Instructional Bulletin Boards

Hi everyone,

I am taking a break from Operation Classroom to show off another bit of my room.

I have to say that what I am posting about today is one of my favorite parts of the classroom, of MY classroom, bulletin boards. There has been a lot of talk about bulletin boards and how to decorate them this year. It seems like there is a lot of pressure to make them look great. I personally like things to look clean and pretty and modern. I don't always achieve it but I try.

This year I was so consumed with moving in to my renovated school, my new room, and unpacking that I gave little thought to my bulletin boards. I knew I was going to use a theme, surfing, but not much thought went into how or what I was going to put on my BBs. Part of that was cause I didn't know where I could put stuff up, not having seen my room yet. The other bit was because I have been teaching a bit now I kind of know what I want up on my walls. Ie: I know I will have my alphabet over my white board, I know I will designate one BB for writing, etc...

So when I got into my room and I had less than a week to unpack and have the room up and ready to go I kind of freaked and went into just get it unpacked and hide the mess mode. My BBs were last unfortunately. I can tell you I would go home and think about them all night and still could not figure out what I wanted.

To make a VERY LONG story short, I finally found some fabric at Hobby Lobby and settled on one look across the room. I was actually very lucky, I was going for a gray chevron but lucked up on this beachy blue and kind of light tan chevron. It goes so much better with the theme.

I have added to it since you last saw it. I put up the palm tree just 2 days ago. At first I was afraid that the chevron was too busy. However, I love how it kind of looks like waves. This is obviously my calendar/ carpet space bulletin board.

 This next bit just kind of evolved into what it is now and I just ADORE it! It is my Reading bulletin board. This year I am trying to make my life easier and going to teach the same reading strategy to all my kids across all 4 grade levels, k, 1, 2 and 3. Last year it was crazy jumping around trying to match the Gen ed strategies. I am figuring if I teach them all by the end of the year then I am good.

 So I framed the outside of the BB with the different reading genres posters. Christy from Teaching in FlipFlops made these for me last year. If you have not seen her room you have to. I am SUPER jealous how her room turned out.

As you can see I used the waves of blue boarder but did not have enough to cover all my BBs. I wanted them all to match so I used waves of blue below and the rainbow waves above. Kind of like a sunset thing. Don't know if I love it but it is staying up for now.

 On the actual BB I am going to post the strategy and a definition. I will have up some visual representations or anchor charts AND some super big/ blown up graphic organizers for this strategy. For me this is HUGE cause it will help my ELL kids make those connections.

 Some of the elements on this board were made by me but the icons and one of the graphic organizers came from Lindsey's, The Teacher Wife, Comprehension 2 packet. I just love it. As you can see I started with "Making Connections". I will leave these up for the duration of the time I will teach this strategy then change it all up for "Story Elements". However, I will keep the same format for my kids. Consistency is the key for my kids.

 My 3rd board is my Writing strategies board. This has actually changed quite a bit and I want to talk about it in depth more with some other Writing components I have in my room, at a later time, so I will be brief.

 I put up the Writing process posters to the left of the board. Again Christy from Teaching in FlipFlops made for me last year. They are Hawaiian print to go with the surfing theme. So it kind of mirrors the BB on the other side of the white board.

 Here is a close up. My students will eventually move these clothes pins to show where in the writing process they are.

I put up the 6 traits on the board with a thumb tack and paper clip. This way I can move around the posters and don't put a million holes in my beautiful fabric.

I am working on making small versions of my districts writing traits posters and posting them under these traits. I mean it would be chaos to have 6 posters up for 4 different grade levels.

The last bit I want to show off today is my new alphabet line! Just my absolute favorite new thing. Makes me happy whenever I see it. It is clean, pretty and modern. Obviously it came from Kristen from Ladybug Teacher Files. She has SEVERAL different versions in her shop so don't hesitate to check her out.

So that is all for now. In a day or two I'll post more about how Writing works in my room this year. I've given it a bit of an overhaul/ facelift and am super excited to share with you all.

Now I am off to do some lesson planning.

Have a great week!