Decorating Your First Spanish Classroom

Do you finally have your own classroom to decorate? Congratulations! You must be so excited!

As a teacher who taught on a cart for the first 3 years of her career, I know how fun it can be to finally have a space of your own!

Setting up your classroom

Classroom Layout

Set up your student desks and furniture first. Every classroom layout is going to depend on the space you have. My favorite configuration is tables of 4, but rows or a horseshoe may fit better in most classrooms.

Tables

This is my favorite setup because it promotes collaboration.

However, there are some other factors to consider with tables, especially if you are a first year teacher.

Kids will talk to each other more.
Someone usually has their back to you
Tables take up the most space of any configuration.

Horseshoe

This is the setup I currently have due to space limitations. A horseshoe is great because everyone is facing the same direction and can see each other for discussion. The only downside is that students will sometimes talk across the room to each other, but that’s just kids being kids.

Rows

Rows convey a stricter environment. If you are a first year teacher and worried about classroom management, rows can be your best friend to start the year. As you develop trust and community in your room, you can rearrange the desks into a friendlier setup.

Decorations and posters for your new classroom

Classroom Expectations

It’s important to have these posted in a prominent location so you can quickly reference them. Writing these in English also makes sure all students understand and get back on track more quickly.

Word Walls

If you are teaching in a Comprehensible Input classroom, these are a must have to decorate your room!

You and your students will use these Sweet 16 Spanish Verb posters every single day!

Circumlocution posters

These are a great tool for helping students stay in the target language. Students can create vocabulary riddles or write definitions in Spanish using these posters. This is a great way to differentiate-up for your higher achieving students.

Connectors and Transitions

For students to move from novice to intermediate in their Spanish production, they will need to use transitions to link their ideas. These posters help them to do that.

TPRSbooks.com has free printable posters that are great to hang around your room and come in several different languages. The emoji posters in my classroom tour video come from there.

Question Word Posters

These are so helpful and you will use them daily! Profe Valentina has these beautiful, culture rich posters.

If you have a local teacher store, consider buying some inspirational posters in Spanish from them. If they don’t have any in stock, they will be able to order them from their catalog. Many of the posters you see in English also come in Spanish.