It’s that time of year again. It is the time of year when I see post after post on social media asking for pictures of classrooms and advice on “must-haves” for classroom walls. As I’ve shared in my Decorations With a Purpose post, I prefer to decorate with objects that help my students remember and use the things we are learning. My standard classroom decorations consist of five items:

Spooky Synonyms

I know it’s not even September, but I’ve already seen Halloween paraphernalia in the stores. Typically, students help me create a Spooky Synonyms Bulletin Board in October, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be done and used year-round. I know many teachers like to deem certain words “dead” and encourage students to use more descriptive synonyms instead, and that’s precisely what this board does. I label the tombstones with the words we want to replace, and students find synonyms and make ghosts to come out of the grave. Get all the details in the linked post above or the templates by clicking the picture link.

Shades of Meaning

Another fun synonym activity, Shades of Meaning, is less tied to a specific time of year and uses paint chips that can be obtained by asking for some at your local hardware or paint store. I’ve never once been refused when I explain why I want so many sample cards, and usually, they give me more than I need. You can get the full details in the linked post, but the short version is that students are assigned words for which to find synonyms. They then rank the synonyms from weakest to strongest and write them on the cards, weakest on the lightest color and strongest on the darkest.

Picture Perfect Prepositions

This is a scavenger hunt activity I have often done with high beginner and low intermediate classes. Besides resulting in a fun classroom display of student work, Picture Perfect Prepositions allows me to assess students’ knowledge of prepositions of place without having them take a fill-in-the-blank test. The short version is each student is given a list of 5-10 prepositions and access to magazines. Students then search for pictures that can be captioned with a sentence illustrating the preposition. It’s always fun to see the creative sentences they come up with and an excellent, authentic assessment of their learning.

Adjective Hunt

Another scavenger hunt activity, Adjective Hunt, works much like Picture Perfect Prepositions, but students are given adjectives to find and use in picture captions instead of prepositions. This same basic activity can be used for almost any part of speech.

Appetizing Adjectives

This second adjective activity, Appetizing Adjectives, is one I use with beginning-level students and classes. Each student is given a large sheet of bulletin board or craft paper divided into eight rows of four columns. The first two squares are combined and labeled “Food Quilt” or similar, and the other 26 boxes are labeled with a letter from the alphabet. Then, using grocery store ads, students find, cut out, and glue at least one food item for each letter of the alphabet. The activity can be made a little more difficult by asking students to add an adjective describing each item.

Body Drawings

The last activity I have to share with you today, Body Drawings, is another one I use with beginning-level students. Students trace one another, and then each student colors in his/her clothing before labeling the drawing with as many body parts as possible. It’s fun to see how students “dress” their paper selves, and they often get competitive, trying to see who can label the most body parts (including parts you don’t often think of, such as the ear lobe).