What kid doesn’t like sparkly stuff? Actually, what teacher doesn’t like sparkly stuff? I love it! I think that sparkle and glitter can really add to the atmosphere of your classroom in many different ways. Here are five ways that I personally like to add a little sparkle to the lives of my students:

1. A gold or silver star

Okay, okay, I know this isn’t rocket science here, but really, when my teacher gave me a gold or silver star when I was in school, it made me really happy. Something as simple as this really does make a child happy, even today.

2. A streak of body glitter

I love this idea that I got from my own daughter. She has these little tubes of roll-on glitter that she got from Santa one year. She likes to reward herself with a little roll of glitter whenever she accomplishes something. This works great with students too, and tubes of glitter are not messy or expensive. You don’t need to use much for each application; just a dab.

3. Glitter pens

Grade your papers using different colored glitter pens. Not only will your students smile when they see their A+ grades written in golden glitter, but I’m sure you’ll have at least a little more fun grading papers and drawing sparkly smiley faces on your students’ papers with glitter!

4. GLITTER!

I know a lot of people just hate the mess that glitter can make, but it’s so much fun to see sparkling glitter displayed on your students’ work throughout the classroom. You’ll also be teaching them the art of how to use glitter properly while making a limited amount of mess. Use it on artwork to be hung on the walls or bulletin boards in your classroom.

Here’s another idea: Add glitter to your clay or playdough. Though it’s a simple idea, it’s a lot of fun for kids to design things out of sparkly clay or playdough. Glitter also makes for great pretend sand when you roll golden glitter into yellow playdough.

5. Foil Scrapbooking paper

Catch a sale at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby to get some fun, shiny and sparkling foil scrapbooking paper. You can use it on your bulletin boards in the classroom or let your students sprinkle a little into their artwork or glyphs that you hang on the walls. This will look really impressive when parents come to visit your classroom.

Do you have any other ideas about how to make your classroom sparkle? Leave a comment and share them with us!