Happy Winter!

I must admit that there is one aspect of teaching that I have not always embraced!  Sure, as a newbie, I did get excited about those first bulletin boards.  Then, as the demands of REAL teaching and the needs of kids takes precedence, those boards became, for me, a chore that had to be "done" several times a year.  

 

For classroom teachers, in the past, they were often filled with artwork!  Yet, there is not a whole lot of artwork done in many elementary classrooms these days!  So, many classroom teachers (most?) fill those boards with children's writing, sort of a publishing bulleting board.  In my heart of hearts I really do NOT like the idea of publishing on bulletin boards as it is really hard to fully embrace what matters, CONTENT, on a bulletin board.  Form, length and handwriting are the quickly embraced qualities of bulletin board writing!  While some (many?) parents like these public displays of writing, I do worry that they embrace the aspect of writing we value the least! 

 

This year, one of my colleagues and I have discovered what may the one of the fastest, child oriented and reading focused ways to get a bulletin board done We take a poem that is sort of seasonally appropriate and adapt it (if needed) for our K-3 students.  The other day, we took William Baer's magnificent poem, Snowflakes, and used just a few lines for our "winter" board.   The kids made folded paper snowflakes (six sided) using the paper folding directions we found on the internet.  They all came out different, like real snowflakes! Just for fun, color, and three-dimensional interest as the lines of kids parade by on their way to and from lunch each day, we dressed a paper bulletin board girl in Pooh Bear's felt jacket!    

 

As they say, Ta-Da!  Happy Winter! 

PS Great snowflake link

http://adamandhaleykjar.blogspot.com/2011/12/paper-snowflakes-101.html