[Brooke S.]

I am planning on doing a theme for my room this year. My library is going to be a hut, with a "window" painted that looks out into the beach. We are going to do bamboo coming from the ceiling to make it look like a grass hut. I would also like to do something with pirates to go with the theme. Does anyone have any ideas for some interesting things to have for decorations, student orientation, etc.?

[Jalon]

What grade do you teach? I'm planning on doing something similar (4th grade).
I am going to implement "tribes" next year (Tribes: A New Way of Learning and Being Together, by Jeanne Gibbs) so am planning a tribal/jungle/Survivor-like theme. I've got some tropical/jungle looking fake plants that will be in the room, a bamboo ladder that I plan to use for something (read a certain number of books and add your name to a rung on the ladder...reach the top and get ____), and I've got a thatch umbrella (on sale at Big Lots) that I will put in the Reading corner, etc. I'm changing the cushions on my wicker loveseat (also in the Reading corner) to look more jungle-like We can't hang things from the ceiling in our rooms, so most of mine will be on walls & floors. When my students get divided into Tribes, then their tribal flags or crests will add to the decor. I'll have jungle or tropical music playing on Orientation night as students come in...maybe steel drum music or some sort of drums/jungle music. I don't know...I'm not all there with it yet. :-)

[Jalon]

I meant to mention this in my other post. Oriental Trading probably has some pirate/tropical decorations if you want to spend a little money to complete the effect. In fact, I just did a quick keyword search there and found quite a bit under "jungle" and "pirate". Personally, I'm avoiding anything Pirate-like just because of the whole skull/crossbones thing, but did see a cool pirate map you might be able to use!

[TeAcHeRinFL]

I am doing ocean in my 1st grade room this coming year. I have found alot of stuff so far, but here are some sites/stores that has the most stuff it seems.

Party City http://www.partycity.com
Oriental Trading http://www.orientaltrading.com
Carson Dellosa http://www.carsondellosa.com

Party City has alot of Luau stuff, but it includes alot of fish stuff including scene setters, a fish net, inflatable ocean creatures, etc.

Oriental Trading has Luau stuff also, but they have a large plastic treasure chest that I found in their catalog.

Carson Dellosa has tons of ocean decorum for your boards, walls, etc.

[vateacher]

I've had a pirate theme in my room for two years now. I have a "treasured work" bulletin board where I put all of my excellent papers from students. I also have the crow's nest which is where I've put my reading area. At the beginning of the year I have "Ms. ______'s First Grade Gems" written on a treasure chest. I mount that on yellow paper (sand) make a giant butcher paper palm tree and put the kid's names on gem shaped pieces of paper to welcome them to my class. The Captain's Crew board is where my children are assigned classroom jobs. I don't know how much of this is helpful but I will say that with all the hype with Pirates of the Caribbean coming out, there are a TON of pirate things out there. My room mother just got a bunch of great things from oriental trading and party city that worked for my room and my end of the year pirate party.

[tia]

my theme for last year was pirates! on my front door was a big map that i made out of brown wrapping paper and then crumpled up....i can't remember what it was a map of! then i had a pirate (from a party store) that i made a word balloon for that said something like, "Ahoy, mates....join us on our hunt for education." okay, it was way cooler than that, but i'm at home after spending all day in the sun and evening at baseball game (yes, the sunny side!) i'm fried.

also, i had an AR board --big island with palm trees and dashes everywhere and a big X and everyone child had a treasure chest (print shop or googled it...) that i laminated and for each 5 AR points, i glued on one of those plastic gold coins. in the water was a premade (party store) pirate ship and shark fins. at the bottom of the board i took some blue plastic and bunched it up to make 3-D waves. the title: Reading is a Real Treasure!

Party America, and US Toy are really good places just like oriental trading. I really recommend US Toy though.

[Miss P.]

I actually just found out that our fourth grade hall will be doing on ocean theme for the new school year. Here are some things I have found on the internet and dreamed up:
Ideas for your door-
Glad to "sea" you!
What a great catch! (net with fish and kids names on them)
*Ms. _______ is Fishing for Fabulous _______Graders!
(Drawing of you fishing on a deck with the kids' names on
the fish under water.)
Ideas for your reading Center-
"DIVE" into a Good Book! (Scuba Divers)
Booktime Beach (lawn chairs, umbrella, beachball, beach
towels, etc.)
Oceans of Stories
Other Ideas-
Mermaid head and tail peeking around a small bulletin board.
Use cellophane to create see-through sea creatures to put
on your window for a stainglass effect.
Make a boat bottom and ores out of paper to hang from the
ceiling to look like it is on the water.
Writer's Reef
We're "HOOKED" on learning!
"FIN"tastic Work!
Helping Hands-Octopus with helping jobs on legs.
Card and Party factory carries inflatable sea creatures you can hang from the ceiling! They are way too cute. I think you can get the same ones from Oriental Trading Co.

Hope this helps--I know...Long winded!!

[Brooke S.]

Thank you everyone for your ideas. Sorry for the delay in thanks, but I've noticed if I thank too quickly, new ideas stop coming. I really appreciate all of your thought towards my theme. I can't wait to get started working on it.

I found some neat stuff in the oriental trading magazine that just came out. I'll post pictures when I get the room finished.