Saturday, August 6, 2016

Back to School: Diving Into First Grade

It’s August? Really? When did that happen?  

I’ll be getting back into my classroom soon, and although I love the creativity involved in designing a new theme, I’m going to recycle last year’s “Under the Sea” look. My recent travels and wedding planning have left me fried and my checkbook a little thin, so something had to give! (Case in point: I spent the better part of yesterday evening practicing these map flowers for my centerpieces. Thank you, Pinterest!)



Can’t say I’m too sad about recycling the theme, though… that means I get to make these scuba divers all over again…



… They’re pretty adorable if I do say so myself. I revamped the pattern a bit since making them last year, so now they’ll look a little more like this…



I love the way they look with the kids’ photos in place of the generic face, so that’ll be the only difference! My first graders were so stoked to make them last August. This time around, I’m also going to have my kiddos write about the reasons why they are excited to be “diving into” first grade for my bulletin board display. Here’s what it looked like last year:



I’m anticipating a smaller class this year and will tone down the size of the letters, so there should be extra room to display the writing. 



This packet includes writing paper and graphic organizers appropriate for kindergarten- 3rd grade, with a variety of prompt options! It also includes the template and detailed directions for making the scuba diversI also found this cute ocean- themed border at JoAnn Fabric to accent my board. 



The octopus tentacles are made from construction paper links and my students LOVED him! To finish off the hallway display, I used thispacket from Susan Morrow's Teachers Pay Teachers store to make nametags for my new kiddos and dubbed them “Ms. Utz’s Sea Creatures.” The packet is filled with tons of other goodies for decking out the classroom with the ocean theme; once everything is up and running, I’ll post again with a full classroom tour!



One more thing before I go… I think I’ll bring back my “Reader’s Reef” library nook for another round :)




Thanks for stopping by! You can find the scuba diver packet by clicking here for my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Little Owl's Teacher Treats. Feel free to reach me with questions by commenting here or emailing littleowlstreatbarn@gmail.com Happy back-to-school season and good luck starting the new year!

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