Setting up the Classroom Environment (Small cheap classroom makeover)

 I was so excited to have finally landed my dream job, as an art teacher at a primary school in the north western suburbs of Melbourne. My first thoughts when walking into my new space, was that it needed a facelift to boost the enthusiasm for the arts. Not having a lot of time or money (I didn't know what my budget was yet) I decided that I would make a few changes before the students got there. These included:

Making the walls brighter and full of excitement towards the arts

A soft spot for them to sit while I showed demos or create art themselves (like independent drawing) 

This is a before photo of my one classroom wall. 

This photo underneath it, is just a simple paper face lift until I can get the money a resources to paint the walls properly! 

This is my soft rug that I got from Harvey Norman ( I know I am name dropping!) but the guy who worked there, used to be a teacher himself and after I explained what I was trying to create ( and that I didn't have $200+ to spend on carpets) he had an idea about a huge shipment they had gottan of this particular grey brick rug, which brought down the cost to only $70. Which compared to the classroom rugs I looked at online and in other store was the biggest bargain! Goes to show you what asking can get you.

This photo is after most of the 1/2s work was hung on the tree. The circles are inspired by Kandinskys circles, and inspired my whole colour unit ( another blog post to come) 

This is a before photo of the other main wall I am trying to transform ( there are huge cracks and falling down shelves)

Since this photo was taken, I have managed to get the shelves taken down, and taken down the word wall. (The paper paint brushes were done with brown butchers paper, thumb tacks, and coloured rolls of paper) The black square was put up there to remind me how I want to paint that wall black, as the students work will really pop! The students faces when they walked in on the first day was great. 

My small first day makeover is one small step towards improving the whole environment of the room. I have big plans for how I want it to look and run, and already in the last four weeks the look of the classroom has changed again with the students art work. ( see future blog posts!) 

The final photo I want to share on this post is my board of learning intentions. Some rainbow duct tape, and whiteboard markers, there's a clear board for students to refer to. ( you can see it in the first photo of the post ) there are a few more changes I would like to make to it but for now it's pretty and doing its job well! 

Thats all for now in the small classroom makeover post!