21st Century School Teacher

Every year about this time I start sweating a little--thinking about how I will put together my bulletin boards for a new year.  I've spent time searching other websites looking for ideas, sifting through pictures, etc...

It’s just hard sometimes to find the right inspiration...

Some of my bulletin boards form the past include a Pink Floyd's "The Wall" inspired board—created by cutting enough bricks to cover my bulletin boards and then free hand cutting words to look like graffiti,  I love Survivor, so a Survivor themed bulletin board was fun to create with personalized logo and enough vines to swing from.  I’ve done a semi-Pirate theme—built around a stranded in Mrs. W’s class.   Grizzly bear foot prints (on bulletin board, walls, floor)  with lunch bags crumpled and sorted through—names of students on their lunch bags… Anime student characters, life sized, —the kids loved this!  

Here are some of my best tips for creating really cool bulletin boards:

Choose a theme that you like rather than a theme based in content, and then build the first days’ lessons around your theme instead of vice versa… 

Think big—oversize everything…

3D is a must—don’t just use the bulletin board—spread out onto the wall.  Attach objects to the board that stick out a little…

Choose a theme that is popular to students’ lives—for example, if a movie or TV show is relatively popular, you can do a spin off of that. 

Choose background colors that will transfer to the fall--then you can take off first days creation and start adding kids' work or other seasonal themed ideas...


If I were in the classroom this year, I would definitely use Indiana Jones as my theme—tea staining paper, hiding artifacts, creating scavenger hunts, etc.  

Whatever you choose to do—have fun… That’s what bulletin boards should say to the kids… They should entertain, motivate, inspire!

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