I have always loved looking for ideas for door decorations for my preschool classroom (at one point, future classroom!) on Pinterest. I’ve also gained many ideas from the teacher Instagram community!
I cut out all of my letters on my Circut Expression (that I purchased it my first semester of college, Fall of 2014). That machine is no longer available, as far as I know. I have a Cricut Explore that I started to use more this school year (2018-2019). I then laminate all the letters/words for future use! Save myself time and money for possible future classroom door decorations in preschool!😊
YEAR 1
September 2017
I am NOT an artist, but I did my best with what I had!
Materials: construction paper, scissors, tape, and a marker for the tree.
I printed apples and hand colored every single one. (This was before I knew of the miracle that is Astrobrights paper! You learn as you go, that’s for sure! 🤷) I laminated the apples so that they could be cubby tags in the future–I planned to get good use out of those things!
October 2017
Materials: Scissors, tape, and printer paper with ghosts for the kids to cut
I printed out the ghosts and let my nuggets go to town on cutting! My nuggets are ages 3-5.
November 2017
Materials: Construction paper, markers, glue, and tape
I cut the turkey’s feathers while in the tractor. After a lesson on thankfulness and reading some books, I asked each nugget what they were thankful for. Then they went to town drawing pictures!
December 2017
Materials: string, tape, lights printed on Astrobrights paper and laminated
We were super busy getting ready for our concert and only have about 2.5 weeks of school in December, so the kids didn’t do much for this door.
January 2018
Materials: tape, bells printed on yellow Astrobrights paper and laminated
January was a month of getting back into routines and practicing “how school works,” so they didn’t help with this door either.
February 2018
Materials: Scissors, tape, colored pencils
I designed these little birdies and cut them out, then had the kids color them! While they colored, I observed their pencil grip.
March 2018
Materials: tape, shamrocks printed on green Astrobrights paper and laminated
February is a short month, along with parties and snow days! We also had events coming with families coming to our room, so I did this door as well.
April 2018
Materials: tape, scissors, coloring utensils, peeps printed on white paper
My nuggets colored and cut out their own peeps!
May 2018
Materials: scissors, tape, twine, clothespins, coloring utensils, and tshirts printed on paper
I printed out tshirts, and handed them over to my nuggets! They designed their shirts, cut them out, and hung them up all on their own!
YEAR 2
September 2018
Materials: card stock, Cricut, laminator, tape, Sharpie
This door was SO much fun to do! My absolute favorite for door decorations in my preschool classroom. But it could easily be used for any age group! As I learned my first September, I am not artsy enough to make a tree out of construction paper. I made this tree with clip-art, printed it poster-size from Adobe, cut it out and laminated it! I learned this trick from @thoughtfullythorton Instagram–she has a tutorial saved in her highlights!
Letters were cut with my Cricut Explore on card stock from Walmart. The font is KG Miss Kindergarten from TPT.
The last step was writing a child’s name on each letter.
October 2018
Materials: scissors, tape, coloring utensils, Sharpie, pumpkins printed on white paper
I printed out the pumpkins, wrote their names in Sharpie, and let the nuggets go to town on coloring and cutting! They are rock stars!
November 2018
Materials: scissors, tape, coloring utensils, Discount School Supply Chubbie Markers (like bingo dabbers), printer
My morning classes (3 year olds) decorated the leaves with chubbie markers and I cut them out.
My afternoon class (4 year olds) decorated feathers for the turkey! I got the turkey from Pocket of Preschool’s “I am Thankful” Character Bundle on TPT.
December 2018
Materials: small paper plates, tissue paper, glue, tape
I gave my kids tissue paper and let them tear it up. After tearing, they squeezed glue on their plates and stuck on the tissue paper to make mints!
January 2019
Materials: yarn, tape, clothespins, paint, mittens printed on paper
HA! I would not have done this phrase if I had known the winter that was in store for us here in Minnesota!🙈
SQUISH PAINTING! It’s our FAVORITE.
I printed two mittens, side-by-side, on one sheet of paper for each child. We used this project as a lesson in symmetry. Each child picked some paint and squeezed it on one mitten. Then they folded the paper and SQUISHED their little hearts out! Once they were done squishing, they opened up their paper to reveal their matching mittens–they squealed with joy every time!
February 2019
Materials: glue, tape, pink construction paper, red Astrobrights paper, sticker googly eyes, black kwik stix or black bingo dabber, white paper, bug template
We had about a million and a half snow days this year. So even though this project was a planned two-part project for our room, it took weeks!
I designed a couple versions of ladybugs–one version for my morning kids (3 yos), and one version for the afternoon kids (4yos).
My 3 year old class: Black circle for bodies, they cut out the circle. Painted 2 hearts (printed on white paper) red, I cut them out. They added black spots and glued the heart wings to the black circle body. They added eyes and the lovebugs were complete!
My 4 year old class: Cut out a red heart (printed on red Astrobrights paper), and a small black heart, glued together to make the body. I folded a piece of pink construction paper in half and drew half of a heart, two times. The kids cut them out and thought it was the coolest thing!! They added spots and glued them on to the body of the lady bug. After adding eyes, their 3D love bugs were complete!
March 2019
Materials: white paper, paint, tape, Sharpie
A million more snow days meant that we went super simple for our March door. Handprints on a white paper. We added eyes with a Sharpie and our fish were complete! The big kids in our school would walk by our door and read it every single time.❤
April 2019
Materials: white construction paper, rulers, black crayons, water color paint, scissors
We waited F-O-R-E-V-E-R for Spring this year. Forever.
We learned all about lines and how to make different lines, free-handed and using rulers, to make super cool Easter eggs!
My nuggets cut their eggs out (my Bigs –4yos–drew their own ovals to cut, my 3’s cut out the oval I drew). After their eggs were cut, they used a pencil to make all sorts of lines. My Big’s traced their lines with black crayon. I did this for my 3’s.
Finally, they painted their eggs with water color paint! Our first wax resistance project this year and they thought it was so neat!
May 2019
Materials: Paint, glitter, white paper, Popsicle sticks
I made a popsicle template and cut it out as we were short on time. My nuggets painted and added glitter. I taped it to a popsicle stick and WALAH!
I plan my year of decorations out for my preschool classroom door and bulletin boards in the summer. Then I cut/laminate all of the phrases I need so I’m prepared for the year and don’t need to scramble last minute. I also save all of my phrases in shoebox totes, along with cubby tags, for each month!
Up next: my first 2 years of bulletin boards!
