Bulletin Board Ideas for the Christian Classroom

  

If you teach in a Christian school, or even teach Sunday school or lead in some way work in children's ministry, I have a sneaky way to immerse your students and help them learn God's Word.... BULLETIN BOARDS!

In my school, probably like every other school across the country (and around the world!) our hallways are lined with bulletin boards, and our students will take advantage of any opportunity to look at a bulletin board if they are walking down the hall. Frequently, I see students pausing to read something on the bulletin boards as they walk to/from the restroom, more than likely in an attempt to spend as much time wandering as they can! So, if we have the opportunity to use it to minister to them and embed God's Word into their hearts... why not!?

It started with my lack of ideas for craftivities to display, and morphed into this idea over the course of my last few boards. I like trying to inspire my students, and let's face it - MYSELF - with God's Word in every way I can. We spend most our time living in the world and not The Word, so I strive to put The Word into the world as much as I can.

Here are some of my ideas... I hope they will inspire you with ideas and verses to use in your classroom, school, church, whatever!

We'll start with my most recent board and work backward. It's a hymn I hear in church a lot, particularly when we give the offering, and it was stuck in my head each time I tried to come up with an idea for the board about thankfulness. I simply printed the letters one per page from the computer with the font KG Summer Storm Smooth and cut them out. The background is wrapping paper I found on Amazon. I plan to leave it up all year. I love geometric print and orange is my favorite color! The goal is to put it up the one time, and make it work for all four seasons! I did the same thing last year..which you can read about here in this post! I have to say, this board is probably one of my all-time favorites. I just love the clean look of it, and that tissue paper is so great. Cheap, yet the look of burlap. I also love the arrows >>>  on trend. (not that I'm tooting my own horn, or anything!)

This was my board I used for Back to School this year. I love how the teal can read "all ways acknowledge Him" inside of the whole verse itself. My classroom colors are turquoise/teal & orange, so I made the board to match. I cut out letters on a Cricut machine with two different cartridges. It was a lot of letters (I laminated them all too!) but so worth it. I loved reading this verse over and over every time I left my classroom. I hope my students did too!
The borders are from Creative Teaching Press. When it came time to change it, I just took down the teal, left the white (which has flat edge showing, the wavy edge is hidden behind the teal) and used tissue paper to make the border on the new board up above. I just cut each piece of tissue paper in half and scrunched & stapled it along the edge. Just 2 packs made the whole board!

                      

These doors are from the fall of the past two years. I just love them both, for different reasons. You can see I love chevron. Both are borders from Creative Teaching Press as well. I used wrapping paper for the board on the left from Target. The board on the right is a verse from the book of Psalms, with pumpkin cut outs from Creative Teaching Press.

                                     

These are doors I did at Christmas for the past two years. The one on the left is one of my favorite craft projects. My students pain the lights, then glitterize them with their names. I used a light bulb clip art from Krista Wallden at Creative Clips in black and white that I enlarged and copied onto cardstock. We used the verse from Matthew about letting our light shine before others.

The board on the left is from last Christmas. I love reading the books The Legend of the Candy Cane and The Candymaker's Gift each year, then comparing and contrasting the two stories. We connected it to a craftivity last year, glitterizing candy canes. (I LOVE GLITTER!) I also posted a little sign I made, summarizing the Legend of the Candy Cane. I love how the teal chevron wrapping paper looks against the red - such a great color contrast! Again, all borders are from Creative Teaching Press. They make fantastic borders that go with everything!

I am always on the look out for fun printed wrapping paper when I go to Target. They always have the cutest paper! I stock up on one or two, and try to come up with a board from the paper. I just bought some adorable black and red plaid paper for this Christmas, and can't wait to come up with a new board and update this post to show you!

 This board is a tad busy, even for me. I called it my "pattern mixing" board, which I love to do with my fashion. I used some animal print pink wrapping paper from Target, and (you guessed it!) Creative Teaching Press brown chevron border. I cut out a bunch of random hearts from scrapbook paper I had on hand, and wrote my students names on them. The heart in the middle was a sign I picked up at Target as well, adding in the verse John 3:16 for Valentine's Day. The teal letters are from Dollar Tree! They seriously have the best stuff for teachers.

