Your classroom is your home five days a week. Make it a place where you’ll feel comfortable working and your students will feel comfortable learning.

Keep it age- and subject-appropriate

A kindergarten or first-grade classroom should feel warm and inviting. This is your students’ early impression of school. They’re going to be just as nervous as you on that first day. Make it a place they’ll want to walk into.

A high school classroom should be more businesslike, but that doesn’t mean drab. Posters are a good way to decorate inexpensively for nearly any subject — literary quotes for an English classroom, maps for history and geography, the periodic table of the elements for a chemistry lab. If posters get expensive, make your own with quotes from literary or historic figures, scientific diagrams, etc.

Keep it organized

Develop a storage system that will work for your classroom. Put the supplies you need at the beginning of the year in the place that is easiest to access. Rotate your stored items so the end-of-year supplies move gradually forward.

Plastic containers can be easily labeled and stacked, and are more durable than cardboard boxes.

Let your students be the stars

Displaying student work or awards can keep your décor fresh, show off your students’ successes and help your students feel more at home in your classroom.

Keep a record

When you complete a display or other classroom décor project, take a photo so you’ll remember it next time.

Decorating on a budget

  • Scout yard sales or thrift stores for items such as furniture or bookends.
  • Visit www.freecycle.org to find a group in your area. Freecyclers can post unneeded items they want to find homes for, or request items they are hoping to find. This could be a good place to find secondhand furniture, storage boxes, unused art supplies or even a tank for your classroom goldfish.
  • Look for sales or collect coupons for discount stores, craft stores, bookstores, etc. If you try to buy throughout the year, it will mean a less dramatic dent on your wallet.
  • Talk to the retirees in your district. Are they going to throw away those old bulletin-board materials? Don’t think of it as scavenging, think of it as recycling.
  • Look around your house or your friends’ houses. Does someone have yarn leftover from a knitting hobby that got derailed? It can be used in numerous creative ways. Posters from a theatrical production? Let them dot the walls of your drama or English classroom.