Past Bulletin Boards

I have been meaning to share a few of my previous bulletin boards from this school year and have just been putting it off to too long....so finally, it's here! =) I have a serious obsession to creating bulletin boards and really enjoy the creativity that goes into piecing together the children's creations. 

At the private school I teach at there are specific themes outlined for each month and the bulletin boards that become the most exciting are the Science bulletin board in my classroom and a seasonal bulletin board in the hallway outside my room.We also have a Fine Arts board in our class where we display the work that the children create that have been inspired by a master artist but those aren't nearly as fun since its just a display rather that a scene. 

For last month (March), our Science theme was Land Habitats and my co-teacher and I decided to create a jungle/rainforest to display parrots, monkeys and snakes the children made during art. You may notice that their art is very similar - our school incorporates 'directed art' into the art curriculum 3 days a week. Directed Art helps the children with their listening skills and ability to follow simple directions and sequences to create an art piece as close to the display as possible. I have taught an after school class that follows a similar structure so was well prepared for this style of teaching art. It's amazing how well the children can draw and paint in this format and even more remarkable, is how unique each piece is when the children are all listening to the same exact directions. So fun!

Sorry I don't have any close ups of this one, I wised up later on though. =) 

Also for March, I created a Dr. Seuss themed bulletin board in the hallway to honor one of my favorite children's authors and illustrators during his birthday month. The children created their own Thing 1 and Thing 2 for directed art, which I then cut out and labeled with their individual numbers (the reason for Thing 17 below). I also took a picture of each of my students with Lorax eyebrows and a mustache to create the other project. With the photos ready, I had the children watercolor one of two different versions of the Lorax that I drew. 

My truffula tree tops were made out of large butcher paper that I cut to size and then gave them a fun and messy layer of shaving cream paint. The children had a blast with this part, of course! I love letting them mess around with shaving cream but it was a MESS to move around the classroom as the large truffula tuft dried! It was still worth it though. 

For those of you unfamiliar with shaving cream paint, it's roughly 1C shaving cream to 2-4 tablespoons white glue. I've read a lot of other sites that it's a 1:1 but thats way too much glue. You basically just need to glue to be added until the mixture is similar to cake batter. It'll glob and slop around but holds together well and is thick enough to spread a generous layer. 

 The last bulletin board I'm sharing today is currently displayed in my classroom and I LOVE it!! 

I've never had a bulletin board quite like this before and I'm really happy with how it turned out. For  April, our Science themes were Plants, Sunlight and Moonlight and being the perfectionist I am, I wanted to do something that I figure others WOULDN'T do. So I chose the 'less likely to be chosen bulletin board theme' of the month, moonlight. 

 We planned this whole week around the bulletin board by learning about the different moon phases and created art last week that would fill up the night sky.

 The bats were done for directed art. 

 I jazzed up some Dollar Store letters with blue glitter and Mod Podge to add some sparkle to our night sky. I also added some glitter to stars on the border - maybe about 5 glittery ones on each strip. It really added a subtle detail to tie the whole wall together. 

The fireflies were inspired by Eric Carle's The Very Lonely Firefly. I prepared the separate pieces and then each child glued it together and then added details for the body, legs and face using oil pastels. 

I used the shaving cream paint to create the large crescent moon and sprinkled some irredescent glitter right away. Also, here's a close up of 2 of my favorite little bats - I love those eyes! So cute!

I also had a few children create the moon phases with yellow chalk (I penciled in the line for the phases in advance) and then gave them a quick blast with Glitter Spray. 

More colorful and fun boards to come once they're created! Next month's theme is Dinosaurs...

let the brainstorming begin....

My First Clipart Creation!

After venturing into the Teachers Pay Teachers world of teacher created lessons and resources, I have been obsessing about clipart! I'm a very visual thinker and love to incorporate colorful and fun images onto anything I create for my classroom. When I recently encountered a block in my TPT creativity, I started doing some research about how to create my own clipart. After scoring the internet and reading and watching all kinds of random attempts to help teach others how to create clipart, I FINALLY came across a single YouTube video that had a perfectly simple demonstration. With my new knowledge, I set out to create a simple image for my first clipart set and after what felt like HOURS....I DID IT!

I created these simple little owls using Powerpoint (surprised? I was too!) and posted them as a FREEBIE onto TPT. I hope you enjoy them!

Colorful Owl Clipart FREEBIE