Theme - Race Cars Theme

My welcome back BB is "Revving up for a Great Year". Each student will colour their own race car (I've put their name on it already). I made a blcak road and the cars will go on it. The car will be on their desk when they come the first day ready for them to colour.

I also did a "Racing to Success" theme in my room. So many of the ideas in my room came from the amazing teachers here at Proteacher last summer.

* Job Board = Ms. X's Pit Crew
* We did the Great Postcard Race and got postcards from classrooms all over the world.
* I have car and road sign themed bulletin boards
* Checkerd flag pennants hanging across the room.
* A welcome race fans sign outside the door
* Student of the Week = Driver of the Week

I'm sure there's other things we do that I'm just not thinking of right now. I've got summeritis pretty bad!

Jen,

Last year, our grade level used a race car theme, we gave each kid a large cut out of a white race car and let them design their own race car. Also, we made a large highway to place them on using black paper, yellow & white chalk. We purchased several different kinds of checkered flags from a party store. We used this theme for our Accelerated Reader program. The kids could move their race car along the highway as they reached 33% 66% and finally 100% of their AR Goal.
Good Luck !!

Tam

I am doing a race car theme as well, and I am planning on doing:
Racing to Success, Spotlight Driver (this will be my student of the week), We "brake" for Birthdays (where I post all student birthdays), Winner's Circle, and last I am having a Ms._____'s Pit Crew where I am listing my student jobs.
Hope this helps

Jen, last year I got race car bordette, covered a bulletin board with black, made 2 checkered cloth flags with fabric and dowels which I crossed and place at the top of the board. In red were the words "Off to a good start." This was not a theme, but a "good work" bulletin board, which I change each month. I know this isn't what you asked for, but hope it helps.

I did a race car theme for my 1st grade room last year. My bulletin board was titled "Racing Into First Grade". My next door neighbor races sprint cars and I arranged for him to bring 2 of the cars to school and took pix of all the kids with the cars. He brought his uniform, demonstrated different things, I even baked sugar cookies in the shape of a race car. The newspaper came out and did a great story about our theme.

Hi Jen and fellow racing themers! I've gotten a lot of my ideas from this site as well. Here's what I'm doing:

*I ordered a 100ft racing pennant banner from Oriental Trading for $5.95. The flags, of course, are black/white checkered. I will hang these from the ceiling.
(www.orientaltarding.com item#MY25/1913)

*Attendance/Homework: This will be displayed together on the doors of my storage cabinet. The title will be "The Starting Line." One door will have red paisley print library pockets , one for each student. When they come in the mornings they will put a card in their pocket to show if they are hot or cold lunch. To make the cards, I bought a pack of blank yellow playing cards from the teacher store. Then I used PrintMaster15 on my computer to make labels for hot/cold lunch to glue onto the yellow cards. I put clip art of a racing car on the labels to tie it in with my theme. One side of the card says hot lunch and the other side is cold lunch. The other door will be for homework. Each student will have one of those incentive charts that has a racing car theme. I'm going to layer two borders around the doors: red gingham and black gingham. The title will be in red gingham letters.

*Helpers: The title for this will be "Mrs. C's Pit Crew." I am going to use a pattern of a race car to trace and cut out cars from different materials. (I'm trying to make my room appealing to the girls to! Some of my fabric peices include camo, pink with flowers, plaids, and so on.) Each of these cars will be labeled with a classoom job. Students will have a "people" cutout I purchased at the teacher store to decorate and write their names on. The "people" will rotate from job to job. For this area of my magnetic white board, I will use super sparkle pink border.

*Postcard Exchange: The title will be "Race Across America." This will also be on my board and with a race car border. I have purchased a United State fabric map to display. Each time we receive a postcard we will add a magnet to that state. I made three different types of magnets for the map. From Wal-Mart I purchased the small round magnets. Then I found a package of 10 micro-race cars at Wal-Mart and glued them on the magnets. The next thing I found was a package of 16 racing pennant party cupcake picks. (Those things that you stick in the cupcakes for decoration!) I used wire cutters to shorten the stick and then glued them on magnets. The last thing I found was a package of small wooden wheels. I painted those black with a silver rim and glued them on magnets.

*Classroom Library: These are the slogans I have for my reading corner-"The Reading Pit," "You always win the race when you read!" and "Burn rubber - read a hot book!" I purchased a white and black checkered tablecloth from the party store to put on the wall. Around that I will use a super sparkle blue border. Then I will hang racing photos that I found online. I also have two used tires to put in the library. I bought two racing handkerchiefs at a racing store and am using those to make pillows for the tires.

*Teacher/student correspondance: I started this last year and loved it. The students can write to me and put it in my mailbox. I will then write them back and put the letter in their envelope (this year it will be a race car.) The background is black/white checkered material from Wal-Mart. Each student will have a race car cut out of various materials of solid colors. For the border I am going to layer red sparkle border and a racing car border.

*Birthday: I have the title "We Brake For Birthdays" that I got off this site. That's as far as I've gotten with b-days.

*Behavior: I'm undecided about this. Like one of the other posters said, I had thought about using stickers on my already made behavior cards. I've also read the idea to make a racing track and letting students rotate around the track. I"ll use "Winner's Circle" to post the rewards and "Speed Limits" for the rules. My students can earn "Crew Bucks" for good behavior to spend at the end of the month. They can buy goodies such as art projects, beads in a bag to make necklaces/bracelets, school supplies, and other stuff.