 It's not one of my most favorite executions, but it's cute nonetheless.

This board to the right is one of my absolute favorites as well. I apologize for the poor picture quality! This was as I was beginning my blogging and Instragramming days, and I didn't focus too much on how to take high quality pictures.

Anyhow, it is one of my favorite songs from Britt Nicole, You're Worth More Than Gold. Here's a link to her on YouTube in case you've never heard of her or this song. I love it!

Anyhow, I cut the letters out on the Cricut here at school to look like a rainbow and cut the word "gold" out of gold glitter scrapbook paper. I used clip art rainbows & clouds from Scrappin Doodles and overlaid a text box for my students' names. I also used the leftover gold glitter paper to make little gold coins, like the pot at the end of the rainbow. I made it in March around St. Patrick's Day. I did this one at least 3 years ago... maybe it's time for an update! If so, I'll post it for you to see this year's spin on it! :)


I'll also be sure to update this post in the future with more bulletin boards with Bible verses and Christian classroom inspiration for you, your students, and your school!


Do you have some to share? I'd love to see them and feature them here! Send them to mrstamilynnmo@aol.com so we can inspire students and teachers in Christian classrooms (and churches) around the world!

I have a slight clothing and school supply addiction, so this post contains Amazon affiliate links to help keep my bank account in the black! 

SnOw Excited!

Hey there friends!
I am SNOW excited for SNOW many reasons!

First of all, we had our FIRST SNOW DAY already this year! It actually happened a couple of weeks ago in the middle of November...WHAAAT!?? I know, right?! It was crazy. I hope it's not a foreshadowing of our NE Ohio winter ahead! I told my Grandpa about it, who lives in Florida now but grew up here. He said, if it stays at this rate, I could be teaching well into July! oi! I sure hope not!

I am also excited because I got the NEW Skippyjon Jones book titled Snow What!

It is just SO CUTE! I got it about a week ago and had to share it imediately the next day morning with my kiddos because I just couldn't wait to show it to them and put it out in the library! They just LOVE Skippy [as we affectionately call him :)] and look forward to every Friday afternoon when they get to find out who goes home with him for the weekend! It bought the Literacy Bag they sell on the official Skippyjon Jones website, plus a Skippyjon Jones stuffed animal from Kohl's Cares (who can beat $5!?)

I'm also excited to show you my new door decor and bulletin board for winter! I just LOVE them both!

Here's my door:

 

I used teal chevron wrapping paper I bought at Target as the background. I just love using wrapping paper! Do you?? I also used Poppy Red Chevron Border from Creative Teaching Press and broke up the pattern with a plain black border to make the edges really pop. I then used those amazing KG fonts from Kimberly Geswein to make the lettering. I printed the J in white with a black outline in Blank Space Solid and make the Jesus in KG Blank Space Sketch in red. I printed them onto cardstock, cut the out and laminated them. I covered the J in silver glitter to make it stand out. (I love glitter!) The is for is the font KG Always a Good Time. I also made the Legend of the Candy Cane poster with a poem I found online. I used some candy cane clip art from Krista over at Creative Clips to add some extra flair to match the poster I made. My colleague in 4th grade saw the garland at Dollar Tree so I added that on there. Finally, after reading the book The Legend of the Candy Cane to my students, we made our own candy canes and 'Js for Jesus.' They were super simple and yes, I broke out the glitter for them! I know a lot of teachers don't like glitter.. but I just love it! :)

Finally, here is our new bulletin board for winter. It isn't quite done because we have to still do the craftivity and writing, but it's at least up and looks good for now!

I really love this board because I was able to utilize the wrapping paper and red polka dots border I put up at the beginning of the school year. I only had to take down our original board and change the top layer of border to transform it for winter. I have a HUGE bulletin board that takes at least a roll and half of wrapping paper. Plus, I love that blue and white stripe pattern and Target is all out of it, so I wanted to make it last all year! I try to do that often over the course of the school year. I'll be blogging about that soon to share with and show you how I keep that background and borders up year round!

