Bulletin Board Ideas

At the beginning of the school year, I made some apples, and have the students' names and photos on them to help me identify the students.

During fall, the tree changes its colors and leaves, (yes, I know, it becomes a maple tree......).  It's also a good place for bats.

The tree

I like to use a tree for my classroom bulletin board.  Not only it's catchy, but I can use this tree interactively with the students and also it integrates well with many themes: beginning of the school year, family tree, seasons and weather, festivals, and you name it.

We study family and friends.  So, now it becomes a family tree.

Winter time is a fun time for making snowflakes.  We also read Jan Brett's "Gingerbread Baby".  So the students have fun looking for the gingerbread baby.

The tree also serves as a kind of habitat for the animals they study in the animal unit.

During Chinese New Year, the tree becomes a wishing tree.  The students write their goals / wishes on a red piece of paper and tie a fake orange to it.

Scarecrow and the Fall season

A scarecrow is also my favorite topic.  It's really fun to make.  Once I made one with my son Adrian's plaid shirt and denim overall.  This is also a place for learning prepositions.

I asked my students to write their goals on a note paper.  And the note paper became crops in the field, ready to be harvested.

Finish the decorations with a pumpkin patch or a fall tree on the classroom door......or a haunted house for Halloween.

Spider webs to learn word families.

Where are the spooks?  A fun way to strengthen language skills for ESL students.

The students write Halloween stories.  They may use the pattern of the story "In a Dark, Dark Room".

Then they stick the story onto a haunted house decorated by themselves.

They can also write the stories on a pumpkin shaped lined paper.  An acrostic poem or a cinquain poem is also easy enough for ESL students to do.

Then we build a pumpkin patch.

Classroom Helpers

Let's go back to some basic decors for the classroom before we go onto the next exciting bulletin board topic.

There are different ways to do classroom helper charts.  I once did a ferries wheel.  Somehow my colleague borrowed it and it was not returned.

The main idea is make sure there is a job for every child, and that the jobs are rotated from time to time.

Celebrating birthdays

Children love birthdays.  I normally give the birthday student a pencil, a sticker, and a birthday certificate or card on his/her birthday.

You can easily download a balloon pattern or cupcake patterns online.  Children love seeing the birthday balloons or cupcakes displayed (even 5th and 6th graders).  They would always remind me that someone's birthday is coming up, a good way to build class spirit and caring.

I always prepare the certificates at the beginning of the school year so that they're always ready when I need them.

A birthday chart is also a Math concept.


There are many different ways to do Christmas bulletin boards.  I like my boards to be student-oriented, so I try to utilize my students' work as much as possible.

For the reindeer, the students make two large ovals for the head and the body, trace their own hands to be the antlers.  For the singing reindeer, they add a black oval for the mouth, two circles for the hands, add the legs, a red circle for the nose, and teeth.  If you have ability challenging students, you may provide some templates for them to trace.

Here I stick the name acrostic poem on a piece of colored paper.  Fold it into halves so it pops up a bit.  You may also have the students write letters to Santa, New Year resolutions, etc.

This is a different version of the reindeer.  The students are a bit older.  So they basically create their own reindeer.

Don't worry if you're not artistic like me.  Let the students do the work.  A Christmas tree made of students' hands.  Each student also decorate a gingerbread man.

The students make the stockings by punching holes on two pieces of stocking pattern.  Thread the yarn through the holes and then decorate.  Be sure to put a tape on the end of the yarn to make it easier for threading.

A different and easier way to make the reindeer especially with younger students is to trace the soles of their shoes and their hands.  Stick the hands on the top for the antlers.  Then just glue a pompom for the nose and googly eyes.

We also read Jan Brett's "Gingerbread Baby".  (Or you may read a version of the "Gingerbread Man".) So the students have fun looking for the gingerbread baby.