Heading back to school is always a very busy time for teachers, administrators and families. Help unify your school and make heading back lots of fun with a school wide theme. Themes are great to help unify a campus! You can incorporate your school's PTO and other committees to help spread the word and get everyone excited for a new year. For our theme this year we chose a fun and universal camping theme. We wanted to focus on making memories.
Over the summer kids have so much fun making new friends, learning and enjoying themselves at summer camp. We didn't want that fun to end so we decided that we would kick off our school year with a camping theme. To get the excitement started we planned a few special events during our welcome back faculty meeting. First days are usually filled with trainings and meetings so we wanted to sprinkle in a little fun. Each of our team tables was decorated with a simple blue gingham tablecloth. We used wood rounds as centerpieces for our scrapbook paper tents, magnifying glasses and tissue paper campfires to finish off the table decor. To cure those meeting munchies we sprinkled some camping themed candy at each table as well.
The tables weren't the only decorations we decided to incorporate. We set the stage for teachers to be engaged by adding a few colorful fans and camp themed signs at the entrance. As teachers came in and checked into their first day they picked up a school shirt and their personalized folders with all of their beginning of the school year information. Cute woodland labels were the perfect addition to add a little whimsy and fun.
Since summer camp is filled with lots of fun activities we didn't want our teachers to miss out! We had a few fun team building activities up our camp counselor sleeves. This was one of our favorites. Each team celebrated all of the new memories they wanted to make this year by creating a personalized team banner. Teachers grabbed a few colorful fabric markers and went to work adding their own special flare to their canvas banner. These will hang in our teacher's lounge to remind us of all the fun memories we will make this year at school.
As your year starts to hurry along it's always nice to get a few kind words from a co-worker, especially on those days when everything seems to go wrong and your "to be graded pile" is stacking up. We set up a station in the teacher's lounge for teachers to write a friendly note to their colleagues. We just added a bin filled with colorful sharpies and some paint chip strips. All those colors could brighten up any teacher's gloomiest of days. It's always nice to feel appreciated so keep the smiles going year round with a little note of encouragement!
To keep the excitement going campus wide we decided to beautify our campus. The neglected bulletin boards around school that had seen better days were our first mission. We gathered our favorite bulletin board supplies; Black and white polka dot paper, woodland border trim, paper fans, chevron fans, burlap banner, colorful bandanas, and camp signs and got to work. The students were so excited to see all of the new colorful additions to our campus. It really made a huge difference on campus. We want to keep the positivity and unity flowing throughout the year so we are planning several fun school wide activities that will engage the students, teachers, administration, parents and community. I can't wait to show you what we have planned over the school year. Check back for more!
