Creating Holiday Traditions in your Classroom: Part 4
It’s a new day which means a new blog! I am so excited to share this tradition with you today. I am actually going to take you into my classroom circa 2018. But before we travel back to when the “dab” was the kids’ cool, new dance move, if you missed any of the other traditions in the series, check them out here:
It’s almost Friday and I know we all need a break. To help alleviate some of your stress, I chose to focus on a super simple tradition today. It’s beyond easy to implement. In fact, you may have already started it and not even realized it counted as a “tradition”!
So, what’s the new tradition for today?
Digging into the Details
If you’ve felt slightly intimidated by any of the other traditions so far because they had longer instructions or were more time sensitive, then this is the tradition for you!
If you are anything like I am, I used to love scrolling Pinterest for cute classroom decor ideas, but I didn’t have the time OR money to do most of them.
So, that left me wondering…
How do you inexpensively create a cozy winter ambience?
and
Is there an easy way to include the students so I am not spending tons of hours outside of school?
Luckily, after some trial and error, I found that both of these had really easy solutions! Below I will give you ideas for decorating on a small budget and how to incorporate students in creative ways.
How to Decorate if you have NO extra money to spend
If you are a brand new teacher this year or are struggling financially, don’t stress and definitely don’t spend a ton of money that you don’t have just because it’s “for the kids”. There were years I definitely did not have any extra money and these tips were my lifesaver.
If your school has a Di-Cut machine, take advantage of it. I know these things are ancient, but my first few years, I relied on these for decorations. I would grab green, red, or maybe some blue and white construction paper and put that machine to work. Ours had snowflakes, Christmas trees, a snowman, and a square you could use as a present. String them together as a garland or just place them around the room. Get creative with it!
Alternatively, I have made a FREE printable with different winter images. You can cut these out and use as decorations.
Head over to the Papermillstore.com and try one of these easy crafts to make paper decorations. So many cute ideas over there!
Create an extra large paper tree out of butcher paper. If you do the Secret Santa or Kindness Tree traditions, you’ll need one anyways!
How to Decorate on a Small Budget
Full Disclosure: As I mentioned earlier, money was tight. On a teacher salary and with my husband in grad school, I never had a ton of extra money to throw into state-of-the-art decorations, so I learned how to be resourceful. After my first few years of following the tips I listed above, I started to invest a little more in decorations. Here are the best places I found for decor and also how I used it in my classroom.
Always shop at Michaels, Walmart, and the Dollar Tree before looking elsewhere. I have looked so many other places and have always come back to these tried and true options for classroom decor. Here is what I would get at each place:
Michaels: Take advantage of their coupons and Teacher 15% off discount code. If you can shop after Christmas for next year, most of their items are 80% off! Michaels is great for discounted trees, lights, and decorative signs. They also have seasonal scrap book paper that you can often find for a steal at $5! I would cut the paper to fit a dollar tree frame and it made a beautiful statement! They are also a great place to find student gifts if you do those for Christmas. You can make little gift bags for around $2 a bag if you buy bulk items.
Walmart: They are the best for trees! They usually have a six foot, non-lit tree around $20.
Dollar Tree: My absolute favorite for all inexpensive classroom decor. They have so many things here. Garland you can hang around door frames, ornaments you can hang above tables or put on your tree, mini-Christmas trees (you could have a decorating contest for each table group!), crafts, and so. much. more.
Once you’ve shopped around for a few minimal items, here’s what I would set up:
Tree with ornaments and lights.
Tinsel garland around windows, the white board, and door frame
Decorative signs around the room and hanging on the door
Extra lights around the book shelf
How to include students? Here are just a few ideas.
Make and put up decorations during a class meeting
Use decorating as an incentive for finishing all of their work.
Invite students to join you during lunch to decorate. The kids who don’t join will be so excited when they return after lunch (and also jealous they didn’t join!)
Other Ways to Make it Cozy
Play instrumental Christmas music while students are working quietly (unless you have a student who is bothered by this)
Display a virtual crackling fireplace when you aren’t using the Smart Board for something else.
Add a cozy pillow or two to your reading corner
How it Worked in My Own Classroom
I told you you’d get a behind the scenes look into my former classroom today! I went through my phone archives and found I had so few pictures of the Christmas decor and these traditions. We were always so in the moment participating in these traditions, that I didn’t think to take pictures. But, I did find a few!
This is a Dollar Tree mini-tree. As sad as it may look to some of you, we loved this little tree. I loved that you could buy all of the tiny ornaments, tree topper, garland, and lights right at the Dollar Tree. I thought it was too cute! Plus, it was nice to have something on both sides of the room.
Unfortunately, my pencil sharpener traffic definitely increased :)
And here is our beautiful Walmart Christmas tree in all of her glory. I just love this tree and all that it meant to me and the kids.
The ornaments, lights, and tree topper were hand-me-downs from a colleague’s mother, but I think they work just great. I loved having it near the reading corner and as you can see that carpet is just waiting for students to circle round and celebrate a “Classroom Christmas Morning”.
That’s it! Nothing fancy, but enough to make it special. Your students will definitely remember this and will look forward to entering your classroom each day, especially if they participated in making it look so magical. As you can see from my pictures, we didn’t do anything fancy, but we made it ours and that is what made it perfect.
