Are you looking for a way to engage your students and provide them with a lesson they won’t forget? While scrolling through teacher instagrams and reading “The Wild Card” by Hope and Wade King, it seems that room transformations are one of the most common ways to enhance a lesson. Before this year, I had never done a room transformation. I never really knew where to start and what I wanted it to look like. I mapped out my thinking and my planning in this post so hopefully it helps other educators complete their own transformation for their students.
Although my first room transformation is pretty common, “Starbooks” is a way to introduce new books to your students and provide them with a ‘cafe’ experience. When I created this transformation for my students, I wanted them to have some time to ‘book taste’ while sipping on an item from our menu.
I’ve written about this in one of my previous blog posts, but my middle school curriculum includes the ‘reading workshop’ model. This model allows more student choice when it comes to reading – so it’s important to me as their teacher to provide them with book recommendations throughout the year. Using a room transformation to do this was a nice change and gave them a new environment to learn in. While planning, there are a few things that I created to make this possible. (All of these are for sale in my TPT for $3.00, but you can also use these for inspiration to create your own as well!)
To start, you have to have your end goal in mind like your normal lesson plans. What is it exactly that you want your students to learn/take away from this experience? Is it a review? Is it an introduction to new material? For me, I wanted to introduce them to new independent reading books. Once you have your goal in mind, you can start building. For me, it’s all about the ‘little things.’ I first started by making my slides and creating my handout. Both were coffee themed with colors & clip arts.
Once your directions and handouts are ready, you can start working on the fun stuff. This is all about the environment. What do you want it to feel like? Sound like? Smell like? I had a vision of students ordering their favorite ‘Starbooks’ drink off of a menu and I wanted the menu to reflect some of our favorite books + the ones that were on the tables for them to preview. I started recreating a menu to fit our ELA lesson by mocking what an actual Starbucks menu looks like. I added in the sizes and made sure that the book titles had a play-on-words from popular menu items. (This can seem like a lot of work to do – it is also included in my TPT product which is editable)
After my menu was created, I thought about how I wanted my classroom to sound. I looked up playlists on Spotify but in the end, I created my own because I wanted to make sure that each of the songs were school appropriate. I also wanted to make sure there were enough songs to get me through an entire class period. My class periods are 57 minutes long. I figured that with the bell-ringer + the instructional time that I needed to explain the lesson, I would really only need about 40-45 minutes of music. The “Starbooks” playlist I created is a little over an hour long
so it would work!
After I had this, there was one other thing I wanted to create on my own before I focused on decorations. I create bookmarks for my students and have them available at all times throughout the year. That way, if they find a book they like, they have a bookmark to go with it and keep their page. It’s something small but I really do believe it helps create a culture for reading in our classroom. I created a coffee themed bookmark and had them set out so students could take one if they wanted when they gave me their drink order. (the bookmark is not included in the Starbooks product on TPT but it is included in my free bookmarks on my TPT)
Now that I had everything put together that I could create on my own, I shifted my focus to the decorations. I bought just about everything at the dollar store. I bought green plastic table cloths to cover the tables, two green tassel banners, and some green ‘puffs’ to hang from the ceiling. I also bought hot chocolate to make for the kids (I have also seen some teachers ask for parent donations too). Then, I called Starbucks and asked if I could pick up 100 cups for a lesson I was doing at school. They were so helpful and let me come in right away – they even made sure to give me the holiday styled cups because I did this lesson in December. Once I had all of these materials together, I set-up my room after school the day before my lesson (with some help from a few of my amazing colleagues) and then I was ready-to-go!
To top everything off, I wore a green apron and created a name tag for myself to pin onto my apron. Looking back on the 2019-2020 school year, this was easily my favorite lesson. Did it take a little bit of extra work and planning? Yes. But now I have it for next year and all of the work was worth it in the end.
Additional Ideas/Tips
- Even though my first transformation was a success, I have already started thinking of ways to improve it for next year. One of the ways I tried to include other teachers was by asking other teachers to pick out a ‘choice book’ that I could include in the lesson. I created a tag for each of the teachers on my team and taped it onto the front cover. That way, students could see which books the teachers loved the most.
- For teachers who are not looking to spend any of their own money, you can create a Sign Up Genius or a GoFundMe for some of the materials! Mine was very inexpensive because I created the majority myself and the cups from Starbucks were free. The only thing I purchased were the table cloths, puffs for the ceiling, and the tassel banner. I can reuse the puffs and tassel banner so I would only have to buy the plastic table cloths again. I have nine tables in my room so my total cost for this year would be under 10 dollars. The hot chocolate tub that I bought was from Walmart and was 5 dollars. So overall, your transformation can be done under $20!
- If you have an idea or need something to create a room transformation, ask your colleagues first! I was struggling to come up with an idea for how to distribute the hot chocolate. One of my team members had a beverage dispenser for hot liquids that plugged into the wall that I used all day. I also asked the technology coach at my school for an extra extension cord to borrow to make it work. I got the lights to hang from the ceiling from one of my team members as well. Your school cafeteria might have beverage dispensers that you can borrow to make it easier on yourself!
- Find a way to give a teaser to your students! I mentioned a few hints to my classes leading up to the day (last year we did this on a Friday). But you can also decorate your door (there’s lots of ideas on Pinterest for this). Next year, I want to cover my door and create an awning or make it look like a drive-thru for Starbucks.
- Have fun with it! The way that you present it to the students can really have an impact on the overall lesson! This was something that was a little bit out of my comfort zone, but it ended up being such a fun day. Like I said before, the little things matter, and that includes your attitude and presentation!
I’d love to hear about it if you do this room transformation or other ones that you have done with your classes! I’m looking to add more to my lessons next year!
HipHopHoorayForELA 