I have used smiles as my theme for the beginning of the year before. I put smile faces with the student names outside the classroom with the title "Let's start this year smiling." I then take pictures on the first day of each child smiling and one of the whole class including myself. I have the pictures developed and replace the smiley faces with their smiling faces and have the class photo blown up to an 11 x 14 at Walgreen's for I think about $7 or 8. This class photo is then hung on the window of our classroom door for the rest of the year.
I always get doubles and create a class book with the second photo. Each student gets a page to write about themselves, illustrate it and attach the photos. I then have the book laminated
for the students to read. My fifth grade students love reading their book and the books from past students.
For some of the bulletin board themes in the room, I have used, "Get happy about (math, reading, etc.)", "______________ makes me smile", "If you're happy and you know it, (read a book, write a story, etc.)"
Theme - Smiley Face Theme
If you want your classroom to be a happy place then this is the theme for you. Smiley faces will surely make your students smile!
WELCOME BOARD: Welcome board with smileys for every student. "Havin' A Nice Day in Ms. ____'s Class"
POSITIVE NOTES HOME: Call them "Happy Grams"
GOOD WORK BOARD: "Face it! This is GREAT work!"
CLASS REWARD: Make a giant smiley face and put a certain number of circles for the smile, fill them up, when they earn the whole smile, give the class some designated reward.
DESK NAMETAGS: Use clipart on the computer to put student names on smiley faces. Laminate and tape to the desk with packaging tape.
STUDENT OF THE WEEK: Give the student a special smiley face pencil. "Smile Superstar" or "Someone to Smile About"
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: For behavior give every student a smiley face and have them move their smiley from level to level on a magnetic board. If you want to award classroom money for good behavior, call them "Smile Savers" and give them small coupons.
At the top put "We SMILE about GOOD behavior!"
Smileys were my theme last year. I did a back to school BB titled "We are all smiles over _ grade". Each student had a laminated smiley face with his/her name on the board. As a get-to-know-you activity each student (and myself) did a "top ten things that make me smile" list to put next to the smiley face. I even used S.M.I.L.E. as a "secret code word" When I said "smile" they knew it stood for Stop Making It Loud Everyone. They instantly got quiet, looked at me, and smiled. It worked great for me - good luck!
I have used smiley faces as a theme for the past 3 years. I teach third grade, so my slogan was "Third Grade is Something to SMILE about! There are a lot of smiley face lights, toys, etc. in the Oriental Trading Book magazine. I bought smiley face lights to put around my bulletin board. I hung smiley face paper plates from the ceiling with my students name's on them. I taped a couple of smiley face pen-wheels on each of my windows with grass cut from green bulletin board paper at the bottom to make them look like flowers. The first day of school I had little smiley face containers on their desk with candy and gave them a smiley face pencil and eraser. The student's loved it!! I hope this helps.
We're going to use this theme this year in our Title I room. We're going to use the theme "We're all smiles about good work" or something close to that. The latest Oriental Trading catalog has a boatload of smiley things in it, including a smiles sticker center, a smiley goody box with all kinds of little treasures for rewards, and celophane little bags for birthday gifts or whatever. I have really had fun looking through the catalog and trying to decide just what to order.
I use a smiley face in my classroom because it is my classroom theme. I drew 25 small circles for the smiley mouth. I reward the students by putting a small, round color sticker in each circle until they fill the smiley faces mouth. I have a poem that goes along with it.(I hope this makes sense.) If you are interested in this idea, let me know and I will tell you more about it and tell you about the poem that goes with it.
I was trying to set the tone at a new school, so I went for smileys, because I was a new person there, and I wanted to set the "mood" for the year.
I had a lot of wall space, and a lot of door space as well, so I decorated a lot on the doors to the closets, and used that as bulletin board space.
I did we're all smiles in Mrs. ___'s room. I had a large Smiley face cut out, and put music notes around it.
And, I did smiley face cut outs with each teacher's name on them and the time they came to music listed, and above it read "So Happy Together"... (this was also a great tool to help me get used to my schedule.)
For behavior the wall said "Put your smile on!" and the rules were listed below.
For birthday wall I did " Keep Smilin', cause it's ______'s birthday!"
(I decorated that wall with retro looking designs...think 60's on that one..lol.)
My word pocket chart was also a large smiley face...lol.
And, I had a couple posters, one said "If you want a friend, be one", and had a smiley face on it...another read "Smile it's the first thing people like about you", and it had a gorilla smiling...and another one was Everyone smiles in the same language and it had children from various countries on it with joined hands.
My students especially the older ones LOVED the gorilla...lol. :)
If you need any other ideas, or if you want to bounce any ideas off of me, let me know. I'd be happy to help. :)
REB
I did "smile notes." Students could receive a smile note if they do something to make you smile, courteous to a classmate, holding the door open, showing politeness and manners, etc. Students getting a note would put their name on a small piece of paper ( you could put several on a master copy sheet)with a smiley face on it. Then they drop it in the smile note box. On Friday draw several names for their chance at a small piece of candy or prize for good manners.
Of course stamps, stickers, name plates and smiley face wrapping paper is available everywhere.
Maybe see if you can find some tie-dye fabric to use for a bulletin board background?
Have student tie-dye t-shirts this year?
Hang some tie-dyed bandanas from your ceiling.
How about incorporating bright yellow smiley faces?
WELCOME BOARD: Welcome board with smileys for every student. "Havin' A Nice Day in Ms. ____'s Class"
POSITIVE NOTES HOME: Call them "Happy Grams"
GOOD WORK BOARD: "Face it! This is GREAT work!"
CLASS REWARD: Make a giant smiley face and put a certain number of circles for the smile, fill them up, when they earn the whole smile, give the class some designated reward.
DESK NAMETAGS: Use clipart on the computer to put student names on smiley faces. Laminate and tape to the desk with packaging tape.
STUDENT OF THE WEEK: Give the student a special smiley face pencil. "Smile Superstar" or "Someone to Smile About"
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: For behavior give every student a smiley face and have them move their smiley from level to level on a magnetic board. If you want to award classroom money for good behavior, call them "Smile Savers" and give them small coupons.
At the top put "We SMILE about GOOD behavior!"