If you are a school teacher and are seeking creative and vibrant ways to decorate the classroom using flowers, you have found the perfect guide.
First, we will explore the positive effects hydrangeas, tulips, lilies, and their beautiful counterparts can have on students’ mental health, and how they can boost creativity and provide lessons and a greater connection with nature. Then, we will detail how to source fresh flora and the benefits of using a local provider.
For the freshest and most ethically-sourced bouquets, it is best to use a trusted local company whose products are Fairtrade. You can add floral arrangements to the classroom to subtly uplift the mood and inspire creativity and a sense of peace.
Finally, we will provide six imaginative ways you can use both fresh-cut plants and bulbs to decorate the classroom. These suggestions involve a lot of student participation, so they also make a great basis for an art or nature lesson.
Read on to get inspired!
The Joy of Flower Decorating in the Classroom
When it comes to choosing how to decorate the classroom, it is important to bear in mind how the decor will make the students feel. It is no exaggeration to say that flowers can truly have an uplifting effect on their mental well-being.
Studies have shown that these beautiful plants can induce creative energy and a positive environment, ultimately making those who experience them feel better. Nature can change our mood and ease stress. So, it is not surprising that roses can free us from anxiety, depression, and the everyday worries of life. Another benefit of being around lilies, tulips, and the likes is that they reduce stress for pupils who are going through exams or personal troubles.
It has been demonstrated in studies that hospital patients recover with less anxiety when there are plants present in their rooms. Moreover, entrepreneurs who run their own businesses and who work from home find they are relaxed in the presence of a simple peony, for example.
Therefore, it makes sense that the same logic applies to decorating the classroom. This means you can actually help to shape the general energy and level of positivity in the classroom by adding more nature and plant life into the atmosphere and curriculum.
Sourcing Your Floral Decorations
If you are ordering farm-fresh vegetation, lookout for a company that offers same-day delivery. This is the best way to ensure that your hydrangeas turn up as bright and blooming as possible. The last thing you want is for your lovely white lilies to travel halfway across the country and arrive two days later squashed and sad. Especially if you are planning a lesson involving the flora, you will want to ensure that your order arrives on time for the class.
When purchasing a bouquet online, consider the upfront cost and also the longevity of the plants. For instance, during a fresh spring, tulips might remain in bloom for one to two weeks, however, in the midst of a hot summer they may only be in bloom for a few days.
Get your money’s worth and consider the flowers, the season, and where they are being imported from. Companies that offer direct farm-to-customer delivery are preferable for longevity purposes. This means they do not keep the order in a cooler for days and pass your plants from hand to hand before they end up in your classroom.
The Benefits of Using a Local Supplier
For the freshest roses, the brightest bunch of tulips, and the most vibrant classroom you could ask for, shop local and order from a company that always prioritizes local growers, barring seasonal limitations. Generally, you can put more trust in a local provider over a massive faceless company that might partner with wholesalers and not follows the most ethical practices.
Seek a provider that is partnered with eco-friendly farms and assures that their imported vegetation is Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certified. This indicates that they minimize waste and practice sustainable growing procedures for fresh-cut flora, like hydrangeas and lilies.
You can have your beautiful classroom decorations and rest assured that the practices that brought them to you were ethical and ecologically sound by using a reliable and trustworthy local supplier.
Arrange Your Fresh Cut Flowers For Maximum Impact
Before we dive into several fun ways you can make floral classroom decorations with the children’s involvement, let us first discuss vase arrangements.
If you want to explore the benefits of having roses and other beautiful plants in the classroom, you could make a stunning arrangement and place it in the classroom without the children’s involvement. This will have the effect of not drawing their attention to the bouquet, and having it affect their subconscious instead.
The benefit of this strategy will be that the vibrant arrangement will exude positive and warm energy into the room, boost creativity and lessen stress, and the children will not be explicitly aware of your intentions. To learn how to arrange your fresh-cut flowers like a pro, check out the expert online advice available.
Finally, as well as this more subtle approach, you can use fresh-cut plants and bulbs to drive active, creative, and fun practical lessons with the kids. Continue reading to get inspired.
Top 6 Great Floral Classroom Decoration Ideas
Now that you know the benefits of using flowers in the classroom, and from where to source them, you are ready to get inspired and creative with these great interactive classroom decoration ideas.
1. Wall Hanging Floral Sign
This is a great craft for the kids in your classroom to build together. You can use a big bunch of fresh-cut flora to sculpt a shape, letter, or number, perhaps for a child’s upcoming birthday.
Using a template, such as a foam shape that they can poke the flower stems into, you can create a very bright and dramatic wall hanging piece of art and all of the children can get involved with the craft.
The finished piece will hopefully be so bursting with fresh plant life that you cannot tell there is a template underneath. There is an image below for reference.
2. Glass Framed Fresh Pressed Flowers
This is another inspired idea to get the children involved in the classroom decorating process. Using fresh daffodils, daisies, or any other seasonally available blooms, perhaps that have been delivered same-day from a local farm, you can use a press, or even just a heavy book, to flatten them and then frame them in glass so that they are preserved and seemingly suspended in the air.
This creates a dreamy and colorful final piece of wall art. Each child can make one, provided your school has the resources to offer each child in the class a glass frame. If not, you can make it another collaborative piece and each child can press one flower for the final piece.
3. Christmas Wreaths
For seasonal classroom decorations, you can make festive wreaths using fresh snow-white Christmas roses, or vibrant green holly and attach gold or silver ribbons to give them a festive sparkle.
Go online to get inspired by the plethora of DIY Christmas wreath ideas available to you. You and the children can even create your own dried fruit decorations or paper reindeer heads to stick on the wreaths. The opportunities for creative freedom and expression are endless. Let the wreaths tell a story and add photographs of the students or personal handwritten notes to Santa.
Remember that plants grow seasonally. You will not see a blooming peony in winter, just as it would be strange to see a poinsettia in the heat of summer. You can teach the children in your class about seasonal growth and why some plants prefer different climates, conditions, and seasons while you make your wreaths with the available winter foliage.
Also consider making Halloween decorations with autumn colors, like sunflowers and collected fall leaves!
4. Repurposed Items as Plant Pots Or Vases
This is a super fun trend that is great for home decor as well as classroom decoration. You can take chipped teacups, empty biscuit tins, and even old worn-out boots and turn them into plant pots or vases, giving them a second life and a chance to shine.
This will teach the children about the importance of reusing items that might seem old, broken or worn out. You can have a lesson on saving the planet by reducing, reusing, and recycling old materials and restraining yourself from always buying new things when you do not strictly need to.
This decoration will represent life and nature through the growing seeds, or a fresh cut, flowers, and the importance of saving the Earth, through the reuse of the materials. Therefore, this idea is not only fun, creative, and beautiful, but also practical and educational. It is a win-win!
5. Glass Vase Bulbs
If you want to teach your students about the process of flower growing, you can grow bulbs in a glass vase, with some pebbles and a bit of water inside. This way, you can see the roots begin to grow through the glass and watch the process up close.
These are not only informative decorations, but they add a fun, rustic, and interactive feeling to your classroom decor.
Bulbs in glass vases will teach the children in the class what happens under the surface when a plant begins to grow, which you normally cannot perceive. Bulbs of plants like daffodils, tulips, amaryllis, and lilies are great for this kind of growing.
6. DIY Flower Food for Fresh Cut Bouquet
Finally, a brilliant way to get all of the kids involved in the care and love of the fresh-cut bouquet in your classroom is to ask them to work together to make DIY food.
From a lesson planning point of view, this will incorporate science and home economics, as well as a close look at nature and how all living things need sustenance. This activity will encourage teamwork and a greater appreciation for nature, as it is generally accepted that caring for something personally is a great way to feel closer to it. This same logic is often applied when parents tell children if they get a dog, they will be responsible for feeding and walking it.
You can look up a recipe or formula that contains ingredients safe for the classroom, depending on the children’s age.
However, the general idea is:
- one quart of water (four cups)
- one teaspoon of bleach (yes, really)
- one teaspoon of vinegar
- and one tablespoon of sugar.
This feed will be most beneficial to fresh-cut plants, but will still give some level of sustenance to older plants as well.
To Conclude
This has been a brief guide to incorporating fresh-cut flowers and bulbs into your classroom decoration, lesson planning, and de-stressing strategy in school. It is scientifically proven to be beneficial for mental well-being to have plants in your surroundings. So, for stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious school students, the presence of floral decorations in the classroom could make a massive difference to their academic success and overall feeling of security and happiness in the classroom. Moreover, the floral decor can inspire creativity and teach the students about nature and the conservation of the Earth.
You are always wise to seek the services of a local provider, especially one that is partnered with eco-friendly farms and sells products that are Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certified. This is the best way to ensure that you are supporting an ecologically ethical company.
What’s more is that by using a local supplier, you are more likely to get the freshest and best quality produce. The fresh-cut roses will come straight from the farm to you, on the same day, and arrive ready for classroom crafts.
There are many crafts you can do, on top of the six that we have suggested. It is time to get creative and bring nature into the classroom!
