There is something for everyone with this month’s bulletin boards. From the littlest learners to those in middle school, bulletin boards can be a great way to use valuable classroom space to extend learning. Whether you are teaching the basics or want something more advanced, the ideas below will be perfect for your classroom.
May Bulletin Boards
Interactive Summer Sequencing
There is no doubt that summer is on everyone’s mind by the time May 1st comes along. Instead of fighting it, use the images and ideas of summer to encourage skill reinforcement. Choose seven to 10 summer activities and break them down into the steps to complete them. Cover the bulletin board with tan paper or fabric with a fun, summery print. Make a giant beach umbrella to put in the corner of the board and hang a beach bag from a hook either on the board itself or slightly below it. In the beach bag, have file folder activities for students to complete. Older students can create a flow chart for the different activities, while younger students can use pictures to sequence the steps to completion. Once a file folder has been completed, students can hang a beach ball or add a cut out sea shell to the beach scene bulletin board. Some possible activity ideas that you might want to include are: driving to the beach, building a sand castle, setting up a swimming pool, planting a vegetable plant, going for a picnic, etc.
Letter Writing
Get students excited about moving on to the next grade with a letter writing bulletin board center. Cover the board with paper or a fabric of your choice and hang a poster describing the parts of a letter in the center of the board. Have your students write letters to the grade below them about what they can expect in the next grade. It is a great way to encourage your students to write and will help ease the fears of those moving up. If need be, younger students can draw pictures and dictate messages instead of writing the letters themselves.
How They Have Grown
Many teachers take pictures of their students during the first week of school. May is the perfect time to compare how your students have changed and grown throughout the year. Cover the board in plain white paper and cut out a large black camera from a piece of poster board. Hang the camera in the center of the board and place beginning of the year and end of the year pictures of your students around it. To make the bulletin board an interactive experience, have students write about what they were feeling on the first day of school and what they have learned throughout the year. Their essays can then be added to their pictures.
What are some of your favorite ways to decorate your bulletin boards in May? Share them with us below!
Kris says
I love all of these ideas! I am definitely jotting these down in my idea book. The camera board idea is great to be implemented for any age group. Thanks!!
Janet says
I love the sequencing pocket chart! I’m buying it for my classroom 🙂
Lisa says
have done the how have they grown idea differently in the past. interested in trying it this way.
Heather says
I always use “Third Grade was a Ball” as a title. I buy mini beach balls and the students write their favorite lessons/memories from third grade. It is my favorite board of the entire year! It’s always fun to reminisce with the students. I also take group pictures in front of the board (four to five students in each group) and share those pictures with each student. The beach balls are a little costly, but the real balls could be substitued with a copy of a beach ball. The students love it as much as I do!
Nancy says
I love the sequencing idea!
JWagner says
We make butterflies. Then I add some BIG flowers I purchased at Pat Catan’s on the corners of the bulletin board. We always get a lot of compliments.
Amber says
I like the idea of writing the letters to the grade below them and creating a letter writing BB! Awesome idea!!
Donnetta says
I, too, like the idea of writing letters to the grade below. I had heard of this idea before, but never used it. I will definetly use it this year, especially since our EOTY writing unit is letter writing. Next year, I will use the letters to create a welcome/back to school BB. Thanks for the idea.
Tanya R. says
I like the growing up bulletin board idea. I definitely need to get better at taking more pictures this year.
Dorothy Lewis says
Great idea to have students write the grade below. I think that the idea could be used next year during the first day of school to ease fear of new grade and class.