Bulletin Boards: Basic and Beautiful for a Camping Themed Classroom

Whether you are starting back to school soon, or still have another month to go, you have probably started thinking about your bulletin boards! This month Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners have gathered a massive amount of teacher bloggers to bring you the best of bulletin boards! There are many blogs linked up, so sit back with some coffee and enjoy your bulletin board version of the Sunday paper :-)

So, my first graders come back to school on the 20th, so my room is just starting to take shape. I spent the last six weeks teaching summer camp (I got to use my own room!), so I have been staring at those empty boards just waiting for the time to come to get them ready! So I started yesterday :-)

It's important to decide your theme (I have a camping theme), colors, and gather ideas before you get started. Make your list and hit the store to get whatever you need. Nothing stinks more than to be short of something or out of something, when you are trying to get your boards done. I usually have one table in my room as THE spot; push pins, staplers, tape, etc. Everything is on that table, so I don't waste time with, "Where did I last use the .....?" Face it, we don't have time for that!

I printed/laminated all my headings at home ahead of time. I cut them out, placed in order, and then added them each to their own baggie. If I would have had red plates, I would have glued to. Hence, the trip to the store :-)

One of my big time savers is using push pins first. I don't staple until I am completely satisfied with how it looks. I was able to move the letters around a few times until I had them in the right spots. The background of my hallway board is a tablecloth from Wal-Mart and the paper plates were from Wal-Mart, too. The font on the plates is made by the talented Kimberly Geswein. It's called KG Geronimo Blocks. You can snag it here {free for personal use}: Geronimo Blocks Font.

Once you are ready to remove the push pins, start by stapling at the bottom. I don't know what it is, but I always want to start at eye level and then if something falls, it takes the bottom out too and I have to start all over again. For me, stapling from the bottom and working my way up works the best.

Once I had my wording up, I added the watermelon slices. These were from Wal-Mart too. The hubs cut them into fourths using scissors and I stapled them up to the board. It gives a nice 3D effect to the wall too. Grand total into this board is about $7. Not too shabby at all!

Ok, so you've seen bits and pieces to my camping theme hallway decor. Are you ready for the final product?

I am so excited with how this turned out, I squealed a little bit! In my district, I don't get a student list until about 3 days before school starts {I know, right?!}, so with this done, I will make labels with their names and just stick them onto the watermelon pieces. Easy peasy!

Ok, so this is the ONLY bulletin board that is ready to go, but here's a peek at the boards inside my room that are barely started....

The hubs working on making my word wall lines straight. He did a great job!

To the left is the writing and Accelerated Reader board, word wall in the middle, and on the right is the revolving board (science, social studies, themes, etc). All my boards are covered in burlap! 

So I use my document camera ALL.THE.TIME. The only problem is that the screen takes up most of my calendar area. If you see the pocket chart on the side, that's where the calendar gets hung up on those little command hooks. It words well.

My reading focus wall is pretty small. There is another piece this same size past the pipes that run down the middle. Here I hang our genre, vocabulary, spelling signs, etc. The Camping Trip Borders can be found in my TpT store HERE.

These borders were created byElementary Lesson Plans. You can check them out here: Smores Bulletin Board.

I have to leave you with one final awesome picture. This is the view from my classroom. I love being in room 111 :-)

My school is at the base of Thunder Mountain.

Until again, I wish you well!