Snow Days and Bulletin Boards

* The lessons on the bulletin boards were adapted from
Guitars: Phyl at There's a Dragon in My Artroom Blog
Rainforests: Mr. E. at Art with Mr. E.
Hands: source unkonwn (if you posted this lesson let me know and I'll give you credit for it)

Today is a snow day, school is canceled and I'm stuck in! So, I thought I'd write a post. I have a few pictures of bulletin boards I've recently done and thought I'd post them, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to write a bit as well...

I always thought it would be a great idea to make a book about bulletin boards. The books I've seen out there are generic, at best and mostly deal with general education classroom topics. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the cute catch phrases that most of these books highlight, but nothing beats a good creative bulletin board.

In my opinion, art teacher always come up with some of the best bulletin boards in their school. We spend countless hours, cutting, mounting, stapling, labeling, laminating, trimming, painting, sign making, description making, poster-making, eek, and more, on our bulletin boards and I think our efforts should be documented (and shared). I remember back on how overwhelming bulletin boards would be to me when I student taught, I used to get 'blank canvas' syndrome thinking of just how I would not just hang the students work, but really try and make the board interactive, a sort-of visual experience for the viewers. At this point I've by no means mastered the art of the bulletin board, but I"m slightly more comfortable with filling the spaces. Although I still can't stand changing the background paper! Had I had a bulletin board book to help me generate some ideas when I was learning how to teach it would have been a big help. Plus, it would have given me a bunch of ideas for lessons! Hmm, maybe one day when I have time I'll sign up to teach an 'how to create a teaching bulletin board' class at a conference or something. I think it makes for an interesting topic don't you?

Here are two of those 'catch-phrase' bulletin boards I mentioned above: