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 music... catch the tide." The word SAIL is printed out with one letter, its own sailboat. Below, I found clip art of a circle with a tide in it and I'll put the different elements of music on them: rhythm, melody, form, etc.
On my board at the front of the classroom, where I have the solfège syllables and hand signs, 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.