A (School) Year's Worth of Interactive Bulletin Board Inspiration

Since I was 6 years old, I have always had an outside connection to the world of education. My mother became an Elementary School Paraprofessional when I entered first grade, and I loved it. My best friend's mom was a parapro and several of our other friends were too. So, it's safe to say we got a lot of exposure to what goes on after the students leave! Fast forward to my first two years of college where I thought I wanted to be a teacher as well, but turns out it's not for me. That didn't stop me from getting some hands on experience with at an elementary after school program! We had a bulletin board to be decorated and this is a collection of seasonal and monthly boards I used with the kids. They're interactive and a hodgepodge of inspiration from Pinterest and TeachersPayTeachers and a thousand other google searches. These boards can be adapted to many K-5 grades/after-school programs/daycares/etc. and can be used as a reward board/behavioral incentive for older students or simply a month long activity for younger groups. Enjoy!

August
Cover board in a checkered tablecloth with any number of paper plates (you can also include napkins/plastic cutlery!). Cut out paper ants to make a trail across your "table" with. Have kids draw, color, and cut out their favorite foods to glue onto the plates.

September

Cover board in your choice of paper. Cut out stalks of corn and a scarecrow outline (think a burlap sack body with a complete head and face). Attach a paper basket next to the scarecrow and insert cut out clothes for him (overalls, straw hat, boots, gloves, handkerchief). Have a student pull an item of clothing and glue onto the scarecrow.

October

Cover board in orange/black paper and cut out a large trick or treat bag. Cut out 20-30 simple-shaped candies and keep in a baggie at your desk/office. Have a student glue a candy into/onto the trick or treat bag. When the bag is "full", give an award to class.

November

Cover board in paper and cut out a featherless turkey (body, feet, head). Cut out feathers in different colors, enough for each student to have one. Have a student write what they're thankful for on the feather and glue to the turkey. 

December

Cover board in red paper and use a black sharpie to draw lines on it to make it resemble a brick wall. Can also just do a red wall. Cut out a large piece of white paper and curve the edges to look like a scrolled list. Have student's with good behavior write their name onto "Santa's List". Can be adapted for if a student completes a task/project.

January

Cover board in blue/white paper and cut out a simple penguin to place in center. Cut out snowflakes, enough for each student to have one. Have a student write their name on the snowflake to glue on the board.

March

Cover board in red/pink paper and cut out a simply frame outline to place in center. Cut out a large question mark to place inside frame. Cut out several large conversation hearts in varying colors. Secretly choose a well-known person to be the secret admirer. This can be a student, celebrity, book character, person students are currently learning about, etc. Every so often, place a conversation heart on the board with a clue as to who this person is. On Valentine's Day/at the end of the month, ask students who they think the secret admirer is. Reveal by placing a picture of the person inside the frame.

March

Cover board in green paper and cut out two simple leprechauns and a large, empty pot of gold. Cut out 20-30 gold coins from yellow paper. Have students add a gold coin to the pot for task completion/good behavior/etc. When pot is full, reward class.

April

Cover paper in light blue paper and add clouds to background. Using a marker/string/paper, make clothes lines going from one side of the board to the other. You can determine how many by breaking your class up into groups by tables/birth months/first letter of name/class teams/etc. Cut out a plain shirt for each group and write the group name on each. Start all shirts at the left side of board. If a group does something well/completes task/etc., move that group's shirt closer to right side of the board. First team to reach the right side gets a reward.

May

You made it! Cover board in a fun color. Cut out pictures of four destinations students might go for summer. I chose home (could also be a friend's house), the pool, the beach, or out of town. Cut out small cars, enough for one per student. Throughout the month, have students place a car with their name on it at the destination they plan to go to this summer. Have them talk about their plans.

I hope you enjoy this and please let me know if this gave you any ideas for your boards!

**Also, for my own personal use, I created a word template for each month and blank ones for more ideas and compiled them into a slim folder to take to school. Let me know if you guys would be interested in free printables of the templates and I'll post them up!**

Floral Initials - The quick and dirty version

Hello again!

I'm sure many have seen this idea floating around Pinterest as I did. It's so cheerful and customizable, I knew I had to make my own! There are so many uses for this craft as well: personal décor, wedding décor, photo props, etc. I'm re-doing my bedroom in the near future so I wanted to have a personalized touch ready to go. Now, the Pinterest version uses cardboard Hobby Lobby letters with the faces carved out and floral foam to house the silk flowers. As I've stated before, I am on a budget. A boxed wine kinda budget. So here is what I used, all purchased from the Dollar Store!

~ one small styrofoam cooler with lid

~ 4 bouquets of silk flowers in varying colors (app. 16 flowers)

~ any writing utensil

~ scissors/exacto knife/steak knife (which I used :) )

~ hot glue gun (optional)

~ ribbon (optional)

So, first decide which letters you want to use. The styrofoam cooler, counting the lid, has 5 sides to use as a template. Using your writing utensil, draw your letters on the sides in bubble form. Your drawing skills don't really matter here because the petals of your blooms will cover the edges. If you don't want to freehand, you can always make a word doc. with the letters of your choice one per page.

Next, using your carving tool of choice (I found the serrated edges of a steak knife worked best) follow the lines of your letter and cut it out. Warning: there will be styro-snow. Next, gather your flowers. Where the bloom is attached to the stem, pull to remove the petals and green stopper that holds them together. Discard the stems. Using the green back of your blooms, poke holes into your letter where you want the blooms to be placed. After you place them all, it should look something like this from behind. 

The flowers are pretty secure in the styrofoam without glue, however I wanted mine to be a little more durable. So, I pulled each bloom out of the foam one at a time and placed hot glue around the back of the flower and replaced them. This secured each flower in its hole. Both initials finished look like this.

Now you're finished! Another option is to add ribbon of your color choice to hang your initials or just lean them up against something since they're very light. You could also use command strips to cleanly hang them on a wall. I'm thinking about using this ribbon later to hang them in my room.

So, all in all this project cost me $5! If you don't have a dollar tree in your area (where EVERYTHING is just $1!) you can purchase these same items at Dollar General, Walmart, or any craft store. Let me know how yours turns out!