Themes

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Archive : 2003 : June : 27

Themes
By Jennifer in OK

Last year was my first year to do a theme. I decided to do patriotism since it was the first full school year after 9-11. I didn't go too overboard. My reading corner was "A Grand Ol' Reading Corner" with red, white, and
blue "Five Star Books" written on them (my choice of Sequoyah nominated books, novels we read in class, and a few personal favs). I also had one of those red, white, and blue curtains that I glued up on my wall behind my reading corner with stars hanging from the ceiling. The kids really thought it was cool. I had a wire in my room that I strung some decorative wire with red white

and blue stars on it. Then I hung red, white, and blue stars from that. We made patriotic wind socks on the first day. This was a 4th grade classroom. This year I will teach 5th grade and plan to use the same theme. It fits nicely with our SS curriculum. Instead of the wind socks, I am going to have kids stencil letters in patriotic colors and put them together to make words that make us proud to be Americans. Then I am going to stick them on the ceiling. Another fellow teacher uses the same theme and will in her 5th grade class also this year.

I got a lot of the ideas from ProTeacher posters who have a lot of great ideas. Think of something that interests you or fits into the curriculum. Then go to Archives (unless you find more recent posts) and see what others are doing. Krissy/BuzyBee has a web site that shows her themes and she has tons of ideas. Maybe you'll get lucky and she'll share some with you.

Definitely use a theme in your room. It's a lot of fun. I didn't overdo my room because I wanted to leave my theme decorations up all year. Your kids will enjoy the theme decorations too. You can still use "non theme" decorations.