Classroom Transformation Ideas for Middle School - Exciting Bat Cave Transformation
Updated: Oct 28, 2022
Bat Cave Classroom Transformation
Ever wanted to do a classroom transformation, but are not sure if your middle school students will enjoy it? I'm here to tell you that middle school students are some of the best students I've done transformations with! Now, I'm not totally new at creating these, and I know it may seem scary at first, but I'm telling you, try it - even if it's just once. It will open your eyes to a whole new world of teaching and learning!
I decided to do this bat cave (a literal bat cave, not batman cave... HAHA), to go with my Grade 6 French flight unit! It was such a hit. My grade 6 students absolutely loved the "creepiness", and it worked out even better since we did it close to Halloween! Check out this classroom transformation idea to get your creative juices flowing.
Let's cover the expectations that were covered in this school transformation to start! I chose to do this one with our grade 6 flight unit with the following curriculum expectation: describe characteristics and adaptations that enable organisms to fly. Please keep in mind that you can adapt your bat cave classroom transformation to any other curriculum expectations if need be.
Don't have time to read? Feel free to watch the bat cave classroom transformation video instead!
Classroom Transformation Set-Up
For the entrance of my bat cave transformation, my husband bought some 2x4 pieces of wood and cut them up. I wanted it to feel like a real cave, so it went from small to big (they had to crawl in)! This was their absolute FAVOURITE part of the transformation. We then wrapped it with brown paper.
Then, we hung a bunch of crunched-up brown paper from the ceiling. We had some at school and I bought an extra roll. All I did was cut up pieces, scrunch them up as much as possible and my mom hung them. We went all over the room, zigzagging around. We put all the tables and chairs in the corners so they wouldn't be part of the cave! You couldn't even recognize my classroom at this point, it was quite literally, transformed.
Above, you can see little cubbies, the paper is just wrapped around the tables so that I could insert the work. I then added little lanterns which I purchased from Amazon. They came in packs of 4, so I bought a pack and had them with each worksheet!
Finally, I bought a bunch of different bats, bugs, and spiders to place around the cave. Some were hung up, some were just on the ground. This just added some drama to the whole thing!
I promise you, that the time you spend creating this classroom transformation, will be well worth the amount of hard work your students give you.
bat cave Day plan
Reading Comprehension&Science
Now for the fun part! The lessons! This specific room transformation was to go with my Reading Comprehension and Science Unit on Flight!
As the kids showed up, I locked my classroom door and got them to sit in the hallway. This always excites them. Once they all showed up, I told them that I lost power in my room so they all needed a headlamp, pencil, and clipboard. I told them that they'd have to work in groups and place them together. I explained to them that they are not allowed to touch anything in my room without permission and that today, I would be using ClassDojo for their groups. If I hear French, they work hard, etc., they receive points. This always motivates them. I then tell them that once they enter the room, they will need to sit on my carpet. I then let them enter. I like having them all enter at the same time, the excitement seems better that way!
Once everyone entered, I got them all to sit on the carpet, and I explained what their morning task was. They had to go around the room, read the three different texts and answer the questions. I had to see the answers for each text before they could move on. If I wasn't satisfied, they had to go back and continue. We've been working hard on reading comprehension so it was the perfect time for this activity. The specific reason I chose a bat cave is that all the texts were based on animals that fly (for our flight unit), and one of these animals is a bat! Their last task was to answer true or false about bats, but they couldn't just write True or False, they needed to put an explanation. The answers were found around the room (on hanging bats!). That pretty much covered our morning. Actually, a lot of them didn't even have the time to finish.
The true or false answers were glued behind these bats, and I hung them in the room.
Here is an example of some of the texts and their reading responses!
After lunch, they had their second task, which was to make a flying bat (paper airplane but in black). They could do this individually or with a group, and they had access to the iPads for ideas! The next day, we brought our bats to the gym to find a winning team (again, going with my flight unit). They absolutely LOVED this!
Here is a list of things that you may need (click the links for access):
- Bats (various stores)
- Bugs (various stores)
- Spiders (various stores)
- Lanterns
- Coloured paper
- Laminating sheets
- Fishing line (to hang bats)
- Command Hooks (to hang bats)