I started teaching preschool over a decade ago and have loved every minute of it. Every year I love my class so much that I think the new class cannot possibly measure up and I'll just have to do my best to be nice to them! Turns out I love my new class every bit as much. This year I have a class with personality to spare! It's going to be the most fun year ever. There is no way next year's class can come close, but I'll try to be nice! :)
Other than the kids, one thing I love is decorating my classroom. I guess that just goes along with how I like to decorate my house too. The hubs asked me once, "do you have to decorate for every occassion?" After a bit of thought, I replied with a deep and meaningful answer, "well, duh!"
Here are a collection of bulletin boards and decorations I have done over the years.
This was my first bulletin board. Aren't those the worst paint splatters ever? I've come a long way since "Our Colorful Class"
I like using the students art work as much as possible.
For the corn cobs I had the class put yellow fingerprints all around a toilet paper tube. Easy Breezy!
I made these cute hats out of construction paper, added curling ribbon for confetti and on a later bulletin board I added those party horns that you get at parties where the paper unrolls when you blow it.
This was super easy too. I just sponged the bricks on white paper using a kitchen sponge and red paint. I then added my class' names onto Santa's list. I think a cut out of Santa or an Elf holding the list would have been cute, but I couldn't find one anywhere when I needed it!
These penguins were a fun winter craft made using nothing but ovals.
"Our School is Cool"
Since Owls are all the rage now, I think I will be recreating this idea in my classroom this year. The owl is just a coloring sheet owl that I let them color then glue torn construction paper for feathers.
Summer bulletin board using simple shapes the students glued together.
I did the corn on this stalk a little differently - I just cut out a yellow cob shape and green husks and the kids glued popcorn kernels to the cob with a little bit of raffia at the top for the corn silk. I love my giant scarecrow!
Another cute bulletin board using a classroom craft. The bunnies are made using a paper plate cut in half. Half the plate is used for the body and the other half I use to cut out the ears. The kids cover the body with cottonballs, glue on a wiggly eye and then color the inside of the ears pink. This is one of my favorites because I can use it for several months.
In this classroom I didn't have cubbies where I could put their papers so I hung their work on this board using push pins.
I had so much fun making this board. I found some cute animal pictures, blew them up using an overhead projector and traced them onto colored posterboard.
All the preschools I've worked at have been run by a local church and the classrooms are also used as sunday school classes year round, so I always leave a bulletin board up for the summer. This summer I did a cute board with apples on it reading "Take a Bite out of Summer." I was so lazy liked the idea so much, that I kept it for my beginning of the school year board and just changed the wording to read "Take a Bite Out of Preschool."
I re-did my tree this year too. The bottom had gotten kind of ragged and there was no way to fix it without taking the whole tree down. I like my old tree better, but this one will do. They turn out differently every time. I think I might go add some apple to this one until October when I add fall leaves to it. I put snowflakes on it in the winter and flowers in the spring, so it's a tree for all seasons.
Tomorrow begins the second week of school for me. I can't wait to see my sweet class!
Join me here:
