Winter Bulletin Board

A display for those snowy months was my most recent success.  I'm really not a great bulletin board teacher, in all honesty.  Usually my displays are mostly student work without much "cute factor" or vocabulary words and posters the kids can use as references.  But I've been inspired lately with the blanket of snow outside Budapest where my school sits.  So with pinterest's help, I think I've been more creatively successful.  You be the judge.

The kids wrote winter poetry.  I used a really simple method for guiding them in creating these poems.  Giving them strips of paper, I asked them to write different ideas on each strip:

What do you see when you go outside in winter?
What does the snow look like?
What do you do outside in winter?
What does it feel like?
And so on...

After they had several strips of paper with descriptions of winter, they arranged them in an order that made sense and sounded beautiful as a poem.  They could add strips or take away strips of paper to make it more poetic.

We typed the poems, revised (we're really working on revision a lot), and printed them.  In addition to the poems, the kids each made a snowflake and pasted a wintery photo I had taken in the center of their snowflakes.  The result is what you see above.

It's December now, but this bulletin board can stay up through January too.  Maybe even February if I push it!

Angry Verbs Bulletin Board

You've probably seen this on pinterest.com.  This is how I used the idea in my classroom:

Angry Verbs Lesson Plan

Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify the verb in a written sentence.

1. Verb Sort

To review nouns and verbs I gave the kids a stack of flashcards, which they had to separate into piles of nouns and verbs at their table groups (4 kids in each group).  Next we did a "Museum Tour" of their piles, in which one child from each group shared their verb lists aloud and the class discussed any changes to the pile if needed.

2. Verb Lists

The whole class together made a list of Happy Verbs (danced, sang, shouted, etc), a list of Sad Verbs (cry, frown, slump, etc), and finally a list of Angry Verbs (yell, fight, run, etc).  These were written on the white board for future reference.

3. Angry Verbs

I showed a trailer of the Angry Birds video game to transition from the Angry Verbs list to the creation of Angry Verb sentences.  Then we discussed and shared ideas aloud of sentences you could say using an angry verb.

4. Angry Birds

Finally the kids were given their own Angry Bird to write an Angry Verb Sentence upon.  After writing the sentence and highlighting the angry verb in the sentence, students were asked to color their Angry Bird.

5. Display

We hung the birds up for display, as you see in the first photo.  This bulletin board attracted the attention of every student who passed in the hallway the next day.  Popular!

My kids LOVED this lesson.  It was simple.  They learned their verbs.  And it made a great (and easy) display board.

Click here for the printable template of Angry Birds.

Boggle Bulletin Board

A great idea from another teacher's blog:

My kids love this!  I keep one "boggle board" up for two weeks maximum and give awards for participants: the longest word and the most words.  It's a great spelling activity for those free-time moments.  I had one little girl this year, who struggles with spelling, get the Most Words Award one week.  The whole class cheered and the smile on her freckled face was priceless.

Click here get all the print-outs to make this board for your classroom.

Room Prep

School started with me feeling partially prepared, as usual.  But regardless of the lack of feeling prepared, I think the classroom looked mostly ready.  Here is how school began this year...

Cover ugly cabinets

At the end of last year I had my kids "marble paint" paper to cover my cabinet doors.  After laminating them, they add a lot of color and cover up the plain wood.  I can also stick anything on them with ease. Always need more places to hang things!

A view of the room

I especially like the streamers.  My previous students colored flags of various nations on each triangle and I backed them with colored paper.  Strung them all together and they look really great, represent the many nations my students come from, and I don't have to decorate extra for International Day in September.

Chair pockets!

This was one of my summer projects - sew chair covers with pockets on them.  I made covers out of four different colors to differentiate my table groups.  It's working SO well thus far.  And they're super easy to make for anyone with a sewing machine.

A good extension activity

I like to have some kind of mystery research project on the wall.  To start out the year I decided to go with a "Math Mystery".  Can you figure out the number based on these daily clues?  I used Super Teacher Worksheets for this one.  Just press print and cut them out.  Easy!

Family Photos

The Tree

By now everyone has seen this sort of paper tree on the internet multiple times.  I added the kids faces and think I'll add student work (on circles) soon.  It's still warm and summery here in Budapest, but Fall will come.  When it does, the tree will have fall colors only.  And fallen leaves along the base of the wall.  Then in winter... snowflakes and snow colors.  Fun way to show the seasons.

Olympics Advice

I asked my previous years students to write words of advice for my incoming third graders.  "How to be a 3rd grade Olympian" turned into quite a cute board.  My old third graders, now fourth graders, enjoyed walking by and seeing their words and photos.  Easy first weeks of school board.

That's a good start I think!

Quotes for Kids

I like these quotes to hang in the classroom for a bit of inspiration...

And one more for teacher inspiration...

Setting Up My Classroom

It's August. Time to start thinking about a new school year.  Before planning lessons and inviting kids into my room, I always have to get myself organized and arranged.  Moving desks.  Decorating.  It can be the most time consuming part.  But it sure is fun!  Here are some ideas I've found that I plan to start with this year.

From Just Wild About Teaching:

For my class website homepage.  Great with the name of the class in the middle of the heart.

From Bulletin Board Ideas:

 I'll put this on the door of my classroom.

From The School Supply Addict:

Desk and shelf arrangement.  I love that each group has a shelf with all their supplies.  Great for my desks that have no storage.

From Mrs. Picasso's Art Room:

Tree wall.  I'll put student pictures and student work in the circles.  Goes really well with our plants unit in science that we start the year with.  I'll add this quote to it:

From Chapman's Chalkboard:

 Class family photos.  Framed on the shelf.  We are family.

From Woonideeen:

I'm going to make covers for the backs of my students' chairs, but with pockets instead of the picture.  I'll pin their name tags to their chair covers instead of their desks (laminated of course).  Will solve the problem of name tags always coming off and getting off tape muck at the end of the year.  And the kids can store their pencils and erasers in the pocket.

From Suppose (Quilt Boutique):

At the end of last year I had all my kids make flags of the world on paper triangles.  I'm going to add a colorful paper back and string them up around my classroom.  A lot of color and student work.  (The flags are great for an international classroom.)

From Two Tangled Teachers:

Students start the year with setting goals.  Write each goal on a balloon with the kids' pictures hanging from them.  This is a great way to post them up and keep everyone accountable to meet them.  The teacher included!

Other Pinterest ideas with no links:

 Turn my ugly avocado file cabinet into a magnetic bulletin board.  Becomes a good divider in the classroom as well.

Crates with cushions as chairs.  I'll put these in my reading corner.  Can be used individually, for group work, made into a bench or individual chairs.  Move around the room so easily.  Loads of uses!

Ok, that's a start.  More to come!