Dive Into an Under the Sea Classroom Theme This School Year

Are you diving deep underwater with your classroom theme in 2024? This under the sea theme decor bundle has you covered with themed printables for your bulletin boards, labelling, student awards and more!

Download this bundle of printables — plus a PowerPoint presentation that you can upload to your Google Drive to theme your slide decks — and pair it all with oceanic decor throughout the classroom.

How to Create an Under the Sea Classroom

Under the sea decor is amongst the most versatile classroom themes. It’s fun for foundation and prep students who will enjoy the adventure of learning in a room filled with their favourite marine animals, and it opens the door for countless learning experiences for upper years students too — whether you’re talking about protecting our oceans from plastic pollution in your sustainability lessons or exploring the world’s five oceans in geography!

Here are just a few ideas to help build the complete under the sea theme in your classroom this year:

1. Turn your classroom reading corner into a beachside hangout. Use soft pillows or cushions in shades of blue and green to resemble the ocean, then add a small tent or canopy decorated with seashells and a fishing net for added effect. You can even name your reading corner the Reader’s Reef to complete the theme.
2. Incorporate your theme into your learning centres or rotations.  For maths, use seashells or fish-shaped manipulatives for counting or sorting activities. In English, create a ‘Shipwrecked Spelling’ rotation, or use our ‘Fishy Find’ words game where students ‘fish’ for their Dolch sight words!
3. Rename your teacher desk as the ‘captain’s deck.’
4. Create a porthole with one of your windows. Do you have a window on your classroom door or a window that faces outside? You can create a fun porthole for students to look through, as if they were in a submarine! Cut the centre from a paper plate, and paint the plate black. Place the plate at the centre of the window and use blue window paint or window paint pens to add the ocean around the ‘hole.’ Add some of the marine creature cut-out decorations from this theme bundle, and you have a fun feature your students will love!

Under the Sea Bulletin Board Ideas to Welcome Students Back to School

This theme bundle has two options when it comes to printable bulletin board letters plus cut-out decor for your display. Why not plan bulletin boards throughout the school year that go with your under the sea theme? Here are a few ideas from the Teach Starter team to get you inspired to build your underwater-themed display:

• Kindness Is Cool in This School (feature a school of fish!)
• Perseverance = Just Keep Swimming
• Diving Into the Sea of Knowledge
• Under the Sea, We Learn Happily
• We’re Exploring the Depths of Learning
• We’re So Happy to ‘Sea’ You
• Our Class Is Fin-tastic
• Learning is Fin-tastic
• In This Class, We Swim Together
• Welcome Aboard
• Set Sail for Learning
• Dream Higher Than the Sky & Deeper Than the Ocean
• This Class is Turtle-y Awesome

Under the Sea Group Names for Student Groups

Are you planning to name your student groups to fit your watery classroom theme? Grab your scuba gear, and dive into this fun list to complement your new decor!

• Orcas
• Blue whales
• Humpbacks
• Narwals
• Belugas
• Dolphins
• Seals
• Sea jellies

More Teaching Resources With an Ocean Theme

Don’t stop there! We’ve compiled some of our favourite teaching resources featuring ocean-going creatures that you can add to your teacher toolkit. We hope your school year goes swimmingly!

teaching resource

Welcome to Our School - About Me Glyph

Celebrate the first day of school, get to know your students and create an amazing classroom display with a Welcome to our “School” Fish Glyph.

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Fishing To Know You

A getting-to-know-you activity for the beginning of the year.

teaching resource

Ocean Themed Movement Cards

A set of 12 Ocean themed movement cards.