Teaching Theme- Disney Style

Hello! My name is Damien and I am a Disney Fanatic! 

I know, that's not much of a confession.  Heck, as I write this I am wearing a Mickey Mouse hoodie and watching the Disneyland 60th special on ABC (I cried twice). Disney movies, Disney songs, and Walt Disney World are a part of my soul. I am who I am because I was raised on Disney films!

So, what does all this have to do with teaching. Well, Disney always seems to find a way to sneak into my classroom and most recently it was to teach my kids how to identify, support, and write about theme. 

Here's one of my friends following along with the lyrics as we
listened to the song. 

The lesson started with me using an anchor chart to define the word theme.  I quickly passed out lyrics to the song "Let it Go" from Frozen, maybe you've heard of it-LOL. I told the kids that while I played the song I wanted them to listen while trying to find the message the author wanted us to apply to our own life.  When this was done we examined the lyrics for text evidence to support our theme. 

Here's our Writing About Theme Anchor Chart with
markers on what is expected when writing about theme. 

On our second day I modeled to my third grade heroes how to write about the theme as we wrote about Let it Go together. 

Over the next few days I exposed my kids to two others Disney songs giving them greater independence in finding the theme and the evidence to support it. We listened to "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan and "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. 

One of the great things about this lesson was that their was minimal "reading" required. I am an ICR classroom with five special education students and this allowed everyone to practice identifying theme without their reading abilities getting in the way. I also found youtube videos of the songs and placed them in my Google Classroom incase my friends wanted or needed to listen to them a second (or third) time. This really allowed my friends to focus on the skill and not be hindered by trying to apply it to the reading they were doing (that time was coming soon). 

 This lesson was a *magical* way to learn about identifying and writing about theme. 

Have a *Magical* Day Buddies!
-Damien 

Harry Potter Classroom Theme

Hello Bloggers!  Feeling a little down, ok REALY down, this week and I thought I would try to pick myself up with a few of my favorite things: Blogging, Teaching, and Harry Potter.


Through this blog I have connected with quite a few Harry Potter teacher-fans.  You guys inspired me to share my classroom theme, which Kelly had a great deal of influence upon.  Ok, more than influence, she thought of the idea and forced me to do it about 3 days before school started.  Allow me to share the story.


First, one thing you must know about me is I start getting the school bug on August first.  I hound custodians for the date I am allowed back in my room and have moved my furniture back in my classroom by myself in order to start prepping (I have an illness).  One day, when I should have been organizing books or hanging bulletin boards I was sitting in Kelly's FANTASTIC Ocean themed classroom whining and drinking a vanilla bean coffee coolatta. I was in awe of her adorable theme and complained that in 5th grade you can't have a theme because 5th graders are all "big" and "cool".  To help, or to shut me up, or a combination of both Kelly mentioned that I need to incorporate a theme that I love because I will be in the room 5 days a week.  Through some quick brainstorming, she mentioned I could use the Harry Potter books as my theme.


Problem-It was 3 days before school started, I was already hanging up my baseball posters and using my lame (no offense) "we are all a team" theme.  I was tempted to stick with it, but the allure of Harry was just too much.  I scoured the Internet and found...NOTHING.  Seriously, not one Harry Potter birthday calendar, bulletin board paper, or border. (Seriously, I have been tempted to call JK Rowling and asked that chick to hook up with a company and get this stuff made).  So I went to work and created my first Harry Potter poster.

Printed out from the computer, edited, and mounted on construction paper.
Hermione waits for me to call on her. 

I know, nothing fantastic.  I still hang her up as my first Harry token, but it has grown from there.

On the first day of school everyone is "sorted" into a house by the sorting hat.

After introducing the new gang to my Harry Potter theme (they have know about it since they were in 1st grade with Kelly) I read the sorting hat poem from HPSS and sort the kids into their "house" or tables.  Above each table hangs a sign with the house name and a brief description of the type of student found in that house.  I made these myself and laminated them.

I copied the excerpt straight from the novel. 

 Our first activity of the year is to make owls and to write about whether we were sorted into the right house based on how we assess our character traits.


My students sit with their table for one month and work together to earn house points.  At the end of the month the house with the most house points wins the House Cup .  The students are resorted (without the ceremony) and the House Points competition starts all over again.

My closet door keeps track of the points. 

My students mailboxes are labeled the Owlery and a few feathered friends,
including Hedwig perch there. 

We are currently finishing HPSS, here is one of my bulletin boards

My tables are labeled Potter, students who cannot behave are put in Azkaban (figuratively of course), and Potter decor now litters my room.  Here are some more pictures.

I picked up a few chocolate frog boxes from a
recent trip to Harry Potter World to decorate the
corners of my bulletin board. 

I made this border myself: it is many, many, MANY 8 inch strips printed, cut, glued, and laminated.  It took forever-but I love it. 

My letter to Hogwarts- I was accepted!

Homemade Birthday Chart- There was a frog underneath Harry!

I use starred paper for my bulletin board, like the Great Hall ceiling.
My kids drew me these HP pencil sketches.  NOT BAD!

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!

The Magic Wands from four of the characters.
Can you guess who?

From the very first day when we sort, until we start the first HP novel (usually December), all the way until the end of the year we are filled with the magic of Hogwarts.  As the only one who stays behind to do it again next year, Harry Potter is something I never get sick of.

Let the Magic Begin!
-Damien