So, it’s a new school year, and you’re looking for new classroom decor? You’ve landed in the right place to get the low-down of classroom decoration ideas for 2024. You might teach in the same classroom as last year or in a completely new space with a different year level. Either way, having a few new decor hacks up your sleeve will make setting up your classroom much easier.
Our teacher squad at Teach Starter hasbeen right where you are, standing in an empty classroom, looking all around those cement walls and wondering where to even start. We know you have heaps on your plate already, and we wanted to make your classroom decorating easier this year.
We’ve done the scrolling, quizzed our teaching team and rounded up some of our snazziest classroom decorating resources to create a list of our favourite decor hacks for teachers. So, keep reading to get a headstart on your decorating for 2024!
Classroom Decoration Ideas for 2024
1.Make a Share Chair
Find a stool or chair (we’ve seen some sturdy options at stores like Kmart and Bunnings), and paint on the words ‘share chair.’ Use this extra bit of classroom furniture to prepare for a year of students taking turns sharing their work with their classmates.
Teacher Emily Shirey created the share chair above — we’ve also seen them called author’s chairs or reader’s chairs for her writing lessons to get kids excited about sharing their writing during her literacy block! You can also use the share chair for show and tell, read-alouds and a whole lot more.
If you find more stools, you might consider painting them with inspirational messages for your students and setting them out as classroom seating for small group work.
2. Invest in a Fun Rug
Classroom flooring can be a little … bland, and it’s not always the most comfortable for little people to sit on. So, why not invest in a fun rug or two to add a pop of colour?
There are plenty of affordable options out there – think Kmart or Amazon – and plenty of patterns, graphics and materials to match your classroom theme. We love how Perth teacher @aroundtheclassroom has chosen this smiley flower rug to complement her Kindness Bulletin Board!
3. Pick a Classroom Theme and Stick to It
Let’s face it; the fewer decisions you have to make, the faster you can get your classroom decorated and set up, right? It helps to choose one simple theme and build from there!
For example, year 2 teacher Mrs G of @stepinsidemyclassroomshared this modern and neutral colour scheme she opted to use to welcome her class. Why not follow her lead and match various classroom tools to your theme, such as your birthday chart, classroom rules outline and jobs chart?
Do you prefer classroom decor that’s a bit more colourful? Year 2 teacher Juliet of @teachingwjulietturned a corner of her classroom into a rainforest and even tasked her students with making an individual rainforest animal to add to the tree – what a great collaborative space!
Our classroom theme packs range from penguins to sloths, under the sea to space, geometric or boho rainbowsand beyond. Bonus? They have everything you need in one easy download — welcome signs, award certificates, border trimmers, tray labels, class lists… you name it!
Go pick your theme!
4.Get Creative With Classroom Structures
As you would know, learning spaces can come in all shapes and sizes, and some might even have awkward structures such as pillars or poles in the centre of the room. But, as always, we make the best of what we’ve got.
Teacher Librarian @queenlibrarianjotransformed a pole in the middle of the library into a magical tower to celebrate Book Week in 2023, and we think it looks awesome. You don’t have to wait for Book Week, of course!
If you’ve got a pole in the middle of the room or an awkward space where nothing quite seems to fit, let your imagination run wild with it – turn a pole into a tree with branches and leaves or even a giant pencil!
5. Renovate Your Reading Nook
Suppose you’ve got a dedicated reading corner. In that case, there are plenty of easy and inexpensive ways to transform it into a functional yet magical space to promote learning and find wonder. There are many themes to build your reading corner around – a magical garden to frolic around for hidden books, a tropical paradise to lounge around with a good read or a winter wonderland to cosy up in.
Queensland teacher Miss Vincent of @teacher.mrs.vincenthas created a whimsical reading nook with the help of plastic vines, plush cushions and greenery. If you’ve got a floor-level window in the classroom, think about situating your reading space in front to make use of the view!
If your classroom is a little short on space, you can still turn a humble bookshelf or cube storage into a beautiful reading space. Year 2 teacherAimee of @teachingwithcrayonsandsparkleshas colour-coordinated her books to match her vibrant rainbow theme, and it really creates an eye-catching feature in the room. You can even place colourful letter blocks spelling out ‘READ’ or ‘BOOK NOOK’ to help cordon off the space.
