Chalkboard, Burlap, and Bright Classroom Decor

This year I had to JOY of helping my friend set up her 1st grade classroom at my old school.  All of the fun that comes with organizing things, thinking about routines in the classroom, thinking about what will be most exciting for students, and what will make for the best set up for everyone is a big part of that.  Kaydee knew she wanted bright colors and I was just loving all of the chalkboard and burlap decor. Chalkboard, burlap, and bright colors are the classroom decor we decided to run with!

We stuck to chalkboard boarder, brown craft paper, teal, pink, yellow, and lime green for our pops of color! Here is a view of the front of the classroom as you enter. The classrooms are divided by a curtain (that are not so sound proof. Ha!).

This is a view from the front corner of the classroom.  The burlap ribbon hanging along the top of the curtain will be used to display anchor charts.  Clothespins will be used to attach them. 

These are views is from the classroom library.

This view is from behind the guided reading table.

This is a view of the front of the classroom from the back. The alphabet posters are found HERE and class birthday hat display is found HERE.

The school uses CHAMPS to help reinforce positive behavior. The cards are hot glued to jute and the little clothespin will be moved to show students what the expectation is for that time. 

The iPads and headphones are stored below and the tubs on the left and the right house supplies (my labels found HERE) until they are needed.

This is the classroom library area.  The bulletin boards above are to display whole class data.  As a school, we track math fact fluency, iStation data, TEMI Math data, and fluency.  The “We Are Rocket Readers” bulletin board is for tracking reading levels.  Each time a student moves up a reading level, they move their reading rocket. 

In the classroom library books will be organized both by reading levels and by themes (found HERE) if they don’t fit a reading level perfectly.  The green tub in the corner has pillows for students to use as they read independently.

This is a view of the guided reading table area. The tubs on the right house small group supplies. The black shelf on the left holds guided reading books. The kids have yoga balls to sit on at the table.  There are small round circles that the balls rest on when not in use. 

This is the teacher desk area.  I never had a teacher desk, but it was important to Kaydee that she had this so we made it match and it fits just perfectly! It also houses her document camera well for whole group time and she doesn’t loose extra classroom space. 

I made the desk garland with ribbon and jute string. Easy peasy!  It also matches the tassels that hang on the ends of the alphabet and number lines.

Here is where most of the whole group teaching happens.

This shelf houses simple baskets from the Dollar Tree (found here) that can serve as math station storage, early finisher tubs, or store math manipulatives even!

Behind this area, you can see the burlap color posters (found HERE) and shape posters (found HERE).  They are printed 4 to a page to save paper and space! 

At the end of this fabulous built-in storage, is a tall area with lots of shelving. Because every teacher needs their own teacher shelves, this is how these are used.  The curtain help keep it all together and add a pop of color!

To the right of this area are the student mailboxes, which were jazzed up with wash tape.  The laundry basket at the bottom is for lunch boxes.  It’s simple to have line leaders carry the basket to and from lunch so that lunch boxes are not thrown everywhere or getting mixed up at recess time. 

This is the back of the classroom, where the word wall (found HERE), burlap number line (found HERE), writing station (stations found HERE) and shelves with baskets for literacy or math stations are housed.

Burlap ribbon was simply stapled across the top of the chalkboard along with letters that were cut out of plain white cardstock using Babbling Abby fonts and my Cameo.  To hang the alphabet and number posters we use small clothespins and jute.

On each end I made a ribbon tassel to add a pop of bright color!

This is the area to the left of the word wall. The table will house the classroom computers as soon as the phone can get rewired to the other side of the room.

The bulletin board displays class expectations, school-wide expectations, and the school pledge and motto.  The pennant banner at the bottom displays how each student gets home. You can find it HERE.
That’s the classroom for now until anchor charts, student work, and much more are added to the walls!  I just love seeing all of that join the classroom decor!

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