Bulletin Boards

Bulletin Boards can set the tone of your classroom, preschool, or home and it really doesn't take a whole lot of time and money to prepare one.

The following ideas are actual ideas and materials that I have personally used. The possibilities are limitless!

Materials:

Spray Paint: One of my very favorite tools. I love to use spray paint in a light covering over a heavy tag board. One of my favorite displays was using gold spray paint on yellow tag board to create a huge sunshine on the wall of my classroom. The gold was lightly covering the yellow and when the light shined on it, it looked fabulous. The kids thought that the sunshine was so cool, I made a large pair of black sunglasses out of construction paper to put over his eyes!

Spray paint when used should be used in a well ventilated (outside preferrably) area. Fumes aren't good to breathe in.

Wallpaper reminants: You can get these from wallpaper stores that are discontinuing samples. The wallpaper samples are often cut it squares, and have a surface that adds a lot of great color and texture.

Fabric: Fabric makes a great covering for the bulletin board. A lot of teachers that I know layer their bulletin boards at the start of the year with different colors of fabric so that it will be easier to change over and remove old contents throughout the year.

Fabric can be bought rather inexpensively in small pieces that will work great for the size bulletin boards you use.

Butcher Paper: This works similarly to using fabric, although keep in mind that if your bulletin boards are near the window they will fade.

Cut outs: One of the coolest finds I ever used was the cardboard cut outs from the party store. I would make a few trips to the party store when I was gathering materials for different themes. What is great about the cut outs is they are colored on both sides. So you can use them not only on the bulletin board but you can also suspend them from the ceiling for an added effect.

Posters / Calendars: The dollar store often has 12 month calendars year round that have bright colorful pictures. I would typically purchase a bunch of different themed calendars, laminate, and use the individual pictures on my bulletin boards during themes which corresponded. Posters also can be purchased rather inexpensively and can be used over and over again.

Portable bulletin boards are great because they can be put together ahead of time. You can store them in large black trash bags and hang them on a hanger in your closet. Not only does this preserve the contents, but it also conserves space by hanging them this way.

You can purchase bulletin boards for just a few dollars at Walmart. Another option to the wood/cork bulletin boards in places where you can't hang a standard bboard is to use the wall space.

You can make your own or purchase the bulletin board borders. Using a strong tape (clear packing tape works great and doesn't pull paint off) to hold the pieces onto the wall. The only draw back to this is that you can't really put it together ahead of time or take it down and store it when you're done.

In the near future, I will be posting printable bulletin board pieces. Stay tuned !