Measure the width of your chalkboard or wall space. Roll out and cut enough drawing paper to cover it.
Place the paper on a flat surface or tape it securely to the wall or chalkboard.
Draw, or have your students draw, scenes from the colonial period, 1620-1800. Draw the Mayflower, caves, wigwams, colonial houses, barns, a field of crops and farm animals. You can devote more than one wall or chalkboard to a particular theme or fraction of the period (if you have space), adding village shops, churches and meeting houses (as appropriate to the fraction of the period covered and the place).
Paint, or have the children paint, each section.
Purchase enough duck or goose feathers so that each member of your class can have one feather.
Trim the ends of the feathers to a point using a craft knife to make a quill pen.
Place a quill feather and an ink bottle on each desk so the children may use them to do their writing assignments for the day.
Insert one candle in each candleholder and place on each desk to represent authentic lighting of colonial times.
Purchase a variety of produce from your local farmer’s market to place on the floor of your classroom. You may have room for a small bale of hay and an arrangement of brightly colored gourds or fresh unhusked ears of corn.
Place the produce in baskets. Place the baskets and other floor decorations out of heavy traffic areas, possibly in the corners of the classroom.
Print spelling bee words and period poems on squares of paper. You might try a short poem wirtten by Sir William Davenant in 1630 called "Weep No More For What Is Past" or "Life is a Dream" by Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681).
Cut out pictures of famous settlers like William Bradford, who came over on the Mayflower, or Benjamin Franklin or Betsy Ross.
Measure from the ceiling of the room to the height to which you want your ceiling ornaments to hang.
Cut string to that measurement for each picture or spelling word you will hang in the room. Tape each picture or spelling word to one end of a string.
Tack the other end of the string to the ceiling.