6. Pump Up the Colour
If neutral colour schemes aren’t your thing, don’t be afraid to inject pops of colour into the classroom! Colour has the power to create a cheery and bright environment for learning. Primary teacher Sarah of@heyy_mrscarter,has transformed her classroom into a real-life rainbow that is both beautiful and functional with only items that are often used out and easily accessible.
7. Use Your Windows Wisely
Do you have limited decorating space and need to find ways to get a bit creative? Give your classroom window some love!
Of course, you don’t want to cover the whole window and block out the outside world, but popping some colourful crafts, posters and silhouette-style artwork to celebrate events can really bring some life into the classroom.
New Zealand teacher Candice (@candice.dealey) decorated her window space with our Garden-Themed Book Review Template to add a bright, whimsical vibe to her classroom.
Here’s another great example of working with the window space you’ve got. Aussie Year 3/4 teacher@lifeandloveoflearninghas used her classroom hallway window as a science display – your window decorations can face outward too!
8. Add a ‘Wow Wall’
You may or may not already have a ‘Wow Wall’ in your classroom, but showcasing your student’s work is a lovely idea.
If you’ve never heard of a ‘Wow Wall,’ that’s okay. It’s a dedicated space to display your class’s work and make them proud of their efforts and peers. Imagine parents popping their kids’ amazing drawings on the fridge for everyone to see, then make the classroom version.
Check out this bright Wow Wall by Year 1 teacher@aschooldaywithmrskdisplaying her students’ take on thisMonster art activity.
9. Create Learning and Sound Walls
You might already know all about ‘Learning Walls,’ but if not, we’re here to shed some light. Learning Walls are interactive, visual display tools to help students and teachers map out unit learning intentions across subjects. You might include visual elements such as vocabulary walls, bump-it-up walls and assessment criteria.
Here’s a bright Learning Wall by Year 4 teacher Miss Williams(@_miss_williams_) to help her students succeed in their Exposition unit. She mounted these persuasive technique cards to the wall so students can easily access them for help when writing expositions.
Similarly, ‘Sound Walls’ are another excellent learning tool to add to your classroom while decorating. Primary school teacher Miss Gray of @evieteacheshas used our Phonics Sound Wall Displayas both a learning tool and a clever way to inject colour into her classroom. We love the vines as decor, too!
10. Don’t Forget the Door!
The door is the gateway to your learning space, literally! As it’s the first and last part of the classroom that students see each day, giving it some decor love is a great idea. Whether you change your door display to match the season or a prominent event, you use it as a way for positivity reinforcement through affirmation signs or display class photos, it will give your classroom a homely feel.
Here’s a fantastic Christmas door display created by Brisbane Year 5 teacher Charlotte of @teachingwith_missmto welcome the festive season and get her kids excited for the holiday.
11. Use Cut-Out Decorations
You may be quite the artist, but then again, maybe not. There’s no need to spend hours drawing or scouring the web for free artwork when you can print cut-out decorations designed with teachers in mind! Explore cut-out decor that will fit all your favourite themes here, and just hit print!
Teach Starter Teacher Tip: Save serious time — download full wall displays — letters, pictures and all!
12. Use Painter’s Tape to Help Space Letters
Now that you have some of your decor ready to go, let’s talk about hanging them up!
Ever wonder how other teachers always seem to have perfectly straight display letters with perfect spacing, while yours still looks like a handmade card to Mum with the big birthd and the teeny weeny ay? The trick is painter’s tape!
Teacher McKay of @gradesandgrace demonstrates above, but basically, you lay out your letters or cut-out decorations on a flat surface the way you want them to look, then run a piece of painter’s tape straight across to hold them that way.
Carefully pull the painter’s tape away from your surface with the letters still connected, then place it on your wall or display! You can then use mounting putty or tape to stick the letters to the wall before pulling up the tape.
You can use this trick when removing them, too! Just slap a piece of tape across, and they’re easy to store. If there’s a tonne of space (like these letters shown above), line a second piece on the back so the sticky parts touch one another before you store.
