucent table cloths to emmulate a hospital in her lesson on suffixes, prefixes, and root words!
- Dinosaur Dig
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This kindergarten class was lead on a palentologists journey through the prehistoric forrests to discover more about ancient animals and dinosuars. Halloween props, fake plants, and more transulcent tablecoths were used to acheive this transformation.
- Sneaky Spies
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Using just blacklights, yarn, and a little bit of tape, this teacher was able to transform her room into the ultimate laser grid. Students were to navigate the grid to find context clues, word clues, and other literacy clues in their unit on nonfiction text!
- Toy Story
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2nd graders are shrunken down to toy size with this decor made from pool noodles, painted cardboard boxes, table cloths, and bulletin board paper. This scene helps the students understand the concept of size as they measure toys and other objects using inches and centimeters.
So much can be achieved with just a little bit of creativity and a quick trip to the dollar store! The days of teaching to a class of students in long single rows of desks are over. Make way for more engaging and fun ways of learning with a simple classroom transformation.