If you are a teacher who loves to get into the spirit of the seasons, then you will definitely want to decorate your classroom door to mark the changes of the seasons.
This is not something that just you as a teacher will enjoy and appreciate, but your class will also enjoy and appreciate the effort that you have put into your decorative door too.
Sometimes, the regular routine of being in school can seem mundane and boring – and injecting fun into your classroom is something that can really boost the morale and the energy of your classroom environment.
As you can imagine, decorating your classroom door is quite the mission, and you are going to need some tools to make sure that your door looks as great as it can.
The best supplies that can get you started on decorating your classroom door are colored paper and a stapler.
These will make sure that your classroom door decorations stay up in one piece, and that they do not come apart and fall down like so many autumn leaves.
You can add borders and whatever else you want to create your decor, as these will look great and help to stabilize the central design.
When it comes to decorating your classroom door, it is totally up to you as the teacher with how extra you go. You can go as over the top as you like. If you think it will look great or inspire the children, then why not?
That said, you don’t want your classroom door to be so jazzy that it distracts the students from learning, and you also want to make sure that the way that you decorate your classroom door is suitable for the age of your students.
For example, you are not going to want to have a classroom door that is too young for your class to appreciate – as kids get older they want to come across as older than they actually are.
So, decorating your classroom door inappropriately can end up putting students off and getting their attention for the wrong reason.
Keeping To The Fall Theme
It’s good to be creative and adventurous with your door design, but remember to keep everything fall-leaning, as a consistent theme is essential to the impact of the whole process.
A seasonally exclusive door is something that can be exciting for the students, because as the seasons change, the door decorations will change too, giving them a sense of time, motion, progress, and perhaps even a fascination with the natural world.
What’s more, your door doesn’t have to be your own secret project, as it’s the perfect bit of arts and crafts to delegate to the students themselves.
For instance, they could draw around their hands or use paint and make hand print stamps on paper. These could be cut out and used as leaves for the fall door.
This could be something that the students do every time you change the door for the seasons.
In the winter months, students can make dark branches out of their hand prints, in the spring they can make green leaves, and in the summer, they can make different colored birds.
There are lots of ways that the class can be involved in the classroom door decorations – it does not just have to be left to you to surprise the class.
Sure, you will probably be in charge of assembling the decorations on the door and creating the scene – but the students will have played a massive part in creating the decorations.
Using Your Classroom Door As Motivation For The Whole School Year
You might not feel as though you have sufficient time to change up the classroom door every time a new season rolls around, and this is totally understandable.
That and depending on the age of your students, they might be ‘too cool’ to help make hand print leaves.
Instead, you can create a classroom door that is going to keep the class motivated for the whole year. You might find that as time goes on, you have to re-secure certain decorative elements of the door – but the display as a whole can stay the same.
You might want to cater the classroom door to things that the class is interested in. This will grab their attention and will most likely impress them.
For instance, you could theme the door around a popular video game or television show that they will all most likely watch. Or, you can theme the door around something that you will be studying in class.
Classroom Door Decorations For Everyone To Enjoy
It is really important that the way in which you decorate your classroom door does not show off any kind of bias.
For instance, you do not want your classroom door to be super feminine and pink and girly, because the boys in the class might find this a bit strange.
Alternatively, if you opt for a classroom door that is heavily boy-ish and influenced by things that are typically appreciated by boys such as cars and soccer, then the girls will not be too impressed by this.
Picking a theme that can be appreciated by all students is the best thing to do because you do not want to unintentionally alienate anyone in your class.
Picking a theme to do with the seasons, or to do with a well-recognized scene – such as the beach, the jungle, or outer space can be flexible to the taste of all the students in your class.
What Should You Put On The Classroom Door?
So, you have picked out your theme but now you are not totally sure what to put on the door.
This is totally understandable, and this is where we can help you. Of course, it is your classroom door and it is up to you what you decide to put on it.
You can go for a minimalistic approach in terms of written work on the door. Or, you can find different ways to make your door personal to your class – which is where our suggestions will come into the mix.
Here’s the thing, you are not going to want to put super personal information about your students on the door – but you can label the door with the year group of your classroom. This is something that you can try to make funny and kind of pun-like.
You might not want there to be any kind of information on your classroom door, or you might want an allocated section to write notices on for your students to see and keep note of.
You could have a section where you write on the class’ homework for the week – or you can create a mini timetable on the door, and you can stick on the subject you are doing in the morning and then after lunch.
You could even incorporate a rewards system or a star chart onto your decorative classroom door. This can be something that you use as a motivator for students every time they enter the classroom.
This will allow your students to see how much progress they are making and how they can improve, but in a way that will empower them in the classroom.
The whole purpose of decorating your classroom door is so that it can motivate and inspire your students when they enter the classroom.
You want your students to view the decorative door as a source of inspiration quite literally from the very moment that they enter the classroom.
In Conclusion
Overall, it is totally up to you to decide how exactly you want to decorate and accessorize your classroom door.
It is also up to you whether or not you want to change up your classroom door decorations to mark the changing seasons or to boost morale.
Ultimately, this is something that depends on the ages of the students in your class – how old the students are will determine what exactly they engage with.
It is also up to you how much of a commitment you want your classroom door decorations to be: if you want the class to be involved in the decor, or if you just want it to be an entertaining decorative feature of your classroom.
All of these things are completely up to you. You can ultimately decide upon and go with whatever suits you and your students best.
The whole point of decorating your classroom door is to boost morale amongst students and to help give your classroom a positive atmosphere.
You want your students to enjoy learning and feel engaged when they enter the classroom, and a fun classroom door can really add to this.
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
