People are always asking me how do you decide when to transform your room or how do you get your ideas? Room transformations have become a way for me to let my creative side out and bring real-life experiences to my students.
I will never forget my first room transformation it was my 3rd year and the new Charlotte's Web movie had just come out. I always did a Charlotte's Web unit but this time it was amazing because the real Wilbur was from Murfreesboro. There had been a red-carpet event for Wilbur at one of the local banks and my best friend's dad was working for that bank at the time. He had given me movie posters, stickers, activity books, button pins with Wilbur and Charlotte quotes, and I had cut out articles from the local newspaper. Oh, and I can't forget Charlotte. I had hung a plastic spider on my bulletin board. The children came in the next morning and were hooked immediately and excited. I knew then this is how I engage my students. I was an Early Childhood Major so themed units and all the crafty things were like second nature but struggled on how to bring all that into a 3rd-grade classroom my first couple years because my coworkers at the time loved them some worksheets. After this, that is all she wrote. Every year after that they have kept growing and growing and growing to what it is today.
If you are anything like me I always want to know the why and what research says before I implement anything new in my classroom for my students. I'm such a nerd for research and data.
William Glasser measured the retention rate of students after 24 hours with different delivery methods. Your thinking why 24 hours? This is when the working memory must move to long-term or it will be dumped. Look at the diagram to see a breakdown of the percentages of retention. If you notice the areas with the most retention are the strategies that have the most engagement.
Dr. Robert Marzano says to foster student engagement you must ask yourself and your students 4 questions: How do I feel? Am I interested? Is this important? Can I do this? The first two questions How do I feel? and Am I interested? focus on the attention of the student. If your students are highly engaged, then their attention and learning will turn into working memory. If you are presenting information that is considered not interesting, then that information will be dumped and not processed into their working memory. Now take this research and think about room transformations. Room transformations provide attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and a passion or inspiration to learn for your students
We have to teach the standards but it’s about how
WE CHOOSE
to deliver those standards that inspire our students.
Let’s face it the words room transformation can sound scary and you may even begin to panic because of feeling a lack of control. I am here to ease your worries and to tell you to start simple. Your first room transformation is like making a new recipe. Worries of will it taste good, will it flop, are they going to hate it, and what is plan b if it is really that bad but if you follow the recipe and add just the right amount of seasoning then you know in the end it is super yummy! A room transformation is the same way. You have to add just the right amount of curriculum, spice, seasoning, excitement and voila a yummy treat for your students.
The ingredients you will need to whip up your first room transformation are standards or curriculum, a theme, experience teaching the standard, real-life experiences, excitement, and just the right amount of creativity and passion.
1. What are you teaching?
The first step is to decide what you are teaching. Look at your standards break them down into learning targets and performance goals. Once you have done that then you can decide on a theme. I like to use my science and social studies standards to guide my theme then I pull in the math and reading standards to connect it all together.
The following are the standards I have chosen from the first nine weeks Instructional Guides from our county to show you how I would begin a room transformation.
3.LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes 1) Analyze the internal and external structures that aquatic and land animals and plants have to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
3.OA.A.1. Interpret the factors and products in whole number multiplication equations (e.g., 4 x 7 is 4 groups of 7 objects with a total of 28 objects or 4 strings measuring 7 inches each with a total of 28 inches.)
3.RI.KID.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
I would break down these standards and come up with a week to two-week unit using the above standards.
2. How are you going to teach it?
The second step after breaking down your standards is to decide how are you going to teach them, engage them, and inspire them. This is where my creativity comes out. Using the above standards, I would turn my room into a zoo. Remember I like to use the science standards to establish my theme.
Here is an example of my Jurassic World that would be very similar to a zoo theme. I would have artificial plants, animals, turn my desks into jeeps, a zoo hospital, and have binoculars, and zoo badges for my students to wear. Now that you have a theme how can you incorporate it to teach the above standards? The science standard covers external and internal animal structures and that is where I would begin. We would investigate and explore animal structures in Science using some of the following activities: Eat Like a Bird, Ear Shape, or Designer Ears
We would then read about animal structures using the books below to find the main idea and details. These stories have very short paragraphs and are great to use to introduce main idea and details.
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| Amazon Link |
To connect math into this unit I would use a lot of context. What do I mean by context? Here are some examples.
At the Nashville Zoo, there are 3 monkey exhibits. Each exhibit has 3 monkeys. How many monkeys are at the Nashville Zoo? or The zoologist has 5 bears. Each bear eats 4 fish. How many fish will the zoologist need to feed the bears? We would also use animal manipulatives to act out the multiplication. I have made these multiplication math mats that would be great to use for this theme as well. Here is an example of one.
You could then use animal manipulatives, play dough, chips, animal crackers to solve these problems.
Remember just because you turned your room into a zoo doesn't mean that the rigor and high expectations goes out the window. That is why I break down the standards first then apply my theme to my lessons and complete the room transformation. I also do not recommend trying a room transformation with a standard you have never taught before because you just don't know what can occur and the rigor may not be there. You want to be confident in your standards so you can make sure that the rigor and high expectations are always there.
3. Add creativity, excitement, and have fun!
The last step to a room transformation is the setup and purchasing of items. I first always look around my house and my classroom to decide how I can use items that I already have. I then will ask other teachers to borrow their items and last a trip to the Dollar Store or my Amazon prime account. Dollar store has so many things you can use over and over again for different room transformations. I also look in the Target $1 section and their birthday party isles. Walmart also has great items in their arts and crafts and party isles. I try to purchase big items that I know I will use repeatedly for different room transformations.
A few of my favorite items to use when transforming a room is tablecloths, photo backdrops, cardboard cutouts, and anything that will bring the experiences to life for my students.
Here are a few of my transformations from the past year:
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| Football Theme |
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| Mad Scientist Lab |
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| Camping |
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| Grinch Week |
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| Winter Olympics |
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| Winter Olympics |
I hope these steps help you to accomplish your room transformations with ease and excitement. My students are always asking when will I do the next one and what will it be. I like to keep my students wanting more and excited for the next day of school.
How have you transformed your classroom?
What are your go-to items for a room transformation?
Leave a comment to help share ideas with teachers from all over.
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