The photo of my classroom shown here is one I took a few years back and I promise- I did not spend a lot of time or energy putting things on walls. As the year progressed, I added things, but here are some things you can put up very quickly that promote ongoing learning and connections and can stay up all year!
(1) A LARGE MAP of THE WORLD
It’s big and colorful and, these days, maps are novel to students! A giant world map promotes global awareness, and there are so many ways to make it interactive. Pinpoint where current events are happening, connect with e-pals from around the world, or add trivia picked up from research and studies. My students came up with new ideas for things to add all the time. Every once in a while, I used this site as a learning center (see photo below). My GT students loved learning the locations of countries of the world and other aspects of geography, a discipline that is somewhat neglected in many classrooms.
(2) MULTIPLE CLOCKS ~ TIME ZONES around the WORLD
For some reason, my students loved these, and teachers and administrators always commented on them when they visited. Your school may have some extra clocks that they’ll allow you to use until they’re needed. If not, this one is pretty cheap and you may find cheaper ones at discount stores near you. We referred to these all the time as we studied places around the world. The kids enjoyed figuring out what time it was in Australia since we had e-pals who lived there.
(3) BEAUTIFUL OOPS!
This idea and photo are courtesy of my friend, GT Specialist Stefanie Schropp. On the first day of GT, her students do the “Walk Through a Postcard” impossible challenge (explained in this post), and she has them use their cut-up postcards, the ones that didn’t work, to create any kind of art of their choosing. Last year, however, she had them all create a self-portrait. “We studied portraiture over time, focusing on the really unique ways people are creating them today. Then they created their own! It was my absolute favorite way to do the lesson,” Stefanie told me. You’ll notice in the photo that even the bulletin board title was created using cut-up cards. What a great visual reminder all year of the message in the book Beautiful Oops!
(4) SHARE-LEARN-CREATE BOARD
You can read about First-Day Challenge here and the display (shown below) that I created to show the student’s products and presentations. This “share board” can be used for almost anything your kids write, draw, or create, and the puzzle title just makes it a little more interesting. I’ve created ready-made Scrabble tile letters for this, but you can put up any quick title, phrase, word cloud – or whatever- on a blank bulletin board and have students add their photos and products throughout the year.
(5) INTERACTIVE DISPLAY
There are so many great ideas for interactive displays, including Sudoku, Wordle, and Which One Doesn’t Belong? boards. Many of these can be created very quickly and stay up all year. Check out the Bulletin Boards page for dozens of ideas.
(6) CHANGEABLE DISPLAY
It’s easy to change your bulletin boards quickly when you use these “sentence strip holders” introduced by Dinah Zike in her foldables collections. You can find the directions on page 50 at this link. I used cardstock for extra durability. In the photos below, you can see Kids Discover magazines and other book covers and pictures related to our unit studies.
(7) READY-MADE POSTERS for REFERENCE
In any classroom, it’s helpful to have posters on display that students can refer to as they work. These are quickly put up but meaningful for year-long learning. In my classroom, I always had the Depth and Complexity posters (mini-posters) on display and a few others with positive quotes, vocabulary, or ideas related to our universal themes. It’s also easy to use Canva or some other tool to create your own mini-posters.
If you have photos of bulletin boards or displays to share, especially interactive ones, please let me know in a message or in our Facebook group. I’d love to add a few more ideas to our Bulletin Board page before the school year begins.