Submitted by Chandra Sadler
Idea posted August 26, 2003
At my school, the special area classes are called S.A.I.L. classes and for the life of me, I can't remember what it stands for, something about Intergrated Learning (boy, that's awful isn't it).
Anyway, I think that I'll have ocean/beach/lighthouse theme this year. I've gotten some ideas from the internet and this is what I'm thinking about.
My outside bulletin board will say (beginning of year) "SAIL into [subject here]... catch the tide." The word SAIL is printed out with one letter, it's own sailboat. Below, I found clipart of a circle with a tide in it and I'll put the different elements of math or science on them: addition, subtraction, problem solving, etc.
On my board at the front of the classroom, I'll use different die-cuts and put the syllables on it with some "beachy" phrase. I know that we have sailboat cutouts and shells. Otherwise, I'll get some designs from the cute notepads from Education Wonderland.
For my "behavior wall," I have "Shell we have a great year?" My "expectations" will be printed out on shells.
In the back of the room, I want to have a reading corner. I'm thinking about getting a very large tropical plant, with a beach chair, perhaps a pail of sand with a beach umbrella. I already have the cutest circular rug with fish on it.
Other decorations will include beach balls - Oriental Trading has all kinds of stuff for a luau. I'm thinking about having beach towels for the children to relax on when listening to a book or watching a video.