The Best Tools for Hanging up Classroom Decor -

Classroom walls are a great place to show off your classroom theme. They’re also an even better place to display anchor charts and student work!

However, I don’t know about you, but hanging items on classroom walls presents a unique set of difficulties:

Nothing short of super glue seems to stick to cinder block walls.
If any small amount of humidity enters your room, everything WILL fall off the walls. It’s pretty much the only guarantee in teaching, right?
There is a constant battle of wanting things to stay on the wall, yet not wanting to rip chunks of paint off later.

Although I do still have my fair share of mornings where I walk into my room and there is a rogue anchor chart or two laying on the floor, there are some hanging tools that I have learned work better than others. These have helped the majority of my classroom decor and anchor charts to actually stay on the walls!

Hot Glue

My personal motto is “give me a glue gun and I will change the world!” When it comes to hanging classroom decor, crafting, or fixing anything, hot glue is always my first choice. I’m even the crazy lady who has multiple glue guns, some for my classroom and even some for at home!

Best Tools for Hanging up Classroom Decor

If you have cinder block walls in your classroom, hot glue is one of the only sticky substances that holds! Hot glue is great for hanging faux bulletin boards or hanging posters that you plan on having up all year.

If you want to use hot glue, my biggest tip is to make sure the glue gun is hot enough! If you don’t let it heat up enough, your glue is not going to stick. Also, if you want to be able to take the item down and reuse it, it’s got to be laminated! Items that aren’t laminated usually end up sticking to the wall better, so I only laminate when I absolutely need to.

Good Tape

One time, I was helping a friend with her classroom and everything kept falling off of her walls! I picked up one of the items, and it turns out she was using plain old Scotch Tape! No. No. No. Just No! If you want anything to stick to your walls using tape, you absolutely have to use good tape!

I personally only like to use tape to hang things on my walls if I plan on taking them down and replacing them. For example, anchor charts that need to be switched out often.

Here are the three types of tape I like to have on hand when hanging things on my classroom walls:

Masking Tape– I only use Scotch brand or 3M brand masking tape. Using name brand masking tape makes a huge difference in the stickiness. I also recommend using 1.5 inch or 2 inch wide masking tape instead of the usual 1 inch. Trust me, it holds so much better!
Mavalus Tape– This is my favorite tape for hanging anchor charts! This tape can be a little more pricey than masking tape, but it has magical powers! It has the ability to keep an anchor chart up but also doesn’t rip the paint off your walls. Ever since I discovered this stuff, I set aside a chunk of my supply money each year to buy multiple rolls!

Electrical Tape– I don’t actually use this tape to hang items on my wall, but since we’re on the subject of tape, I thought I’d mention it. This is the only tape I’ve ever used to partition my whiteboards and NOT had to deal with residue after removing it. It also sticks immediately, but is easy to remove or reposition!

Command Strips and Hooks

I will be 100% honest, Command Strips are NOT my favorite thing to hang up posters or faux-bulletin boards. They are, however, great for hanging up items like frames or anything slightly more heavy. Just make sure you read the packaging to make sure you are buying strips that will hold the weight that you are hanging!

Command Hooks, on the other hand, are my absolute jam! Anything that my students might need to grab and take (like a lunch card, for instance), I like to hang from a command hook. I’ve also hung clipboards near my desk for a sub to grab and use. I love hanging classroom wreaths from them as well!

Staplers and Staple Guns

If you’ve got pretty soft walls, you might be able to use a regular stapler to staple things straight into the wall. This is a great trick, because you don’t have to worry about humidity making your items fall. You also won’t have to worry about accidentally ripping paint off your walls!

If you don’t have soft walls (and your administration is okay with it), I recommend using a staple gun instead of a regular stapler. These types of staples are harder to remove, but if you plan on having something up all year, they’re great!