Beginning of School Bulletin Board Ideas

Usually at the beginning of the school year each teacher has a bulletin board that welcomes this year's students. Many times it has some sort of catchy saying and includes the students' names. The kids get excited to find their name on the bulletin board. Here are a few bulletin boards that I found in my school. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but now you know how the beginning of school can be. ;)

Look Who's Popping Into First Grade - Last year was my first year using this board. I used bulletin board paper for the popcorn tub and simply painted white stripes on it. I printed my name and attached it to the middle. A teacher friend of mine drew three different popcorn shapes for me and I made enough for each student's name. This year I was back in first grade again (and not so overwhelmed) so I laminated the popcorn and wrote the students' names on them with a dry erase marker so that I can reuse them. Now each year will be even easier.  :)  My hubby likes to put this bulletin board up for me. He puts tissue paper behind the popcorn tub to make it have a 3D appearance. 

We are O-FISH-ally in Third Grade! - Of course you can use any grade level for these bulletin boards. I love how colorful this board is. I wish you could see the details on these handmade fish. The fish bubbles have students' names on them.

"WHALE"come to Mrs. Gray's Class - Of course, this one could say a particular grade level or teacher's name. This teacher used two different colors of blue paper and cut a wave-like pattern.  The little whales have students' names.

Do you have any back to school bulletin boards to share? Leave a comment below.

Word Wall Makeover

Last year was my first year back into first grade. There was a lot to do in a short amount of time. Not only did I have to set up a new classroom but I had to declutter and clean from previous teachers that were in the classroom. There was a whole lot of "What is this?!".

Thankfully one of my teaching friends helped me put up my bulletin boards. One of them we just put fabric and border on for open house and beginning of school until I could decide how I wanted the Word Wall to look.  I knew I wanted it to be frogs.  My room seemed to have a lot of green, blue, and frogs so I decided on blue and green. 

I picked a pretty aqua blue color and couldn't find frogs anywhere. I looked at a local teacher store, Michaels (they sometimes have beginning of the year teacher stuff), Walmart, Staples, and the Dollar Tree.  No frogs.  Finally I decided I would trace some die cut frogs I had from a previous school.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it would do for now.

Here is the before picture.  I like the blue and I like the frogs but I didn't like the two together. I think the blue is too dark with the frogs.

This year I kept looking at the Word Wall bulletin board and trying to decide what to do. Once the words are on the wall, the blue and green don't bother me as much. I almost decided to live with it. And then a parent brought me some things from the teacher store and in the bag were three rolls of border. I spotted some green border with colorful dots.

My hubby came to help me with the bulletin board and I asked his opinion. After much thought, discussion, and walking around the school for ideas, we decided on an orange background. We put up the orange bulletin board paper and it looked horrible!  You could see through it!  All of my other boards have fabric on them, so the paper looked even worse.  We decided to make a trip to Walmart.

Walmart had some orange fabric but it was $5-6 per yard.  Eeek!  We looked at the sheets and found a flat twin sheet for only $4.  Woohoo!

I told hubby that I wanted some wiggle eyes on the frogs. They needed a little something to make them look happier.  I had ordered a frog notepad in hopes of using some cutesy frogs but they were too big.  We just added wiggle eyes to the frogs I already had and I think they are cute. 

 

Here is the after shot.  Hubby decided to add larger wiggle eyes to the vowels to make them stand out.  I think they are funny.  I like the large eyes better. Maybe all of the frogs will have large eyes soon.  I'm still trying to decide if I will add mouths to the frogs.  What do you think?

Where I Have Been?

After a few years staying at home with my children and then teaching pre-k again, last year I went back to first grade. It had been 10 years since I had taught first grade. With Common Core, a new grade level, no teacher assistant, and many other family factors, life was crazy.

I posted more details at my other blog. If you'd like to read it, click here.

I hope you'll see more of me this year and maybe the blog will get the make over it desperately needs. :)