The decor of your classroom can help your students feel excited about coming to school each day. When you use innovative classroom decorating ideas, your students think of school as a fun and welcoming environment. What they may not also realize is that many of your decorating ideas also help you to stay organized and carry out classroom themes you want them to learn. 

Decorate the Unexpected Spots

If you feel pressured to produce a great back-to-school bulletin board, bring a festive air to your classroom decor by focusing on the spots most people would overlook. Decorate your file cabinet or storage cabinet by creating a decoupage with wrapping paper or applying contact paper to its doors. Bring a new sense of energy to your classroom when you paint your bookcases in cheerful colors, and decorate your doors as well, painting murals that let the children use their imagination as to what might lie beyond once the doors are opened. Add color to basic office supplies, such as paper trays, wastebaskets and pencil holders, by spray painting them. 

Personalize the Children's Areas

How can you help your students feel special and express their personalities? Provide them with unique decorations for their own work spaces; ask your school if you can paint your students' desks or chairs. Have kids show off what they love by letting them pick their favorite books, then help them create stencils to transfer cover art to their desktops. Give the children cups or buckets to hold their pens and pencils, and help them decorate them all in a matching color scheme to keep your classroom looking cohesive and cool. 

Don't Forget the Ceiling

When you want to engage the imaginations of your students, ask for permission to decorate the ceiling of your classroom. Acoustic tiles can typically be painted, letting your students see art from all angles. Consider creating a rainbow display of colors, or paint a daytime sky that gradually becomes a night filled with stars. If you can't paint the ceiling, install simple hooks to hang decorative elements that encourage creativity. Your students can make fun pom poms, paper airplanes, birds or kites to dress up the classroom. 

Cover the Walls With Games

Students, especially the younger ones, can feel nervous in a new classroom, so adding recognizable elements to yours will help them feel more comfortable. in their new learning environment. Frame the game boards of always-popular educational games, such as Chutes and Ladders or Sorry, then varnish or lacquer them to make them waterproof and stain proof. Hang the game boards on the walls as colorful decorations, and attach the game pieces in a sealed plastic bag. This lets you clear lots of shelf space to make more room for books and other toys while keeping the game boards fresh, even after years of use. 

Bulletin Boards Themes

Some students need a push to get them back into learning mode for a new school year. Create colorful and cohesive themes that help motivate them. Develop a home theme to help students know they're always accepted and welcome in your classroom, try a Hollywood movie theme to fire their imaginations, or go for the kids' favorite superheroes or video games to hold their interest. Expand your horizons during the holidays, redecorating and adding colorful bulletin board borders to catch the spirit of Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day or even Arbor Day. 

Spruce up Your Whiteboard

If your classroom feels too institutional, surround it with a fanciful frame to your whiteboard for some added excitement. If you don't have the skills or energy to build a wooden frame, just use contact paper to set your whiteboard apart and make it special. When you want to stay organized and send special messages to your students, use vinyl transfer letters to create semi-permanent messages at the top of the board. Add a row of backpack hooks at the bottom of the whiteboard so the students can keep their belongings neat and tidy. 

With just a little ingenuity, you can use basic school supplies and office supplies to transform a run-of-the-mill classroom into an exciting and inviting place for your students all year long. Put your imagination to work and you'll come up with classroom decorating ideas that turn drab into fab.  Get ready for a school year filled with excitement, creativity and learning.