Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Classroom themes: Do you do implement them?


There are so many great (and cute) classroom theme ideas floating around nowadays. Rockstar, cowboy/western, owls, jungle, etc. You name it, there is probably a theme developed around it.  I really like the ideas of themes, but honestly cannot imagine changing and purchasing so many new items each year. While the effect would be cute and visually pleasing, it could get expensive and time consuming.

Two years ago, after much deliberating, I took the plunge and began a sports related "team" theme. Why did I pick this theme? I wanted something that could pull the students together as a team and would work in tandem with our building wide behavior initiative (Positive Behavior Supports). I also decided to give this theme two years before changing to another.

I gained many of my ideas from Beth Newingham's website.  Click on the teacher resources link, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the team theme.  I used many of these ideas to kick off my 2011-2012, and 2012-2013 school years. I especially liked her her baseball card bulletin board and used it with great feedback from parents and staff.

I purchased the following items from Oriental Trading in our school colors: red and black, which I use to decorate my classroom each fall.

      

I continued the team theme when designing my classroom jobs (Table Captains, Equipment Manager, MVP of the week, etc). As we progressed through the school year, I emphasized how our class is a team and how we can help our teammates using teamwork. 

Fastforward to this spring: I was reading through blogs and Pinterest to decide on what my theme for the 2013-2014 school year would be. As I was debating what direction to take, my students were working on end of the year writing projects. 

An amazing thing happened. An ah-hah moment. Really!

As my students shared their favorite memories and things about second grade

every single student 

mentioned how much they loved being a part of the team!  So....out went the thoughts of deviating from the team theme. Instead, I knew I needed to improve upon what I had already done to make this theme more visually appealing. Many long evenings and productive naptimes later, this is what I came up with:


This pack includes everything my own classroom needed: calendar parts, alphabet/word wall headings, name labels, desk plates, reading and math manipulative labels, school supply labels, job chart and team building activities!
I will be adding this to our TpT store today.
Enjoy:)
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1 comment:

  1. I love the team idea. I can see how using sports will get your students involved. I like how this is incorporated in so many different places throughout your day. I have used the whole bucket filler idea in years past. I like parts of it but I am still trying to figure out more ways to input the idea in other ways.


    Krystyn
    Ms Richards's Musings

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