Get inspired by the best classroom themes that you'll want to try this year. Plus, ideas for decor, organization and more to fit your theme!

Auteurs: Anke van Boxmeer en Els van Dijck

Looking for fun Back to School Themes to use in your classroom? Check out these fun, play-based preschool activities for the first few weeks of school. Lots of math, literacy, patterns, tracing and more hands-on fun.

Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store

Who's ready for the Olympic games?? This freebie is from my I'm An Olympian! Back to School Pack, just in time for the 2020/21 Olympics! Get to know your students the first week of school while celebrating the Olympics! Included: -My Athlete Profile -"If I Were in the Olympics" writing prompt For more Olympics resources, check out: I'm An Olympian! Back to School Pack Olympic Medal Literacy Centers Olympics Bundle

Looking for fun Dinosaur Preschool Theme Activities? You will love this set of Preschool Dinosaur Centers and No-Prep Worksheets.

Looking for a fun, Monster Theme for Preschool? These Play-Based Math and Literacy Centers and crafts are a huge hit with the kids.

Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable comes with eight editable pages, containing two pencils. Each pencil has pieces for two letter names up to nine letter names. Getting Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable

Into the woods ... in the classroom!

Foil fish craft :: activities for an ocean theme for preschool

Make a Sunday School Lesson on how the Four Friends Helped memorable and fun with these activities, crafts, and more. Great for elemetnary age kids.

Welcome to Day 2 of Speech-A-Palooza! I hope you enjoyed Whitney's post yesterday! Today's post is from Jen Alcorn, author of Crazy Speech World. Themes are something new I am trying this year, too. I had always done the traditional holiday themes, but I am now trying out a new theme every other week. This post will be helpful for any of you that use themes in your therapy sessions... or are thinking about doing it! One of the most popular questions I get is about using themes for therapy. Mostly, how do I plan my themes? I'm sure other people have different methods, but here is how I do it... My therapy themes are simple and straightforward. Over the summer, I sit down with my calendar and map it out. It takes an hour or two, but it ends up making therapy planning incredibly easier. Why? Because you are able to narrow your focus. When I tackled this project the first time, it was a little overwhelming. But the more you do it, the more comfortable you become with the process and it ended up being pretty easy for me this past summer. Something you may find helpful is from Perkilou Products...it is a four week calendar for every month of the year. It gave me ideas when I was first starting to create my own. My own version is a little different. I center my planning around holidays and seasons, some of which I use for two weeks. You can download my version HERE. I also created a blank version, which you can grab HERE. After this part comes the fun stuff...finding materials! Blogs. I think these are the best places to get inspired and find activities. Pinterest. I have seen tons of Pin Boards dedicated to specific holidays, seasons, or themes. You can even search by theme using the search box. Books. Look through your own or go visit the library! You can find a book on any topic, try to find various levels, as well as fiction and non-fiction. Go through your STUFF! Pull your files out and go through your cabinets. I bet you have tons of your own materials that you can use :) I have started organizing my themes by binders to keep up with it all. I bought tons of page protectors to keep all my original worksheets and materials in, and all of my activities for that theme go in the binder. I also make a list of all the manipulatives that I have that go with the theme...like I have jack-o-latern baskets I can use for Halloween or the Popcorn containers with the carnival theme. I just don't want to forget what I have! We always have so much STUFF! I still use my trusty bag of favorites...CandyLand, Apples to Apples, Chipper Chat etc. to fill in the gaps. Not everything I do is related to the theme, but I love having the organization of using themes in therapy. I really believe that it has positively impacted my therapy and I would encourage any SLP to do it!

Preschoolers will have fun exploring apples with this fun fall or back to school themed FREE Apple Science Experiment Worksheet.

Hi everyone! We are back to school here in California. I am done with my first week of Kindergarten. Only one more week to go until my students are somewhat independent. I don't know about you, but it seems like the first two weeks just get harder every year! Once the first two weeks are over I can get down to some real teaching. I have started using the DeeDee Wills and Deanna Jump Guided Math units. I LOVE them! I mean it. I LOVE them. If you have time, check out what they are on TpT. They are an excellent supplement to any Kindergarten math program. My students love them too. Math time is their favorite part of the day (except for dress-up.....)! Here are somethings we did this week, along with some pics of my classroom this year. I like to change it up every year. Keeps it fresh for me. Capital letter name page This our capital letter name page. Each child gets their own personal capital letter. I don't know about you, but I have many students coming to Kindergarten writing their names in all caps. It drives me crazy, so I try and emphasize that we have 1 capital letter in our name (most of the time anyway). This year I had students put small stickers inside their letter. I had a million left over from last year and I thought it would be a nice way to use them. You could also have them glue tissue paper in the letter, small objects like sequins or beads. I wasn't ready to break out the white glue, so we used stickers. Big Head Self-Portraits Aren't these adorable? These are self-portraits! Yep, this is how they see themselves. Amazing every time! Each child made one and practiced writing their name. I like to use a highlighter and have them trace it. In the beginning it is hard to trace on dotted lines. I also like to attach name writing practice to bigger activities. I think it makes it more meaningful. You can grab this cute template here so your students can make their own self-portraits. Below are some pictures of my classroom this year. I thought I would share. Rug area As seen from the back of the room. Objectives Board My math board. I hang the cards from the Wills and Jump Guided Math units so I have them handy. I always lose things right as I need them. This way I have everything at my fingertips. My reading board. The left has my Focus Board. This is for letter fluency. We read the letters (left to right, top to bottom) as quickly and correctly as we can. I have our alphafriend and how to write the letter of the week. The red rectangle will hold our weekly sight words. That is some of the classroom. I also have a writing wall (It has nothing on it yet) and an "Amazing Artists" wall (also, nothing on it yet). I will post pics of those soon.

