Whether you’re decorating the door of a home, classroom or place of business, use fall-themed accents to give the entryway a festive touch. Fall door decorations not only embellish the door and show your holiday spirit, but also allow your family or students to express their creativity and celebrate the season.
Take a tip from the House and Home magazine website, and create a wreath to display on your door. Buy a Styrofoam ring at a craft or flower shop, and attach silk leaves, plastic fall fruits and vegetables or pine cones to the ring with straight pins or a hot glue gun. When you’re satisfied with the look, thread one end of a 12-inch-long piece of ribbon through the center of the wreath, tie the ends of the ribbon in a knot and hang the seasonal decoration on your door.
If you’re creating wreaths for the door of a school classroom, let the children glue leaf-shaped die cuts sold at scrap booking or craft stores to a “ring” created by cutting the center out of a white paper plate. Provide glitter glue, markers and self-adhesive foam shapes that the students can use to embellish the wreaths.
Finding some fun ways to incorporate fall decorations for classroom doors will get children excited for the great year of learning ahead. Choosing to decorate with items the students help create will start the school year off right. Keep things fresh by changing out these decorating ideas for each new season.
Celebrate the seasonal holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. No matter what age your students are, a project can be found to fit. Have the younger kids color pictures, have the older ones write essays or make drawings, tailoring the ideas to the skill level and maturity of your class. Don’t forget to have the kids sign their work. If you have a large class, fill up both sides of the door or rotate the artwork according to which holidays each student chooses.
Many teachers choose projects that celebrate the fall harvest. Once again, individual artwork can be assigned–or to show students that harvesting is all about teamwork, have the whole class produce a large piece of art. On a sheet of paper or paper board that covers the entire door, have the class collaborate on drawing fall decorations. Some can draw vegetables and fruit, while others can add quotes or captions that pertain to the joy of this time of year.
Your classroom door will be the first thing your students see when they return from summer vacation for the new school year. By taking the time to craft a creative, funky portal, you can welcome them back to school in style.
An autumn theme reminds your students that summer is over and they are making a fresh start. Search office supply or stationery stores for decorative paper leaves to tape to the outside of the door, and write each student’s name on a leaf. If you cannot find ready-made leaves, create a stencil with a piece of cardboard and cut leaves out of red- and orange-colored paper. At the top of the door, affix cut-out letters (which you also can also find at office supply and stationery stores) that spell out a fun message like “Falling into 4th Grade.”
Assign a student teacher or one of your more reliable students to take photographs during the first week of school. If you do not own a digital camera, check with your school librarian or computer teacher–they are likely to have one for you to borrow. Once you have a bevy of great photos, order the best ones from a website such as snapfish.com and tape them to the outside and inside of your classroom door. Your students will get a kick out of seeing themselves in print, and by the end of the year, you all will be able to look at the photos and marvel at how much you have changed and grown as a class.
