A Coffee Shop Classroom Transformation

One of the best ways to keep students engaged is to have a classroom transformation. Why not have a Coffee Shop Classroom Transformation? It can be as extravagant or as simple as you want. Either way, your students will want to be a part of all the activities you have in store.

My students know I love Starbucks and coffee, so it was only natural that I would transform the classroom into a cafe at some point during the year. 

Coffee Shop Decor

The decor was super simple. I purchased green tablecloths, green tissue pompoms for the ceiling and yellow flowers at The Dollar Tree. I used white butcher paper to create the Starbucks logo on the wall and green butcher paper to create "Today's Menu" for the wall. I just wrote that in chalk.

I used donated Starbucks cups to hang from the ceiling. I also put flowers in some of those cups on the tables for a coffee shop feel. 

Other items that added to the ambiance were aprons and hats that I purchased from Oriental Trading Co. these were for my students to wear so they felt like real coffee shop baristas. I got my Starbucks coffee shop apron from eBay. 

Now for the Content!

I knew I wanted this transformation to be a few days long based on the material I wanted to cover. For this particular classroom transformation I went cross curricular with the content. The subjects I covered were reading, math, writing and science.

• Reading: 

I planned two reading activities. The first one was a non fiction reading passage about tea and coffee. The students read, answered the comprehension questions and filled out the Venn Diagram based on the passage's information. Comparing and contrasting were text structures we worked on for two weeks. 

The other reading activity was "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover." This was an idea inspired by Hope King. I usually get many free books from Scholastic Book Clubs for my classroom library each month when my students place orders. I save these books for this activity. I try to get at least one for each student in my class, but usually I get a few extra.

  I teach many lessons through out the school year about not judging a book by its cover and choosing a "just right book" based on interest. I wrap each book cover in brown paper from The Dollar Tree and I print numbered tags on sticker sheets I found on Amazon.

  Each book is labeled with a numbered sticker and placed around the classroom for the children to “taste” by reading a page or two. If the student likes the book and wants to try and “win” the book to borrow, they can fill out the double sided tag.

  On one side they write their name and the book number. On the flip side they write if they think it is fiction or nonfiction, how they know, and why they want to be the first in the class to read it. After all the students have filled out the raffle tickets, we have the book raffle. Whoever wins the book gets to borrow it from our class library first. Then all the books eventually become part of our classroom library. Win, win!

• Math:

For math, I had centers set up with a coffee shop theme. The following are the activities I did with my students. I set up each station with various materials for the students, and each station had an activity sheet and manipulatives. 

Donut Shop Math: I ordered mini donut erasers from Oriental Trading but you can print and laminate the mini donut pictures from this coffee shop resource. 

What’s the Cost?: For this activity I laminated a menu and had my students use fake money to work out each problem.

Order up: I used Starbucks coffee cups and holders (donated by a local Starbucks), coffee beans, marshmallows and tea bags for the kids to have a real “barista” experience. You can certainly use pictures of these items laminated if you do not want to get the actual items.

Drinks Drinks Drinks: I used mini coffee cup erasers from Oriental Trading but you can print and laminate pictures of cups. Another option is to have your students draw pictures.

• Writing:

For creative writing, my students had the chance to create a new drink for the coffee shop or a coffee shop store front. First, they got a planning sheet to fill out about what they wanted to create. For their final copy, students created a flip book with all of their drink or store front information. Adding final touches of color to their design made their creation become realistic and personalized.

• Science:

My students love science! They love investigating new things and using what they know to make accurate hypotheses. That is why this was a great experiment for them. They know a bit about mixing colors from art class so it was perfect. We used coffee filters, black markers and water droppers. 

We spoke briefly about colors, what they knew about colors and what they thought was going to happen when we added water to the black dot in the center of their coffee filter. The children were pleasantly surprised at their results. My students were so engaged with this activity they even asked to do it again! 

I found that this coffee shop classroom transformation was my students' favorite this year. I honestly think it was because they were able to become the baristas for the week. Thank you for checking out this classroom transformation. I'd love to help you plan one for your classroom. Feel free to email me any questions you might have about this, or any other classroom transformations. Thanks for stopping by!

A Step by Step Guide for a Classroom Transformation

A classroom transformation is a unique way to engage your students in learning. Over the past few years, many teachers across the world have adopted the idea of transforming their spaces into unique places where they can teach and engage their students to learn creatively.

When I first started transforming my classroom, I had no idea what I was doing. That's usually how it begins with me, total confusion! I soon figured out what worked for me and I'd love to share my strategy with anyone who is considering it in the near future but aren't sure where to begin. Why not start to transform your classroom today?

You might be asking yourself, "Why would I want to spend money on transforming my classroom when I know I'm not going to get reimbursed?"

Here are some tips and tricks for keeping costs low.

1. Start Simple. 

You don't need to go wild. Begin with simple signs on butcher paper for the walls and some table cloths from The Dollar Tree for tables and desks. If the room looks even a little different, your kids will buy into it.

