Decorating a school classroom

A friend of mine recently made a career change and this month is taking part in a ritual that’s shared by people around the country who work in her new profession: decorating a school classroom.

My teacher friend wrote me yesterday asking for some ideas on creating a comfortable, natural environment for her third grade students—a place where they’ll love to learn. She’s trying to use found and recycled items, and she’s drawn to Montessori-style materials (although buying new Montessori items isn’t an option due to cost).

She already created a cozy writing corner by using a shelf as a partition, hung a piece of yellow silk over the classroom’s ceiling light fixture to diffuse the light and covered some bulletin boards with vintage fabric.

Before going into journalism, I taught eighth grade for three years. Every August, I spent a ridiculous amount of time decorating my classroom. Ridiculous, but FUN! Here are some suggestions I gave my friend over e-mail:

*Hang a quilt on a wall.

*Make a pennant bunting to string across the room. The students could help with this—give each child a fabric triangle or rectangle and ask them to draw or paint their goals for the year on it. Attach the fabric pieces to string with glue. You can see an example of something similar I made with my daughters recently here .

*Make some floor pillows (I’ve always loved this gumdrop pillow pattern by Amy Butler) and designate a reading corner in the room.

*Use area rugs to delineate spaces.

*Bring a comfortable couch into the room. A friend once told me about the “peace couch” at her child’s preschool. Whenever two kids had a conflict, they’d sit on the peace couch to talk through their problem. (Note to self: get one of these for my own rugrats to use at home.)

*Stretch kites or boat sails across the ceiling, similar to what is done at the Spokane Public Library’s South Hill branch on Perry Street.

*Bring a tree into the room. Wrap it in colorful fabric like the Farm Chicks did at their 2009 show. Throughout the year, you could hang the students’ work on the tree or change the tree according to the season (brown leaves in the fall, green ones in spring, puffs of snow in winter).

*Bring in live plants.

*Instead of using plastic jars to hold pencils, scissors and other small supplies, put those items in wicker baskets or old coffee cans. I like to cover cans with fabric slipcovers, which you can see in the photo above and here .

Whatever you do, make sure you aren’t violating school policies or the fire code. It’s also a good idea to talk with the school’s custodian to make sure your decor won’t make their job more difficult.

What other tips do you have for my friend and teachers everywhere who want their classrooms to feel more like home? Do you know of any websites with advice on this subject, including sites where teachers and parents can learn how to make their own Montessori learning materials? I’ve been searching the Internet, but I’m not having much luck.