I don’t really think I need to justify making these cute reading mini-posters, do I?
Click here to get the free mini-poster pictured above: Puppy Reading Poster 1
Click here to get the free mini-poster pictured above: Kitten Reading Poster
Click here to get the mini-poster pictured above: Puppy Reading Poster 2
Many teachers have to touch on the topic of recycling sometime throughout the year (most talk about it on Earth Day). A fellow teacher requested that I make some word strips of the 3 R’s of Recycling for her to use in their Earth Day discussion and then to put on their science bulletin board. I’d recommend laminating them if you’ll be using them multiple years. Here they are (formatted to fit on a regular letter-size sheet of paper):
It’s hard to keep kids motivates at the end of the year. Sometimes it’s good to have an activity that will give everyone a quick break. Here’s a bulletin board idea that will do just that. Click here to see my Back To school Bus and Just Keep Truckin’ posts (similar bulletin board ideas). First, have the students make their car (directions on the printable itself and also below).
Click here for the free printable PDF: Full Throttle Bulletin Board
Decorate your car according to these directions:
Once all the students finish, have each student present their car to the rest of the class. If your class is large, limit each student to 1 minute to share or allow students to only share their car with those near them. Then put each car up on a bulletin board and call it something clever (“Full Throttle to the Finish”, “Travelling Down the Road to Success”, or something…).
Students always like telling someone about themselves. Here’s a bulletin board idea that will do just that. Click here to see my Back To school Bus Bulletin Board (similar idea). First, have the students make their truck (directions on the printable itself and below).
Click here for the free printable PDF: Just Keep Truckin’ Bulletin Board
Decorate your truck according to these directions:
Once all the students finish, have each student present their truck to the rest of the class. If your class is large, limit each student to 1 minute to share or allow students to only share their truck with those near them. Then put each truck up on a bulletin board and call it something clever (“Just Keep Truckin’!”, “Travelling Down the Road to Success”, or something…).
One smart kindergarten teacher uses simple signs in her classroom that teach her kids some crucial things that can’t necessarily be mastered in one lesson. She posts signs that say “yes” and “no” on opposite sides of the room. She often has her kids point to a response and look at the sign when voting (thus reinforcing the site word).
She also puts up signs for the cardinal directions (north, south, east and west) and asks students to point to a certain direction to get their attention. She says things like “if you can hear me, point to the north. If you can hear me, point to the east.” Great way to do a tiny bit of map reading skills!
She says by the end of school kids are pretty good with both yes/no and cardinal directions. Not bad for a few seconds a day, huh!?
It’s always helpful to get to know your students at the beginning of the year. Here’s one bulletin board idea that will help each student express themselves and be a part of the classroom. First, have the students make their bus (using the directions in this post and printed on the page below the bus).
Click here for the free printable: Back To School Bus Bulletin Board
Decorate your bus according to these directions:
Once all the students finish, have each student present their bus to the rest of the class. If your class is large, limit each student to 1 minute to share or allow students to only share their bus with those near them. Then put each bus up on a bulletin board and call it something clever (“Mrs. Smith’s Superstar Fleet”, “Travelling Down the Road to Success”, or something…).
There’s nothing like seeing your project displayed on a wall. That sense of pride and accomplishment; that sense of knowing someone values your work… priceless! So how do you do it without going overboard? How do you display student work in a way that fits the theme/feeling of your room?
This way is by far the easiest I’ve ever done or seen. We hung sheet protectors on push pins below the whiteboard (anywhere low where students can reach easily will work). Each sheet protector was numbered according to class number and each kid was responsible for swapping out their project on display. Each table had a day of the week during a specific time when they could swap out their work (for example, during seat work time). Sometimes we all swapped out work at the same time, usually after an especially cool project, before open house, etc.
We laminated the construction paper first and used plenty of staples to attach them to the wall.
Here are some other ideas I’ve seen:
Another teacher lets kids pin projects to the fabric covering her shelves so more student work can be on display.
One teacher used sharpies and stickers on overhead transparencies to make impromptu frames to pin over student projects.
Bulletin board for farm themed room.
Another farm-themed bulletin board.
These laminated paper pencils have slits in them where the teacher stuck paper clips, so it would be super fast to swap out work.
Click here for more ideas on displaying student work.
Here’s one way a teacher I know helps kids stay motivated with fluency. She’d got a bulletin board (not huge) with a star for every student. Each star has the student’s classroom number on it (not their name- for privacy reasons, and so she can use it the following year). All the start are laminated after she writes the number on it. About once or twice a month, she updates each kid’s star to show their current words per minute rate. She’s noticed that this really motivates some kids and it’s an easy way to show her class that fluency is important.
This idea could easily be adapted for home school kids. Laminate a shape and put it on your fridge. I guess there’s no real way to keep it anonymous, since your kids can probably figure out whose star is whose… But it’s still a good way to show that you as the parent value fluency.
Squarehead Teachers 