This was a tablecloth I got from Walmart that I reuse every year for skip counting!

The tablecloth on the table and the ones hanging in the background I got from The Dollar Tree. The football banner I picked up at Walmart. These are all cheap and reusable. 

This aisle runner was made from red butcher paper my school had in the stock room. I also created the train out of black butcher paper. The lights are from my attic! Totally FREE room transformation! Can't beat it.

I created this Ticket Booth from my school's butcher paper stock. Again, FREE!

2. Use Items You Already Have.

Look around your house or in your attic. Do you have decorations or costumes from an old party you had before? Use those!

My family goes camping a lot so we have tons of camping gear. That was my first transformation because I didn't need to buy ANYTHING! I used what I had.

All these items I had at my house. The only item I bought was the backdrop which I also use for my Polar Express transformation during the holidays.  

3. Shop Sales.

My favorite places to buy classroom transformation supplies are The Dollar Tree, Oriental Trading, Walmart and yard/garage sales. Why? Because I find them to be the cheapest around. I also tend to shop at Amazon.com if the items I need are not in any of these other stores at a cheaper price.

The decor for my Coffee Shop (Starbucks) classroom transformation was from my school (butcher paper), Dollar Tree and Starbucks. The Starbucks cups hanging from the ceiling and on the tables were donated by my local Starbucks. The flowers, puffs on the ceiling, and tablecloths were from The Dollar Tree. 

4. Invest in Items You Can Reuse Each Year.

I tend to buy items I can reuse each year and items I can use in various transformations such as backdrops and tablecloths. 

The backdrop in this Harry Potter transformation I reuse in my King's Dungeon transformation as well. 

If you find that you need to keep throwing things out over and over again, you will be spending more and more money. Invest in items you think you can keep neat, clean and looking in top shape for the following year. 

5. Buy a Few Items Each Year.

This is so important. To transform your classroom make a wish list for each transformation you want to do. I only buy the items I deem necessary to make the transformation successful for high engagement. Then each year I buy one more item I think would be beneficial. This way, the cost stays low, I reuse the items from the year before and the transformation gets more elaborate as the years go on. Remember that the class you had the year before will never know you added to the decor. They only know and enjoyed what they had at the time. 

I like to add costumes as I repeat transformations. Again, keeping it super simple and using what I already have keeps it cheap. 

6. Share with Your Colleagues!

This is the best! If you and your colleagues share items, you will have to buy a lot less. I have even heard of schools that have a "Classroom Transformation Closet" in their building where they have everything labeled in tubs. Any teacher can borrow any transformation at any time. They also add to the tubs as they go and the whole school can borrow and share everything. What an idea!

How do I decide what classroom transformation I want to do? 

There are a few things I like to take into consideration when trying to transform my classroom. Here are some things I think about.

• What are my students interested in? What motivates them? 

Each year my students have very different interests and motivators. Some years I skip transformations with one class that I might have done in previous years with other classes. It is totally fine! Each group of youngsters change and have different interests. 

• What is going on in the world? 

I have a Winter Olympics classroom transformation I simply cannot do each year. It just doesn't fit my current events schedule. Can I adapt it? Sure! Some years I use it as "Winter Sports." 

• Academics. How are we doing with our curriculum pace? 

You can choose a transformation based on your curriculum. If you are learning about fossils and dinosaurs in science, why not do a Jurassic Park themed transformation? What about a writing celebration as a "Writing Cafe?" After my students and I finished our continents unit, I did an Amazing Race transformation. (Reusing my flags from the Olympic Games....of course!) 

Amazing Race Continent Review

• What do I already have? 

Is there anything I have already that I can use to make the transformation that I've been yearning to create? I am a huge Harry Potter fan so I utilized many things I had in the attic from Halloween to create my Harry Potter classroom transformation. I know second grade is a bit young for Harry but by the end of the week, my students made their parents get all the books for them. Talk about motivating!

Keeping the Rigor High

The most important part of a classroom transformation is the rigorous academics. That is the portion that is usually lost. Be mindful that a classroom transformation is to help keep your students engaged in your lessons.

You can transform your classroom to teach new material or you can use your transformations to review what was already learned. Personally, I have done both. I have created materials for my students so I could customize what I wanted to teach, and I have also bought products from others to use within my classroom transformations that reviewed concepts I already taught. 

Here are some examples of how to keep the rigor high within your transformation. 

  For this station in my Coffee Shop Transformation  I was teaching my students how to multiply. We were investigating different ways to use multiplication and/or repeated addition to solve the problems while using little coffee erasers as manipulatives. This was a great way to give them hands on practice with a new math concept. These coffee erasers are from Oriental Trading Co. 

In my Harry Potter transformation I gave my students the chance to investigate with tangrams. My students had never seen these before but when I explained how they were used, they were able to manipulate them for practice. I tied it into the Harry Potter theme and off they went! 