Digital Download from Art Teacher in LA’s popular blog post includes: 3 pages of photographed lesson plans for OCEAN WAVE PAINTING ART LESSON Grade Kindergarten- 8th Written & Photographed directions Step by step drawing instructions Created by ArtTeacherinLA.com co-owner of LA Art School, Viridian Art

Here is what you get!1 Germany themed Memory Matching preschool educational activity that prints 18 memory card pieces. Prints 2 pages.Designed by the owner of Teach At Daycare in Arkansas City, Kansas. Please see our many other items in our store. Thank you for visiting.

Here are some EDITABLE cactus themed schedule cards for your classroom.This download contains three cactus themed slides. Choose your favourite slide or duplicate all three to create a pack of schedule cards to suit your needs.Thank you for downloading. Enjoy!

FREE printable Apple themed coloring activity for preschool and kindergarten kids. Use dot markers or any kind of coloring utensils to complete the apple patterns! Great math activity for Back to School or Fall!

Find everything you need for creating a superhero classroom including DIY projects & more. Superhero Classroom Decor Ideas for Transformation

FREE printable Paper Hats that kids can color and wear when learning about community helpers, occupations, or when doing dramatic and pretend play. Great for preschool and kindergarten!

Last summer I added Mo Willems' The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! to my classroom library. Of course, this addition was a no-brainer. Willems' books are always super popular, especially Pigeon books. Just as predicted, my students loved this book. It is the perfect length for the beginning of the year, when attention spans are extra short and students need a little break from all the procedural training they are receiving. Since I knew this book would be a hit, I decided to make it the centerpiece of back to school. I created some basic "Pigeon themed" math and literacy activities, as well as a simple craft. I used these activities intermittently during the first week and was able to glean some great info about my new students' basic math and literacy skills, as well as their fine motor skills and listening skills. One of the Pigeon themed activities was a number/number word/counting mini book. Students traced and wrote the numbers 1-10, as well as the number words 1-10. Then students illustrated a picture to go with each number. We broke this activity up over a couple of days. Students took part in a listening activity. Students had to complete a picture according to a series of questions/statements that I read aloud. (If you've every made a glyph with your students, this activity feels really similar.) Students also put together their first puzzler for the year. This puzzler focused on number representations. Students cut and glued the puzzler pieces to tell what number is represented in the box. By the end, students have a completed picture that they can color. I use various puzzlers throughout the year. This the Pigeon puzzler is a great introduction to how to complete a puzzler. Students loved making their simple, one-page craft Pigeons. All that was required was the Pigeon pattern (I used white card stock), scissors, and glue. The class Pigeons made a really quick and cute back to school bulletin board. In addition to these activities, students worked on counting/cardinality, geometry, place value, number bonds, handwriting, the alphabet, rhyming words, sight words, and more. The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! is a perfect springboard for a variety of skills. For a math freebie (from the printables featured above), click on the picture below. This freebie provides practice with ten frames, counting, and number identification. If you have not added, The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! to your classroom library, I highly recommend it. There are so many directions you can go with this book. More importantly, your students will love it and be totally engaged. What a great way to start the year, by reading a book that students truly enjoy. :) For more details about the all of the Pigeon inspired activities I used with my students, be sure to click on the picture below. Of course (like most), I'm not certain what this year's back to school days will look like. Whatever the setup, I know I'll be using The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! to help me kick off the year. Thanks for stopping by. School Is a Happy Place is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associated Program, an affiliate program that allows this site to earn advertising fees. Please know that all of the recommendations on this site are authentic and come from personal experience.

Make a life-size printable human skeleton with kids! The printable skeleton template comes as a PDF file, which is easy to cut and assemble.

Learn what is under your skin with a fun life-size human body project for kids. Download FREE skeletal system bones and organ printables!

Fun STEM activity for outdoor play and makes a great science lesson! (Includes a printable rocket template).

Grab this entire week of amazing 5 senses preschool activities and worksheets. Use them for circle time, science centers, and fun learning.

A Preschool Manners Theme that includes preschool lesson plans, activities and Interest Learning Center ideas for your Preschool Classroom!

Making learning to write and hold a pencil fun for your children with this Planet-Themed Prewriting Activity!

This blog post lists ten must-dos for the first day of school! I want to share some actions you may know (or may not know) to ensure you have a great first

Curriculum themes and activities for start of school; September for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten; September Preschool Themes; Pre-K beginning of year.

A back to school cone (German schultute) is a great way to make the first day of school fun and exciting and get your kids those school supplies they'll need for the school year. I love to make a back-to-school schultute for my daughter every year because they are so easy, fun, and it's a great way to get the first week of school off to a good start!

This year, I decided to make some modifications to my classroom decor, and I am thrilled to share this reveal with you all.

Now that my new air conditioner is installed and up and running (YES- I lost air at the start of the summer! EEK!), and I've gotten my fair ...