Calling all teachers!

[bearette]

I am trying to decorate my classroom this year and I thought having a Disney theme would be cute. I wanted to do under the sea or the basic disney characters. The problem is I can't find borders, posters or any other decorations! Does anyone know a website or store that carries these type of items? Thanks!

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Save your money and put it toward a trip to WDW. Usually this stuff is really expensive. You could just use red, yell and black the Mickey colors and then maybe put up a picture of Mickey and Minnie.

 

[bearette]

I can't even find the pictures of Mickey and Minnie that i could use! Do you know where I could find them at least? I had thought about just using black adn red borders too.

 

[DisneygirlTeacher]

You can't find them because of copyright policies. I have never seen any Disney characters in any of the teacher supply stores, so I am assuming they won't allow companies to make them for classrooms. Now, just a poster probably could be found somewhere, like one a child would hang up in his own room. I would go with another theme and, if you teach younger children, just put a Mickey or Minnie stuffed animal in the room and be done!

 

[Aliceacc]

Can you print up coloring pages and have the kids supply the decorations?

 

[Kate and Pete]

I say go with red, black, and yellow and make silhouettes of Mickey's head out of black (you know, three circles! ) Easy and inexpensive! Not to mention, a pretty classy look! (If I taught elementary school, I'd totally steal this!!!!)

I use wrapping paper as background for my bulletin boards - do they make disney themed wrapping paper?

I'm teaching a senior seminar in travel literature - I cut up an atlas and am having the librarians laminate the pages then hanging them around the top of my room like a border! Two gigantic maps on the bulletin board for us to put push pens where we've visited, and, voila - a decorated room!


GOOD LUCK! It sounds like a ton of fun!

 

[patsal]

I always use rolled wrapping paper for the background, try a solid red, make your boarder or get solid yellow or black. Look for Disney Posters at Walmart or similiar stores.

 

[DawnM]

You might be able to get some cute Disney fabric at Walmart and use that for your BB background. I have seen teachers use fabric instead of butcher paper for their BBs.

You also should be able to get Disney wall decor at Home Depot for bedroom walls and use that, but it may be pricey.

See if you have a good draw-er in your class and use him/her to draw pics for you.

Oh, and you may be able to use your overhead to trace large pics of Disney characters onto large sheets of butcher paper?????

Just trying to think of ideas.

Dawn

 

[Maybelle]

I would look at craft stores that sell scrapbooking supplies, but be prepared, the things won't be cheap!

 

[dameodie]

Yes, I know I'm being a killjoy, but if I was a teacher I wouldn't decorate with anything Disney. You'll have that one psycho parent who thinks the world needs to be tailor-made to their child, who will complain that Disney is bad, or corruptive, or not PC to some group or other... long story short, they'll scream and whine, and you'll have to re-do all your hard (and expensive!) work.

 

[poohs_hunny]

Yes, I know I'm being a killjoy, but if I was a teacher I wouldn't decorate with anything Disney. You'll have that one psycho parent who thinks the world needs to be tailor-made to their child, who will complain that Disney is bad, or corruptive, or not PC to some group or other... long story short, they'll scream and whine, and you'll have to re-do all your hard (and expensive!) work.

You've got to be kidding me. I have my third grade classroom decorated in a Pooh theme. I know it's bit young for 8 and 9 year old, but they love it! I've never had a parent complain about the room and if they did, I'd put on my biggest smile and say, "I'm sorry you don't like my decorations, but I do and the kids do. Thanks for your input!" There's NO WAY I'd redo my room because of one lunatic parent!

OP, I used Pooh wall stickers above my classroom windows. This was a few years ago, but I bought them at Wal-Mart for about $10 in the nursery section. I'm not sure if they still sell them. I also remember seeing something similar at Babies R Us a few years back. They look great, almost like they're painted on. The best part is, they will peel right off if I ever move classrooms! I also have plenty of Pooh stuffed animals, pillows for the carpet, a Pooh bean bag chair, and framed picture in our "library". I used to have a Pooh poster showing the four seasons that I got at Wal-Mart, but it kept falling off the wall so I gave it away last year. My kids sit in groups and instead of calling them Group 1 or Red Group, etc., they are named after Pooh characters. Above each group is a picture of that character hanging from the ceiling. Good luck and have fun decorating!

 

[dameodie]

I could see getting away with Pooh characters, argurably they're literary characters as well and generally associated with very young children.

But people are nuts, I personally wouldn't risk using any movie characters. Cartoon characters may be okay.

 

[jam217]

I second the idea of using scrapbooking supplies. I was at AC Moore this morning and they had some Disney scrapbooking supplies on sale. They also had large scrapbooking sheets with different Disney characters.

 

[bearette]

Well I didn't want anything that difficult or expensive so I am going to settle for Under the Sea. I saw some fish, shark themed stuff so I'll settle for that and if i can find Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo posters I'll just add those. That way I'll be Disney, but not disney everywhere and I'll have something all the kids will like. (I am an RSP teacher so I have k-6th grade students). Thanks for all the tips! I might use a lot of them!

 

[tchrrx]

If it's a large BB, you can use wallpaper border as a BB border.

And, of course, you can add Disney picture frames with pictures of you & your family on your desk. I also bought a very cute Mickey desk set at WDW last year. Add some Disney lamps around the room.

 

[mcco5543]

I THINK IT'S THE CUTEST IDEA!!!


however, I'm sure you've already thought of this, but i'm going to mention it anyway.

What type of district do you work in? Are all your kids familiar with Disney's theme characters? Does it make sense to use that theme. Not every kid is familiar with it, do to life circumstances. I'd go with a character theme from literature like poo or a global theme for the year type thing.

 

[courage]

I remember a few years back there was a day care in our area (central Fl) and they painted the side of the building with disney characters. Disney made them remove it or ELSE. However, I do remember hearing that Disney helped them pay for the paint to paint over it, gave them so many days to do so and since they cooperated they didn't take them to court. if you purchased a licensed poster I don't think it would be a problem.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Another teacher here, I have to agree that I'd steer away from Disney as a theme.

Here it would be allowed anyway. We aren't allowed to use any commercial or liscensed characters in our classroom or in our teaching. Even if you don't have that rule, I think it would be a little odd to have the person who is supposed to teach your child a lifelong love of reading and science, using their classroom space to promote movies and television.

Can you use something related to academics as a theme? I work with early elementary students, and at our school each classroom is decorated in a way that relates to their first science unit. So the Kindergarteners, who study trees, are the "Oaks" and the "Maples" and their classrooms are decorated with trees and leaves.

 

[bearette]

Disney was just to difficult that is why I settled for under the sea. The under the sea stuff I got wasn't disney it was just generic so no license probems. i was jsut going tio settle for some posters if i could find them, but if not i will just have pictures from my last disney trip on my desk! Who would have thought picking a decoration theme would be so complicated?

 

[jenlynn0808]

Try google images. I've used scenic pictures from here as writing prompts for my class. I also used it to make my DS's party invites for his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse B-Day Party a month ago. If you aren't sure how to use it, let me know and I'll be glad to help you out.