Quick and Easy Middle School Classroom Decor Ideas

All of those crazy middle school classroom decor ideas you see all over Pinterest? Well they don’t have to be a time-consuming and expensive endeavor! Just because Pinterest and Instagram have you thinking that everyone else has beautiful, HGTV-worthy classrooms, let me tell you that they don’t. And you don’t have to have a classroom that looks like that either in order to be an incredible teacher that changes lives. Beautiful classroom does not equal strong teacher (although I’m sure many teachers with gorgeous classrooms are fantastic educators!).

So today I want to share with you my simple, quick, and easy to put together 8th grade classroom decor. You’ll notice as you look through the pictures that I have decided to go with mostly shades of blue for my bulletin boards and decorations. I’ve read quite a few books and studies on the effects of classroom environment, and this blue color scheme really makes the classroom feel calmer and inviting. Even my students and principal have commented on the color scheme!
*This blog post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through the links I’ve included, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you!

Here are your quick and easy middle school classroom decor ideas:

1. Let’s start with my classroom library, which you can read a more in-depth post about here. Yes, I absolutely love the way it looks, but it didn’t require a ton of time to get set up. The bulletin board is something I created, which you can grab here, and the Figurative Language Posters above the bulletin board are something else I created, that you can grab here as well. Both took maybe 30-45 minutes to print out and put together!

The bulletin board paper and trim were all purchased from Amazon. Here are the links to everything I purchased and my bulletin boards:

• Teal Bulletin Board Paper
• Brown Bulletin Board Paper
• Navy Border
• Teal Border
• Figurative Language Posters
• Classroom Library Kit
• Classroom Library Labeling Kit

I also like to have a number of dictionaries and thesauruses on hand for when students write in-class essays. I purchased these from the Target Dollar Spot about 6 years ago and am so glad I did. They’ve been used many times over the years. And while this doesn’t necessarily count as a classroom decor idea, it’s still very helpful to have!

This is the view of my classroom looking out from the library. At the beginning of each year, I like to have my student desks in partnered rows because it helps me more easily remember their names. Throughout the year we change desks into various configurations – rows, groups, a mixture of both. We’re always moving!

*Side note that I like to use PowerPoint to create my seating charts. It’s incredibly easy to use again and again throughout the year and to display it in my classroom for students to easily see when we do switch spots.

Here’s a view of my desk. You’ll notice that I don’t have a lot of STUFF. I used to have all kinds of knick knacks that I bought from the Dollar Spot on my desk. But in recent years I have really decluttered and focused on just have the bare necessities (and maybe one or two cute things) on my desk. Don’t waste those classroom decor dollars are things that don’t really matter! 🙂 My desk and chair are from IKEA (unfortunately they no longer have this desk available online, but here’s something similar, and here’s the chair I have – which I love!).

I have the blue side cart to hold things I use often – like my Expo Markers (I buy all of the purple ones and hide them in my desk!), binder clips, push pins, cleaning supplies, and PD books that I like to have on hand to reference. Here’s a similar rolling craft cart because IKEA no longer carries this color.

On my desk I also have a Weekly Calendar from Erin Condren (if you use this link, you’ll receive $10 off your first purchase from Erin Condren!), which helps me keep track of what’s going on week to week. I like it because it’s right in front of me, so I can’t ignore or forget important meetings!

These big doors are all along one side of our classroom (behind our desks and to the left of the class library). I like to have these large posters hanging up on every other bulletin board because it makes the space feel less cluttered, but also allows for me to display student work.

The large inspirational quotes posters are in our store, which you can grab here. I sent them to Staples and had them blown up so I could put them in various places around our classroom.

This is the very front of my classroom that has a lot of the items we use on a daily basis. Like our Class Compliments Interactive Bulletin Board, our printer, my Homework to Pass Back Box, Elmo, etc.

I love our Class Compliments bulletin board – it has helped create such great classroom community amongst my students. Each week, one student is chosen to be the “Featured Student.” Then, throughout the week, that student’s classmates write compliments on little strips of cardstock and place them in their numbered slot. I used the numbered slots so I can make sure every student leaves a compliment for the featured student. Then, at the end of the week, the featured student gets to take home scores of compliments from their classmates 🙂

I’m still working on figuring out a table skirt situation for the front table … but I’ll probably take care of that right before we go back to school in August … or not! We shall see 🙂

This is a view of my classroom from the front corner – you can see the class library in the back corner and the bulletin boards with posters along the left-hand side. All along the right side of my room are massive windows that look out onto our playground with trees and flowers – it really is so beautiful. My kids also don’t have lockers, so they use little white crates to store extra books in and we place them on short bookshelves along the widows.

• My Middle School ELA Classroom 2013-2014
• My 5th Grade Classroom Reveal 2016-2017
• My Middle School Classroom Library 2016-2017