Classroom Transformation Series: Boot Camp Classroom Transformation in 6 Easy Steps

It’s time for part 3 of our 4 part Classroom Transformation Series! Today we will talk about how to do a boot camp classroom transformation that your students will love! Our goal during this series is to show busy teachers that room transformations don’t have to be time consuming or difficult. And your students will absolutely LOVE the experiences you create for them!

Find out more below, as we talk about bringing the boot camp theme to your classroom! Make sure to grab the FREEBIE as well!

If you missed week 1, we shared how to transform your classroom into a campground. Check it out here!

For week 2, we talked all about creating a Hollywood movie theater theme. Find out all of the fun details here!

Why Do Classroom Transformations?

Students learn more when they are engaged.
It’s fun to transform the look of your learning environment.
Bring excitement into otherwise un-engaging topics.
Create memorable classroom experiences for students.
Transformations can be recreated year after year.

Students love boot camp and we do too! It’s such an easy theme to bring to life in your classroom and a bonus is that it can be a fun classroom management tool as well! You can turn a noisy classroom silent with an “attention” or hand signal. Read on to find out 6 ways to create a bootcamp classroom transformation experience for your students.

Create a Boot Camp Atmosphere

One of the things that makes this boot camp classroom transformation so low-prep is that a lot of decorations aren’t needed. You can just put down camo tablecloths and decorate each table with little plastic army figurines that can be found at the Dollar Store. Or you can add a few more decorations around the room, such as these shown below from Amazon.

Play the Part

Even more than transforming the classroom, what will make this experience really come to life for your students is your participation. This is where you can bring out those acting skills! The more you get into it, the more your students will enjoy it.

We became the drill sergeants and our students were the cadets. We dressed up in camo shirts and put on our most “serious” faces. You’ll definitely hear the giggles of students as you call them to attention and let them know that they have now entered boot camp training. Students can also make hats and dog tags like the ones below from Amy Lemons to help them get into character.

Get Your Students Moving

Use the boot camp theme to get your students up and moving. You can have them complete exercise moves to get them “warmed up” for the activities you will be doing for the day. These movements can also be done throughout the day or during a break. Check out this easy UNO workout idea from Creative Southern Home. Or grab this multiplication bootcamp brain break that we used with our students. They had a blast doing the different exercises while working on their multiplication facts.

Use Boot Camp Themed Resources

In our classroom we were trying to think of a way to get students excited about finding the main idea. We knew it was such an important skill that many of our students were struggling with. So, we created our Main Idea Boot Camp! Our students were so much more engaged, and afterwards we felt like they really had a better understanding of how to find main idea and supporting details.

Grab a free Main idea vs Topic activity from this unit here and check out the full resource below.

Our students loved boot camp so much that we decided to create a multiplication facts unit and an escape room challenge with the same theme. We incorporated them into our boot camp week and our class had so much fun, while still learning! Check out our Instagram highlight to see our boot camp week in action.

You can get the bundle of all three resources here.

Make a Tasty Snack

Your “cadets” will definitely appreciate a yummy snack with all of the training going on. A simple snack idea for boot camp is trail mix. This treat is super easy to customize depending on allergies that your students may have. I Heart Naptime gives plenty of options to make the perfect trail mix for your class. Check it out here!

Create an Obstacle Course

Have some fun outside with an obstacle course. You can have students work alone, in pairs, or in groups to complete the challenges. This website gives examples of some simple obstacle course ideas that you can do with your students using easy to find objects such as balls, hula hoops, and ropes.

So have we convinced you yet? Hopefully we have given you some simple and fun ways to turn your classroom into a boot camp. Give this classroom transformation a try and let us know how it goes!