For the past few months, I have had the opportunity to visit many different classrooms. It has been a real treat to see all of the creativity that many teachers put into their classroom environments. One particular classroom that stands out in my mind is a fourth grade room I visited. This classroom was so creatively designed, it sparked my need to write about it and classroom themes. The teacher had gotten really creative and made a really cool environment for her students. Her theme was nothing I had even seen before, but I loved it. The theme was…surfing. This totally had won over her students. Here are some of the things she had incorporated in her room…

Surf Theme:

• Student “name tags” were small pictures of ocean creatures (Post-it size) and were put on the back of the students’ chairs. Some of the pictures were of shells, crabs, jellyfish, etc.
• The main areas of the daily schedule were written on surf boards she had cut out of tag paper, wrote on (recess, DEAR, writing, etc.), and then laminated
• Her “Student of the Day” was referred to as the “Big Kahuna”
• Her cubby area was lined with a wallpaper border that featured a beach scene with surf boards lined up
• She had a Styrofoam Buggie Board that took her lunch count. She had each food option printed and laminated and then stuck with Velcro to the board. Then there were places for each kid to put his/her name under each to show the Big Kahuna what they wanted for lunch that day. What an easy way to take lunch count. *This school provided many choices for lunch.
• She had almost an entire wall covered with this beautiful ocean background with some posters here and there of beach scenes. I think she said she had purchased this at the Lakeshore store.
• Using some of that thick poster board with the foam in the middle of it, she took a large-pieced underwater scene puzzle that she would Velcro on piece by piece (to the board) every time the class received a compliment or did a good deed. Once the board is full with the puzzle pieces, the class gets to choose a reward.

Honey Bee’s:

This is a theme I have used for several years with first graders. I love nature and sharing that love with my students. So, I try to incorporate it throughout everything I do the whole year. I begin the school year with the study of bee’s. I teach the kids how bee’s work and live together in community and relate that to our classroom community. I, of course, am the queen bee and the worker bee’s (the students) work to please the queen. The kids are taught that when the queen is happy, the workers are rewarded! Ways that I incorporate this theme are…

• I have a helper chart that is in the shape of a bee hive. Individual bees are laminated and each one has a student’s name on it. Each week, worker bee’s are chosen to help with special jobs within our hive.
• I also nominate a “Bee of the Week”. That bee is allowed to choose which job they would like (most choose line leader), help the teacher with little things that come up, read a book to the class on Friday, and create a poster to share with the class.
• The first week of school, I teach the children about bees and how they function as a community. At the end of our study, I have the children write a few sentences on “bee paper” to show what they have learned about bees. I then use these summaries to make a bulletin board display that reads, “Sweet Beeginnings From the First Grade Hive”.
• I found these printable name tags with the bee theme at the ABCTeach website.
• Throughout the school year, I keep bee related items in the “Science Center”. For example, I have a huge hornets nest that a friend found and donated to my classroom. I also have a few bumble bees that are encased as well as a few pieces of a bee hive that shows how the honeycombs are structured-kids are really amazed by this. It also provides a strong example of how shapes and patterns exist in nature.
• As part of my classroom management “system”, I use a critter keeper to hold the names of kids that are caught “Beeing Good”. I will keep the keeper in a place where students can participate in catching their friends. At the end of the week, I take the names out and offer treasures to the students who have their name in the keeper.
• The bee theme extends to my weekly newsletter. It is titled, The Buzz and it highlights all the work we are engaging in each week.

What theme(s) do you use for your classroom?

As a teacher, you will inevitably get sick, need a long weekend away, or just need a “mental health day”. In those cases, you will need to make sure your classroom is prepared for anyone to come in and run the show with little disruption to the kids and to your set-up. Here are a few areas I have found (as a regular classroom teacher and a substitute!) that need to be covered when preparing for a sub.