*Calendar: I used PrintMaster15 to make cards for my calendar days. I used a picture of a race car and then put the numbers on top of the picture.

*I bought racing nametags and desktags from the teacher store, along with racing notepads. I also found race car rug on e-bay for about $13.

*Other racing treasures: I bought a racing themed tin of popcorn at Big Lots. After the popcorn is gone the tin can be used for storage. I found several more goodies at the racing store. A t-shirt that says something about "Daytona" and "Honor Student" has been put on a floor pillow that is a dog. I purchased two racing license plates to hang along with two huge racing flags(with drivers on them.) I also found a couple of racing flags to mount from the outside of my doorway. I found a huge banner at the party store that says "Welcome Racers" to hang in the hallway. The last things (I think) that I bought at the store were two small pillows covered in a plastic type material so they'll be easy to clean.

I know my post is long, but I hope you find some ideas you can use. If you will look page 2 or 3 of the theme board you should be able to find some more posts about racing.

Good luck! Betsy:)

I have seen the cutest things for a racing theme. Borders, notepads, cutouts, incentive charts, pencils, boomarks, etc. I am using some of it for our AR because my grade chose "Race into Reading" for the AR theme. The rest of my room will be Rainforest.
Maybe next year I'll do racing as my room theme!

I went to Party City and got black and white checkered plastic table cloths for bulletin board paper. It looked great and didn't fade as the year went on. My classroom "helpers" were my Pit Crew and I got little cut out people to place beside race cars with the titles of jobs written on them.

My behavior management system was 1) Verbal Warning- race car gets to stay on track but moves to the back of the track as they become a "lap down" 2) Car is moved to the Pits for immediate repair -- 2 laps down= loss of recess 3)Car is moved to garage for fine tuning- You can buy the race track from school days or another teacher supply store- carson dellosa makes it!

I had kids sign the lap log when they got to step 3 and record what rule they had broken and a couple sentences to explain what they would do to fix the problem. This is your documentation for when they go home and tell their mom that they did nothing wrong!
I looooved racing and I am thinking about doing it again next year with my 5th graders but thinking about changing it up.
Good Luck

My over all classroom theme is sports-teamwork, but for my math class I use the Race Car Theme-Get your Math Motors Running! I bought the exact same pack of file folders the other day from the teacher store. I am going to put math file folder games in them for free time.

We did a racing theme this year and my friend bought a race track for good behavior BB set at the teacher supply store. The start out in their cars on the start line. If the have to move their car they move to the pits or something like that. It was really cute.

Personally, I use a dot chart. I took a poster board and made a grid. 20 down and 5 across. I numbered 20 dots and put velcro on each. Also I put velcro on each box going across the chart. Each student starts off on their starting position. They have 5 squares (chances). If they get in trouble they are told to move their dot.

I would try to contact a local speedway for items, such as maybe autographed pictures,posters etc. Or go online to a racing site. Maybe go to Mario, or one of the other big racers names? Maybe you could get something there. It never hurts to ask if they have any free things for educators. Also in our area we have a mini race track for kids. My son loved it for his birthday party. Try something like that, they may have some fun give away things too. Good luck. Maybe you could put up a fun bulletin board with a race track and use hot wheels cars on it. A teacher at our school did a race track, and put the kids names on paper cars to keep track of there reading progress. I think she called it racing thru reading. Or racing to a finish line?

I had a birthday party for my son with the same theme and I took instant pictures of the guests and labeled them "Pit Crew" and his was labeled "Crew Chief" You could do the same with your students for a bulletin board. Or to be used as some way to recognize achievements. The guests used mailbox letters to make license plates. I'm sure your students could come up with some great "vanity plates."

I have used this theme before and the kids love it. You can do a bulletin board or wall area alternating in black and white squares. Some stores may even have contact paper in black and white. If you have a racing store in your area, you can buy inexspensive racing flags to hang. I have my children decorate a racing car after I have already cut them out of differnt colored construction paper. I like to put the cars on the black/white background and they choose which one they want when school starts. You could also have them brainstorm ways that you as a class can "race off to a great year." I might write these on the cars, if they don't decorate them! We're racing off to a great year!! Hope you do too!!

I teach 5th and decided to use a race car theme this year for their reading goals. I put up black & white checkered fabric background. Then I had a team of students make the race track and the signs to indicate progress along the way (25% 50% 75%) and a winner's circle at the end. They each made their own car. I had copies of race cars for students who wanted to just color and cut one out for themselves. Students move their own cars along the track as they progress towards their goal. They absolutely LOVE it!

I did a NASCAR theme this year since I am really into NASCAR. The kids loved it and it really helped them get to know about me.

Hokie Fan---my theme is mostly just a uniformed way to decorate my room. My tables were "pits crews" and each had a number. All of my borders were black and white gingham...my table incentive chart had racecars to earn for points, my calendar (homemade) was black and white checkered and the dates were on NASCAR printed paper (kids loved that). It is a lot of fun.

For next year, I purchased some other things to use (sunflowers, frogs) but I love the racing so much I don't know what I am going to do!

Amy

I, too, was thinking about working with the race cars this year. I think it might be easier to have a red light, yellow light, and green light system. when they are warned they move to yellow (caution), second warnings are red (stop). at the end of the day if they are still on green they can move their car one step. I use a play money system to pay them for different things. Maybe the students who make it to the end of their track by the end of the week could earn a cash prize. The money system helps them learn to count money. We set up a classroom store that they can buy from once a month using this money. Just an idea and definitely not developed! Good luck.