[1956BD]

O.K. I have never used a theme in my classroom before. It sounds like fun though so I thought I would give it a try this next year. After much thought I have chosen a travel theme for my upcoming third graders.

I have three Cargo brand wood boxes that I thought I would turn into train box cars. I'm not sure what I will use to create the track underneath. Any ideas? I could either leave the boxes open side up and the kids could sit inside them to read. Or I could put them open side down and then put seat pillows on top. I will make the engine front with cardboard of some sort.

I have several old suitcases I can use to store books and supplies that will add a little something to the theme.

I have started collecting old maps as well. What else do you creative minds suggest? What can I say on the bulletin boards? Can you think of a way to tie it to a behavior plan? Classroom officers? I will take all the help I can get. Thanks in advance.

[MJ]

Sounds like you are off to a great start!
Here are a few things I thought about:

Get On Board For Good Behavior -- train
Soaring into 3rd Grade -- airplane
On the Road to Success -- cars

You can get free info. from travel agents, visitors centers, or state tourism boards.

A great writing/geography activity is to send letters/postcards to schools all over the US. Use a map to track your respones.

Good Luck!

[7UP]

Do you have access to the Aug./Sept. issue of intermediate Mailbox magazine? There are patterns and ideas in it that might help you. I got my copy today and was considering using some of these ideas myself. (I also teach 3rd!)

Hot-air balloons for descriptive writing/autobiographical paragraph;
Car keys for keys to a successful year;
Spaceship and stars for class rules or job chart; ships and boats; trains.
I have a set of trains for root words and affixes - the engines contain prefixes, the boxcars each have root words, and the cabooses each have suffixes. Children form new words by stringing them together.

How about captions like "Out of this world ________";
"Soaring into _________"; "Sailing into _________"; etc.

Good luck!

[teachntx]

I know this is not quite what you are looking for, but I thought you might could get an idea of something to do for back to school.

[CageyBee]

I made a railroad track on the floor using wide black electrical tape. It stuck nicely to the tiles and to the rug. Your class officers could be travel agents or customs officers.
Behavior chart could be...On the Right Track...if you link it to your train.
Issue passports and have the kids keep track of something important like centers completed or compliments received or books read.

[1956BD]

Thank you so much. My creative juices are flowing better now with all your ideas. I just needed a kick start. Would love to hear more if anyone thinks of something. I wish I had unlimited funds now to make my room really special for my next class of third graders.

[middle ager]

Beth Newingham's Third Grade-you can google this and she has a travel themed third grade-they visit different parts of the US and have activities for each. Have fun!

[babyluv2]

Genre's read for passports!