Classroom ideas

Because I googled "classroom door decor" ideas for days, I thought I'd add my classroom ideas here in case anyone else wants a little inspiration.

Last year, I did an explorer theme. For my door decoration, I found clip art of an old map and typed their names in old-timey font over the maps. I stretched it a bit by including rainforest graphics on the board, and an island getaway theme in the reading corner. We did things like using Time for Kids to read about different countries, using Google Earth, naming each table after a country that we then "explored", mapping out news stories we had heard for an entire semester, and at the end of the year we mapped out all of the countries we had learned about that year. It was really exciting for them to see so many dots all over the globe!

This year, I'm going with a spy/detective theme. I think it'll be fun, because I have many more boys than girls, but what kid doesn't love a mystery? I totally stole this idea from Proteacher.com, but my slogan on the door will be "It's no mystery... third grade is great!"
Their names are written on sunglasses, magnifying glasses, and footprints. For their desks, I made my own nameplates in publisher with the same clip art. The bulletin board will display some "top secret" information and be surrounded with caution tape. Thanks to my good friend Meredith, the caution tape includes the words in English and Spanish, perfect for our Spanish magnet school.

At Meet the Teacher night, I'll have the information for parents in a "Top Secret" manila folder. For the kids, I'll have a cryptogram for them to solve while their parents fill out paperwork.

I'm about to head to my classroom to brainstorm some other ideas. I'm also excited to hang up the curtains I made yesterday! :) To be continued...