Plans

This is a no brainer. If you are going to be out of the classroom for any amount of time, you should provide plans for the sub. It is safe to assume that the substitute taking over your class may not be trained as a certified teacher. That does not mean they are an idiot either. In either case, it can be difficult to walk into a classroom and try to run it as it normally functions for a day. So, the more detail you can put into your plans, the smoother the day will go for the sub and your students. Remember, it is always nice to return to hear that your children were perfect for the sub. Make sure you set them up for success!

Daily Schedule

Even if a daily class schedule is posted in the classroom, a typed detailed version should be provided. This becomes most beneficial for when the sub has to take the students outside of the classroom. The schedule can be taken with them for easy accessibility. That way they will know, for example, what time to leave recess and what time to arrive at the next destination.

Class List

There are several reasons why a class list should always be on hand. First and foremost, a class list is crucial in the event of an emergency. For someone who is not familiar with a group of students, a class list can determine if anyone is missing. Class lists are also helpful when keeping track of who is absent, tardy, and who has left early. Lastly, individual names are so unique these days. I personally feel that it is helpful to be able to see the actual spelling of a name. This helps me remember the pronunciation-although the kids never fail to mention when I get something wrong!

Seating Chart

This is an area that is often overlooked, but it can provide a helpful service to a visiting teacher. A seating chart can assist in learning student names, calling on students when they have a question or comment, passing out papers, and pinpointing students that may require extra or special assistance. It also helps the teacher identify which students, if any, had difficulty during teaching time (you know how much you want to know about those ones!).

Fire Drill Procedures

Each school should have a fire drill procedure in place.  It is important to leave detailed information so that the children can be lead out of the building in the case of a real emergency. Make sure that if your school hasn’t practiced a fire drill, that your students still know what to do in an emergency. This is not only helpful for a substitute, but for you as well. Oh, and don’t forget to include that class list so they can take attendance when they get out!

Allergy Alerts

If you have a child with any kind of allergy, it is imperative that you leave detailed information on that child. A person coming into your classroom needs to know to be on alert for potential dangers, if monitoring a child is necessary, and what to do if a reaction occurs.

Therapy Schedule

This is often another area that is overlooked. Make sure your sub knows where kids are going and at what time they are receiving services. It can be confusing to someone new when students are getting up and walking out of the room or being taken from the room by another teacher. In some cases, mainly because it is just habit, this is done without a word to the substitute teacher.

As an early childhood educator, it seems that our little ones are having more and more difficulty with fine motor tasks. Each week I plan to feature a fun and crafty art project that will help our students strengthen those skills. I also hope to make use of everyday household items in an effort to “go green”. In addition, I realize that for many teachers, completing fun projects can often times be a luxury. This may be due to the reliance on donations from parents.

If you have a fun project or ideas on how to make the process successful for our little ones, please share it with us!

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For a limited time, Kohls Department Store is offering several of the ERIC CARLE classics that so many of us love for only $5.00 a piece! I recently purchased Panda Bear, Panda Bear… and Polar Bear, Polar Bear… for my collection. These books are HARD COVER editions and you can also purchase some of the characters in the book-also for only $5.00! I grabbed a stuffed polar bear to go along with my book. Get to your local Kohls before they are gone! You can also check out the author study on this site that I teach to my kids the first two weeks of school. I usually pick Eric Carle to study since he is one of my faves.

I don’t know why, but this year I had a genius idea. Yeah, I am kind of bragging, because I don’t have too many moments when that happens to me. With all of the runny noses and sniffles this year in my classroom, it seemed like we were going through a box of tissues every couple of days. Well, since I don’t like throwing things out (as a teacher I am sure you can relate!), I decided to hang on to the boxes. Then one day when I opened my closet and the boxes fell on me, I decided I could use them for the kids’ Valentine’s Day mailboxes. The kids painted and decorated the outside and voila! They were perfect! There was no annoying cutting needed and they didn’t take up loads of space in the classroom like shoeboxes can.