Igniting Critical and Creative Thinking

TEACHER TIPS: WAYS TO REFURBISH OLD CHRISTMAS DECOR FOR YOUR CLASSROOM

Christmas is over and I can hardly believe it!  It came and went so quickly! Now it’s time to start packing everything up to save for next year. Do you hate packing up all your Christmas decor?  I do! It always makes me a little sad because I love how my classroom and home look all decked out for the holidays.  But this year, as I was looking over everything, I began thinking about ways I could recycle some of my Christmas decorations to use in the classroom this winter.  So, here are three ideas I came up with. Read on to find out how I made them!

Tip 1:  Use Garland and Ornaments

 

You can use old Christmas Garland as a border for a bulletin board. For a winter bulletin board, you can use silver or white garland, icicle ornaments, snowmen, and snowflakes.

If you have leftover red garland, it would be great for Valentine’s Day.

 Tip 2:  Make Wrapping Paper Bunting

Even though it rarely snows here in Alabama, I love teaching about snow and winter weather during the months of January and February.  As I was looking at my leftover decorations, I found tinsel garland, snowflakes, and icicles.  Wow!  Those would make a great bulletin board!  So I gathered them up and this is what I came up with!  This is a choice board of extension activities to accompany the book Snowflake Bentley, but you could use these ideas for many types of bulletin boards.  I used the tinsel garland for the border and added the icicles to hang from the top border. Finally, I stapled the snowflakes around the task cards. The task cards on the board are from my Snowflake Bentley Unit which you can find in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can click on the picture to go to my Snowflake Bentley unit.

 Tip 3: Use Props

There are many Christmas decor items which you can use as props for displays in your classroom.  For this bulletin board, I used white snow sheets I had used for my Christmas village.  I decided to have the kiddos write the directions for how to catch a snowflake.  Each kiddo can make a head and glue a snowflake on their tongue.  I also used silver tinsel garland and snowflake ornaments to finish the board.  Finally,  I placed a fun snowman I had on the table in front of the board to finish it off and then put the writing and craft supplies on the table next to the snowman to make a fun writing center. You can find the writing prompt for this activity along with a prompt for how to build a snowman here or you can click on the picture!

  • Christmas Lights – put them around a bulletin board as a border.
  • Artificial Greenery – Use them as a border for a bulletin board or make a tree trunk out of construction paper and add the greenery to the branches.  This would be great for a bulletin board about wildlife in winter.
  • Small sleds – use as props for bulletin boards or a writing center.
  • Christmas Village houses – writing prompt – you saw a house in the snow in the woods.  You step inside and suddenly….
  • Clear plastic ornaments you can fill to make snow globes
  • White plastic ball ornaments for snowballs
  • Plastic harp, drum and horn ornaments for a music theme bulletin board

I had a blast coming up with ways to use lots of my decor in the classroom for the winter months.  I am sure you have tons of items around your house that are begging to stay out a few more months.  Just look around and use your imagination! Leave a comment, we’d love to hear your ideas!

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I'm Susan!

I’m Susan Morrow and I help overwhelmed teachers create thinking classrooms where students discover the joy in learning and achieving.

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