Bulletin Boards

Thank you Ashley and Angie for hosting today's #2getherwearebetter gathering of all things Bulletin Boards. I'm excited to share with you how I use my bulletin boards in my classroom. My classroom is located in a portable and I am fortunate to have cork-type walls that allow me to staple things from floor to ceiling.

First off, I use only material on my walls for bulletin boards. I hate that rippled look that paper leaves after a while. Plus, it's hard to work with to hang and always gets wrinkled.  My OCD side can't handle that. Fabric is so easy to pin, level it, then staple it. Easy peasy.  The cheapest option for fabric is flat sheets. Yes! Sheets! It's way cheaper than fabric at the fabric store and you can get the sheets in a variety of sizes for the size of the bulletin board you're working with. Just cut off the seams and you're good to go. Plus, if you make a snip, then pull the fabric, it will tear in a perfectly straight line. No guessing at cutting in a straight line! True story!

I have a variety of bulletin boards in my classroom.  If you're curious about what my whole classroom looks like, check out last year's classroom reveal. I haven't even been into my classroom yet this summer. All of these photos are from last year.

At the front of my classroom I use one side of my white board for a focus bulletin board. This is where I hang anchor charts for the language arts topic we're working on in that moment. Most of the time this is our current literature book with vocabulary and related work.

 Some of my bulletin boards are informational. This was part of our science board where we had science tool vocabulary posters as well as the steps to the scientific method. I don't do informational boards very often, as I feel like my students gloss right over the information and the space is better used for other types of boards.

 One of my largest bulletin boards is our calendar wall which is interactive. I have our daily PE and Speech schedules that I change out daily so I know who is going where at what time. During calendar, we do today is, yesterday was, tomorrow will be with words on velcro as well as sticks in the pockets. The students add how many days we have come to school on our hundreds chart and they write the number on the white board. Next to that is our lunch calendar.  One of my favorite additions is the Question of the Day. My kiddos have low language and this is a great vocabulary building activity as well as being able to answer a question. We have our job chart with clothes pins with each student's name. In my classroom we use a clip chart system for behavior. All of these things are easy to access here at the back of the classroom.

Most of my bulletin boards are dedicated to displaying my student's work and artwork. I just love what they create and it's fun for them to show off their work. It's very clear when you walk into my classroom what we are currently learning about and what we have learned recently as my student bulletin boards are changed out all the time.