13. Use Painter’s Tape to Evenly Hang Pictures
While you have the painter’s tape handy, we’ve got another one for you. If you’re hanging frames or shelves that require multiple nails, you don’t need to call another teacher or friend to help you. Just grab your painter’s tape and tape along the back of the item you want to hang. Mark on the painter’s tape the spots where you’re going to need your nails or screws.
Now head to the wall with a level, tape the tape to the wall, drive in the nail or screw, and voila … perfectly spaced and ready for hanging!
14. Use Painter’s Tape to Prevent Wall Cracking
OK, this is the last painter’s tape hack, we promise.
If you’re going to be nailing into freshly painted walls and don’t want the janitors to groan when you’re cleaning out your classroom next summer, grab a tiny piece of painter’s tape and place it wherever you’re going to add a nail to the wall for hanging. When it’s time to take things down next year and pull those nails, the tape will prevent the paint around the nail from cracking, and you can easily fill the hole with a teeny bit of putty … it’s like you were never even there.
15. How to Use Tape So Displays Don’t Fall Down
If you’re rolling small loops of tape to hang your display letters, we are pleased to inform you… there is a better way. Instead, cut off longer strips of tape and roll long loops — like a snake. Because they’re longer, they will cover more space and do a better job of holding your classroom decor in place.
Love the letters in the hack above? Print the bee-utiful bees, here!
16. Create a Pencil Dispenser
You’ve probably grabbed a straw from a dispenser a few thousand times over the years, but have you thought of using one of those dispensers for classroom pencils?
Check your local restaurant supply store for a dispenser, or find one on Amazon. Alternatively, you can also use the type with a pull-up top — don’t worry, it’s plastic — after all, straws and pencils are about the same size.
17. Light Up the Room
When the lightbox trend swept Instagram a few years ago, we immediately jumped on board. What’s not to love about an easy display system that also brightens up the room? It’s been around for a while now, and we have to admit we’re still digging it!
Never jumped on board? Now’s your chance. Add a beam of light into the classroom with a light box that can easily be changed out weekly (or more often if you’re really feeling the energy) with very little effort.
18. Catch Them Up on Work
Make it easy for students to catch up on work if they are absent or have to be out of the classroom by hanging a ‘catch-up work’ mobile where students can find it.
Fast finishers can check the mobile to see if they’ve got work to catch up on, and you won’t be chasing kids down as you’re nearing report time … or having to hold kids in at recess to catch up on missed work. It’s better for you and for the students.
19. Pack in the Plants
The best way to keep the air fresh and clean in the classroom? Fill it with plants. Scientists have found that plants can boost the overall mental well-being of the people around them — that’s you and your students! Plus, you can even add plant care and maintenance to your classroom jobs list to teach kids to share the workload and teach responsibility.
Teacher Caitlyn of@teaandcountryteachinghas transformed her learning space into a mini jungle with the help of classroom-friendly plants.
20. Create a Pencil Sign Out Station
Here’s another classroom decor idea that can help you keep track of school supplies — create a pencil sign out station. With this system, students are required to sign out pencils if they’ve forgotten one, and each pencil is labelled with a reminder to ‘please return to the teacher.’
What happens when the pencils are gone? The sign-out station gets closed down with a sign explaining that people didn’t return them! Not only do you keep track of pencils, but your kids learn about the consequences of their actions.
Need labels for your organisation station? Use our handy label maker!
21. Hang Hand Signs
We love this behaviour management trick to prevent students from calling out in the middle of a lesson. Teach your students a few hand signals so they can quietly let you know they’ve got to go to the bathroom, have a question, need to fill their water bottle, and so on.
Hang signs featuring the different hand signals and what they mean prominently in your classroom to help them remember!
22. Add Auslan to Your Wall Alphabet
While we’re on the subject of hand signs, there are countless benefits to teaching sign language in elementary school — among them, ensuring that deaf students have classmates who are better able to communicate with them.
To start kids off early with Auslan, add the various letter signs to your classroom alphabet display! This way, students have a visual reference not just of their capital and lowercase letters but also of all the letters they’re learning to finger-spell.