This product was not an original creation of mine. I adapted a Halloween Tangram product from Z is for Zebra on Teachers Pay Teachers to fit the Harry Potter theme in my transformation. I added a photo from Harry Potter to the back of each tangram card to make the connection. The back of this card is a photo of a dementor. 

During our reading block for my Coffee Shop Transformation I had a book raffle where the children weren't allowed to see the covers of the books they were viewing. I like to call it, "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover." There was a catch to winning a book. The children needed to earn it. For each of the ballots my students received, they needed to tell me on the back if the book was fiction or nonfiction and how they knew. I needed some text evidence to make their ballot valid in the raffle. It was a great way to assess if they could identify story elements and nonfiction text features. 

Get creative with the academic rigor when you transform your classroom. Chances are, if your students are enjoying what they are doing and atmosphere they are doing it in, they will totally forget it's school! 

As always, if you have any questions as all please feel free to reach out to me at Kellycahill03@gmail.com Thanks again for stopping by Kaylynn's Place! 

Classroom

I'd love for you to see how my classroom has changed over the years. Although this classroom hasn't been my space for all 15 years of my teaching career, it holds a special place in my heart. This was my second grade classroom 30 years ago. Thankfully it has changed since then with new lockers, updated windows, more shelving, a Smart Board and flexible seating. As soon as room 23 became mine, I knew I had to have the perfect decor for my second graders.

I decided on a Game Board theme. It was perfect! Bright colors and classic games like Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Chess, Candy Land, Guess Who, Uno, and playing cards. Many ideas came from Pinterest but I adapted them to become my own.

I added to these boards with our academics as the school year went on. This way, they were game board themed and functional as well.

Another goal was to be sure my behavior management was also game themed. I used Mr. Potato Head for our whole class incentive. The class needed to work for all of Mr. Potato Head's parts to earn a reward. You can click here to grab this FREEBIE sign for your Mr. Potato Head.

 

My homework incentive board was also a huge hit with my second graders. This one was Candy Land! I took a photo of each student in the beginning of the year and that was their game piece. If the children completed their homework for two weeks without missing any assignments, I let them spin the Game of Life wheel. You can easily let them use dice as well. They would move their game pieces around the board until they came to the end and won a homework pass. Then they would begin again from the start. If they landed on a "candy" space along the way, they would get a small prize to keep them motivated. 

I made this Candy Land board by purchasing items on Amazon.com. I searched "candy land bulletin board decorations pack" and various items came up. I laminated the main board and had the children use sticky tack on the back of their photos to hold them on. The lollipops are printed designs and glued on paper plates. I wrapped them with cellophane and tied a ribbon on a wooden stick. A striped paper straw would look fantastic for the sticks. 

Another full class reward I used for my game theme was a Barrel of Monkeys. The class needed to earn compliments for their great behavior from other adults in the building. When they did, I placed a monkey on the hook. When ten monkeys were earned, the students picked a class reward. Click here for this FREEBIE poster. (The FREEBIE is NOT grade specific.) 

For individual behavior I used (and still use) a clip chart. I know there are many arguments for and against clip charts but I found they worked some years in my room and they don't work other years. I created a clip chart to go along with the game board theme. 

Click here to see this product in my TPT store. It also comes with a home/school communication piece that students take home each day recording where they ended on the clip chart. 

I introduced flexible seating to my class around November. During that time, my students were really struggling with transitions and being prepared for each lesson. I was following Adventures of Ms. Smith on Instagram and she picked up a jumbo Kurplunk game at Target. I knew this would be a great way to motivate my students to be quick, quiet and prepared for my lessons. I turned it into a behavioral system. Each time the students made it to the carpet before the timer went off while following these rules, they got to pull a stick from the game. When all the balls fell, the class was rewarded with an activity. It worked like a charm! 

I was able to grab this on sale at Target right around the end of August. You can also grab a lot of other outdoor games on sale this time of year that you can incorporate as class behavior monitors.

The last behavior incentive in my room was Bingo. Students earn bingo numbers for participation, group rewards and basically anytime I felt like a student was going above and beyond. I laminated this board so I could write students' names on the spaces. They chose the number they wanted and when all the numbers were filled, I picked about five or six numbers to earn a reward. It can be whatever you like. A special pass, candy, extra points on a test. Whatever you decide. 

I got the bingo board from this TPT shop. Click here.

The last thing I want to share about my game board themed classroom is my student check in. The first few years I was able to use the Guess Who? game board. I inserted the students' photos into the game and as they arrived, they would knock their faces down. Anyone left standing was absent. The following year I had over 24 students so I needed to adapt my check in system. I moved onto the Connect Four game. This held WAY more pieces. I pasted my students' photos to the checkers and as they arrived to class the put their game piece in the board. Any absent students' checkers remained on the tray.

If you decide to go with game board theme decor for your classroom, let me know. I'd love to see it! Tag me in your posts on Instagram or Facebook! I hope you found this post helpful.