[ily]

I am doing an Ocean Theme next year, I know it is a common one so I am hoping for lots of good ideas.

[CageyBee]

This thread had some ideas. http://www.proteacher.net/discussion...ad.php?t=50257

[MissC83]

I did an ocean theme this year... Here are a few things I did:

-"Fin-Tastic" First Graders bulletin board with student work
-Students had their own fish magnet and chose their fish food every morning (lunch count)
-I bought an octopus at the teacher store and we created our 8 rules for our classroom and I wrote them on the tentacles.
-Students made fish out of foam and cd's and they were hanging from the ceiling...very eye catching (dltk.com)
-I'm sure you know this, but there are gobs and gobs of underwater posters, bulletin boards, etc at the teacher store...I got a lot of my ideas from there and revamped them a little.

One great looking board that the kids can do is turn ovals into a sea creature. They are so cute when colored and displayed on the bulletin board. It is a Talents project...many, varied and unusual ways to turn the oval into a sea creature. It is a great idea to laminate their ovals too...it will last all year and they have created the board. Just print out an oval or draw it onto white copy paper that way they are not limited to the size of their creature. Have them color and then cut out before you laminate it!

Good luck!

[SunGirl]

I had an ocean theme this year and I really liked it. One fun thing I did was to create fake pier pilings out of the cardboard carpet tubes. I cut 3 different lengths of the tubes (which I got for free from a carpet store), spray painted them brown, taped them together, and hid the tape with rope wrapped around the tape. The piling is about 7 feet tall, very light, and only about 12 inches in diameter.
I got the idea from going to an aquarium at the coast. I made a starfish out of paper mache and attached it so it really looks as though it's underwater. It is standing in a corner of our library and goes great with all the ocean themed bulletin boards I've put up..."dive into a great book", ect!
Also, I have a stuffed otter for our class mascot.

[MissAllyBee]

Okay Optional Job Titles for an Underwater Job Board:
Lobster Librarian
Coral Caboose
Catfish Custodian
Crab Computer Tech.
Habitat Horticulturist
Man-o-war materials manager
Turtle teachers assistant
Clown fish caboose
Dolphin Desk Patrol
Coral Custodian
Porpoise Postmaster

On one of your bulletin boards you could have "Lets Dive Into Learning"
Above the reading corner you can have "Fishing For a Good Book"
Outside your room, you can have "Sea Mrs.___s ______ Graders" and post pictures of your kids faces with little ocean animal bodies
On another bulletin board you can have "What a Catch" and display kids good work.
We can buy small blow up fish from the dollar store and hang them with fishing line from your ceiling in groups, so it looks like schools of fish.
You could also put blue plastic wrap over your windows, so your classroom is blue tinted like it's underwater.
You could draw a giant whale and label it "Whale of a Word Wall"

[ily]

Thanks for all of the great ideas.

[josephineboo]

www.clutterfreeclassroom.com

click on classroom photos

[CageyBee]

Your website is inspiring...and the themes are well executed!

I am doing my writing board with the title "A Whale of a Tale."