So here's how I made it... again, I used chevron border from Creative Teaching Press, this time in gray. (It had previously been yellow for our Superhero Kids theme). I then just added some foam snowflake cutouts I had randomly around the edges. I printed some snow globe clip art from Krista again at Creative Clips and used KG fonts for my title. The 'If I lived in a" if KG Blank Spaces Sketch again, and "snow globe" is KG Wake Me Up. Again, I printed on card stock and laminated them so I can reuse them! Next week we will work on this craftivity and writing piece since we had some other things to work on this week. I can't wait to show you what they write and come up with! I am still thinking through exactly what I want the craft to look like. Here's some examples I found on Pinterest...

Aren't they adorable?! I'm not sure which one, or combination of them I will come up with. But I'm excited :) I do know I will take their pictures to put in them. They are just too cute :) I pinned a bunch of ideas on my Pinterest board Teaching [crafts] if you want to check out all my pins and pin with me!

Well, that's all of my SNOW excitedness for the moment. What are you SNOW excited about??

Happy December, friends!

Happy Fall, y'all!

Hey friends!

Just dropping by real quick to show you my new classroom door decor! It's actually quite simple and will last well into fall :)

I used brown chevron border from Creative Teaching Press with a plain orange border in the middle to break up the pattern, The background is wrapping paper from Target. I enlarged Creative Clips digital clip art for the trees and pumpkins and printed out the letters using the KG Second Chances Sketch font. My students created the leaves. I printed a black-line leaf onto white cardstock. They used tissue paper squares I got at Lakeshore and wrapped them around the end of an unsharpened pencil, dipped them in glue, and stuck them on until the filled it up. It was a sweet, simple craft for a sweet, simple fall door!

Have a blessed fall, friends! :)

Classroom Jobs & The S.O.S Binder!

It's back to school time!! Have you started yet??
I started this Monday, but only went for two days. We close because of the local county fair that is right across the street from our school. So I go back after Labor Day! It seems strange to some people to go for just those two days, but it works very nicely - we get the kids and all of their supplies in, we discuss and practice routines/procedures, our rooms are ready, and when we go back we can jump right into the curriculum!

Well, a midst all of this crazy back to school preparation I made some changes to how I manage things in my classroom and thought I would show and share those with you!

The first thing I changed was my "theme." I have an overall colorful, chevron theme going on (with mostly gray and white chevron) but last year I used robots from CTP, the previous year I had owls, and the year before (my first year) I had stars. I wanted to do a nautical theme along with the chevron, but it just seemed like an overwhelming undertaking when I realized I needed to change all of my black accent items to navy. Just tooo much right now. Then I started working on my student take home binders, and out came a Superhero Kid theme (also thanks to Krista Wallden at Creative Clips, because her aDoRabLe superhero kids clipart helped too!)

When I got to the point that I wanted to work on my classroom jobs, I was a bit stuck. I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to use the superhero kids for "Super Helpers" and wanted to have enough jobs for each child (since I would only have 15 to 16 in my class -- I know, I know, I'm lucky blessed!) Finally, inspiration struck when I saw what The Tattooed Teacher created with her new classroom jobs! She added in circles where faces should go on some super cute clip art and the effect is awesome! In the circles, you could put student faces or numbers, and BOOM! adorable job system!
So, while we were in the car heading to Michigan a few weeks ago and I saw this creation on her Instagram, I got to work!

Here's how they turned out, once I printed and laminated them!

SOOO CUTE, right!? I am so glad I found her amazing idea, because I JUST LOVE IT! I took my students' pictures on the first day. I printed an extra circle the same size as what I used to cover their faces and traced on the pictures so it was the exact same size. I cut them out, laminated them, and I will use sticky tack to put them up and change them! I can't wait to put the pictures in on Tuesday to see the final product!

