As most teachers prepare to return to school, I’ve been overhearing conversations about classroom themes, not curricular units but themes for the room environment.  Which would be best?  Under the sea?  Hawaii?  The old west?

While I must admit I think it’s awesome to see a six year old’s bedroom decked out with pirate decor (and I suppose ballerina themes are cool too), I’m not sure if these themes, as they are used, do much toward supporting the curriculum being taught in the rooms in which they are used.

I’m not against cuteness.  However, while an engaging room can support student engagement, if the room environment is just fluff, the stuff on the walls can become as engaging as wallpaper.

Here are a couple of examples of room themes that support the curriculum…

For a storytelling theme, create a cave with crinkled brown butcher paper.  As the earliest recorded stories were paintings on cave walls, have students retell family stories by drawing on the cave walls.  By the end of the unit the room is a story.

For an ocean unit put up your under the sea theme but as the unit progresses discuss the different animals around the room.  Don’t just discuss the clown fish and point at the wall but bring him off the wall and create a chart with students labeling the parts of the fish.

Even though I do have a few things up on the first day, like a bulletin board of my favorite books, and a Concept Question Board, as soon as possible I replace the prefab bulletin boards with student work and remove store bought posters to put up posters created with student input.

The room should be a living, breathing entity that students interact with.  Anything else is just wallpaper.