Not sure where to start? You can print out these Auslan flashcards and cut them up to post on your wall or hang these Auslan alphabet posters on your whiteboard (bonus, our fingerspelling poster is free right now!).
23. Set Up a Positive Affirmation Mirror
Will you have a mirror in your classroom? Promote self-esteem and body positivity by surrounding the whole thing with affirmations that remind students they are brave, smart, kind, and more.
Year 5 teacher Miss Fauni shared a look at her version of this idea with us below. She used our printable positive affirmations for kids, and posted them all around the classroom mirror to ensure every child could see them. This is a wonderful way to build a safe and supportive class environment where students know they are valued.
Here’s another beautiful example of positive classroom reinforcement by Year 4 teacher@teachingwith.misscrystal.She matched the affirmation station to her classroom theme of pastel rainbow colours to ensure her decor was cohesive.
Don’t have a mirror? You can still make your own version of this. Miss Fauni actually calls hers apositive mindset/self-affirmation wall!
24. Greet Each Day With a Sign
Classroom greetings can set the tone for the rest of the school day. Have some fun — and decorate your doorway with some creative greeting ideas. Students can point to or tap the greeting they want to exchange with you for a fun interaction that will start the day off right.
Print your own greetings display here. It’s been designed with colourful rainbows to help set a positive tone for the day!
25. Set Up a Chill Out Zone
Social and emotional development is part and parcel of going to school, and with that comes learning to self-regulate your emotions. But that’s tough for all of us — especially the little learners we see day in and day out. Setting up a chill-out corner or zone in your classroom gives kids a place to go when they just need a place to gather themselves before they return to their regularly scheduled programming.
26. Use Your Clock as Part of Your Decor
Your students are bound to look at your classroom clock a LOT over the course of the school year, so make good use of that prime piece of real estate.
Use it as the ‘o’ in dozens of other words, add flower petals to make it look like a flower (bonus if you add numbers on the petals to help kids translate the analog numbers — we’ve got the fun template, here), or even add some pom-poms for a flash of colour!
27. ‘Grow’ Positivity
Here’s another great use for the positive affirmation cards for kidsin your classroom decorations.
Many of our belief systems are formed in early childhood, and repetition can help reinforce them — but you want to make sure the things kids believe are positive, don’t you? Grow positivity in your classroom with a positivity tree. You can invite your students to gather around the tree once a day and choose one affirmation to read or send students to pick out an appropriate affirmation from the class tree when you catch them being down on themselves.
28. Set Up a Kindness Rock Garden
This is a seriously inexpensive idea to promote kindness in the classroom plus add some pops of colour when you’re decorating your room! Collect rocks, and paint on positive sayings to let your students know they have your full support. Bonus idea: Allow them to collect a rock before big tests, so they have something to hold onto (think a worry stone) and a positive reminder that they have got this! While you’re at it, grab this rock garden poster to go with your garden!
29. Introduce a Classroom Job Board
When you think about classroom decor, a job board probably isn’t the first thing to come to mind but hear us out!
While a job board is a fantastic way to teach kids about responsibility and enhance efficiency in the classroom, you can also turn it into a fun and interactive display. From a magnetic job board to one with pockets for each task to a rotating job wheel, there are plenty of ways to tie your job display in with the rest of the classroom theme.
30. Create a Positivity Walk
Carry along the positivity theme by creating a positivity walk for your students! Hang posters that encourage a growth mindset near where they line up to go to lunch or along the wall outside of your classroom so they’ve always got a reminder to look on the bright side of life!You could use some motivational classroom postersandinclude their names, photos, or anavatar of each of your studentsto really reinforce that this positivity walk belongs to them!
31. Use Tap Lights for Sound Levels
Add these tap light posters to your tap lights for a great classroom display to highlight voice-level expectations in the classroom.
32.Decorate Your Devices
Give your computer desktop and your cellphone each a quick decorating touch with a teacher background that will make you the envy of the staffroom. From mindfulness to llama themes to space backgrounds, we’ve got a bunch of virtual wallpapers to download.