Now, to manage the jobs I created something else to go along with them. I decided that I wasn't very satisfied with a weekly job selection anymore. It just wasn't wowing me. So I switched it up and went with a monthly system. I also have wanted to do a "job application" system but I knew I needed to be in the older grades for it to work. Since I get to stay in 3rd grade this year, I am going for it! I worked on a job application one night, and then to help students stay accountable to their duties, I created job descriptions for each job. I no longer have to repeat what every job is responsible for when we apply for jobs or remind students what their responsibilities are. If they forget or aren't sure, they can look through the descriptions before applying! God really gave me inspiration one night and I worked until about 2am so I didn't lose my train of thought!

Here's how it all turned out!

I laminated the descriptions and hole punched them to put them on a binder ring. I hung them on a shelf that is right next to the wall the jobs are on, and under them I added a pocket where the job applications are kept. Everything is in one space-saving spot!
I also made a disclaimer (above) that says that if at any time a student is not fulfilling his/her duties, I can remove him/her from the assigned position! I couldn't resist that little paragraph of enforcement that they are agreeing to when they sign their application! ;)

I also made a poster to remind them to do their jobs and to do their best (so hopefully I won't have to and they will get in the habit of doing them at the end of the day) and also connected it to my classroom verse: Colossians 3:23. In this verse, Paul instructs us to do our best in everything we do so as to honor the Lord, not to please men.

On Tuesday afternoon I was going over the jobs with my new kiddos and told them we would be applying when we came back from our little break. They were so excited they convinced me to let them apply then so I could assign jobs over break. I was excited about having them apply too, so I went with it! I am so glad I did, because their applications are JUST ADORABLE!

This application wants to be hired because she loves me and "wants to help"..... AHH! This group melts my heart! Several couldn't pick, so they applied for anything! Their reasons were well-written and I was so thrilled as I went through the stack. It's going to be so fun, I will be looking forward to this every month!

Now, I also mentioned above The S.O.S. Binder. It's a revamp of my Take Home Binder system I blogged about several months ago in my post "O-H So Organized." It's a way I keep my students organized and I have wanted to post the pack on TpT for a while, but just never got around to putting it all together. One day this summer the term S.O.S. came to me for Super Organized Student and I finally got to work! I was struggling with more inspiration once I had the name and title down, until I thought of using superhero kids for being "super organized." Originally I had wanted to connect into my nautical theme because of "SOS" being a rescue term, but I couldn't find clip art I liked so I stuck with superhero kids, and I am so glad I did!

Slowly, it all started to come together and I worked and worked....and worked until I had the finished product! Here's a peek of how it looks assembled for my students!

 the cover:

a clear pouch for notes/money, my welcome packet for the year,

and S.O.S. Dos and Don'ts for the students:

 descriptions and instructions for the parents and the communication log:

I just used loose leaf notebook paper for the communication log, but the pack includes contact log forms.
Next is the homework log:

I copied my homework log sheets to be double-sided, and because I don't assign homework on Fridays

one page should last about a week and a half!

Then I added in a page for my behavior logs:

my behavior log calendars. I always print them in color on cardstock to remind parents

of the color choice so they aren't confused if their child is always on red.. that's GOOD!

I then have clear page protectors in which I put our weekly spelling lists & Bible memory verse.

This is where I put other homework helpers, project information, and other items students will need.

last but not least, the take home folder! I bought plastic ones this year, in the hopes

they they won't rip out and will hold up all year!

Because I had looped with my last group of students for 3 years, most of my parents knew and understood this system; they were used to it. This group of parents had never seen a system like this before, so I made sure to lay it out in a simple, organized way and walked my students through the entire thing on the very first day. I had RAVE reviews in several communication logs the next day which warmed my heart! 

You can check out the whole pack here on TpT. Everything you see above comes in color and B&W versions and is entirely editable! I inserted text boxes on the cover pages and put my students' names on top of the burst. Cover pages have multiple options and there are monthly calendars included for the whole year (similar to the behavior logs, but those specifically are not included). Once you purchase it you will be able to redownload the updated calendars every year - so you only need to buy it once!

There are several other items also included that I don't use but that I put in by request. So there are lots of options for you and your students!

What do you think!? Do you use a binder system like this? Tell me about it below - I love to hear others' ideas and how they make it work for them in their classroom :)