Valentine's Day Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have your Valentine's Day Art all done here are some ideas for what you can do for a bulletin board (if you feel so inclined, and I don't blame you if you aren't at all inclined.. switching a bulletin board can be so much work!)

These first 3 I all found here

This first one looks like an art activity where they made cupcakes out of construction paper - great way to incorporate an art activity into a bulletin board!   Of course you could switch it to Forth Grade is Sweet! as well... or whatever you need!

Is Frozen still popular?  I think it is.

I'm not entirely sure on this one but it definitely looks like the teacher had a writing activity for the students and put it on the bulletin board... I wish I knew what the written words were!

And the rest of these I found here

Because one Olaf bulletin board is never enough.

I thought this was beautiful bulletin board for a library!

Another teacher that looks like she used an art activity where the students made owls and incorporated them into her bulletin board idea for Valentine's Day!

Do you make a Valentine's Day bulletin board? 

What does it look like?

Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas

We've got about 2-3 weeks left of summer break where I live and so chances are teachers are starting to wake up a little earlier and head into their classrooms to start setting things up for their new batch of students. 

As a substitute teacher this obviously doesn't apply to myself but I still think about it... what would I all be doing if I had that classroom to call my own? 

I think I would be... settings up the tables just the way I want them

hauling all the new stuff I acquired over the summer break for my classroom and finding spots for it all

And setting up some bulletin boards (although I would hope that maybe I got some of them done prior to the break starting).

I've never actually done a back to school bulletin board before (or for that matter one for any of the seasons or holidays really).  My typical go to bulletin board spaces would be my MOLA (with some writing/editing posters likely), Science/Social Studies, Math, and Art (which is likely in the hallway)

But, doing a quick Google search turns up lots of ideas for what one could do... 

here are some of my favourites!

Do you do a back to school bulletin board?

What's your theme?

This Week At School

We may not be having indoor recess' so often anymore but that doesn't mean we can't have a snow day still!.... the odd thing about this snow day (which even I as a substitute teacher got to partake in this time) was that I'm not sure more than a handful of snow fell in the city I live in (I do sub in a division outside of the city... which is the one that cancelled classes for that day).

Anyways, this week I was a nursery/kindergarten teacher and a middle years teacher... neither are jobs that I would ideally want to have my one day classroom be in and surprisingly out of the 2 grades I taught this week I much preferred the nursery and kindergarten class!

So, in nursery and kindergarten we practiced some printing, read a bunch of books, and played... a lot!  It was also one of the students birthdays and she brought in cupcakes for the class (which may or may not have contributed to it being my favourite class for this week).

In middle years I read a lot of Underground to Canada.  It's interesting reading it years later (I think I read it in grade 7) the thins I now noticed about it... like when the girls stumbled upon the Mennonite Colony.  I actually had 2 days in middle years this week and one of those days was WAY better than the other... you know what really grinds my gears?  When kids think they can just sit around and do nothing for the majority of the day.  It's like come on... school is your job and since you've managed to wake up and make it here it's time to get at least a little something accomplished today.

St. Patrick's day is this weekend and I did not do a single thing related to it (I imagine I might have had I spent more time in elementary school... maybe?).  But one of the classrooms was decorated for it!

St Patrick's Day in the classroom

St Patrick's Day decorations

If you're looking for an art activity for St Patrick's day (you could do it a day late) here's one I did when I taught grade 4 (well, actually I had a substitute teacher do it so it was fairly simple)

One more week until Spring Break!

Plants in the Classroom

Last school year I was collecting pictures of how teachers use plants to decorate their classrooms... 

here are a few examples of plants in the classroom that I've come across 

decorating a bookshelf

Table centerpieces

This teacher had a whole greenhouse in her classroom!

Psst... last week I shared what I know (and have seen) about Maker Space's

Comfy Corners

I've been collecting pictures of comfy reading corners for a while... here are a few of the ones that I've come across this last school year.

Ok, maybe these would be better under my flexible seating post as they don't look all that "comfy" but the kids definitely loved them!

Do you have any kind of unique seating options or "comfy corners" for your students?  

I would love to see them!

Personally, if I could have anything I wanted I think I would opt for a small couch and maybe 1 or 2 other "arm chair" type things for my classroom.  I would love a coffee table and end table of some kind as well.  I've come up with a bit of a plan for what my dream classroom would look like (including it's comfy reading corner) here.

Psst... last week I talked about some class pets that I've run into this year.  Surprisingly, it wasn't a lot.

Flexible Seating

This is a slightly newer concept... letting your students to pick where they will sit.  

To be honest, I'm not sure I could do it... I like my students being in the same spot every day (unless it's a time for a new seating plan) and sometimes it just makes sense because they have desks with supplies in it.  But here are some examples of classrooms with flexible seating options

In this classroom there were 2 students that sat on the ground on cushions at those little short tables in the front and 4 more went around the short circular table a little further back.  2 students could sit in those grey chairs and use the side table as their work space.  There's a table that's kind of hidden that has those wobble chairs at it (I think they are called hoki chairs?), and one of the tables at the back has one giant ball "chair" for a student.  At the very back of the room there is also some room for students to stand and do their work.  I think it worked in this classroom because there were SO many options.  You might not care for all of the spots but there are definitely a couple that you would be happy with.

A couple of years ago I was in a classroom where the teacher had set up different "rooms" in her classroom.  One area she called the kitchen (it's just to the left in the above picture) and she had a kitchen table with chairs around it.  There was a living room with a couch and a couple of side tables or a coffee table and then she just had a bunch of regular tables and desks for everyone else.  No one really fought over a spot (it was middle school and they were fairly well behaved though) but they did rush in to get the spot they wanted.

Here are some other options for flexible seating I've seen in various classrooms

Crates with a cushion on top are great options!

Not 100% on this one... but it looked like a standing desk option

In last weeks post I mentioned some things I would do in my ideal classroom for flexible seating.. things like a couch, a comfy chair or 2, and a taller counter space to use with stools would be ideal for me.

What kind of flexible seating do you use in your classroom?

Psst... last week I shared some pictures and wrote about what my ideal classroom would look like.

My Ideal Classroom

Maybe I'm the only one that does this... but sometimes on a prep or during the lunch hour I like to look around the classroom that I'm teaching in and plan out how I would arrange the furniture and layout of the room.

Here is what my ideal classroom would look like (of course there is a lot that I wouldn't have any control of in my classroom (like how many windows I have or where they are located, where my door is, whether my students have desks or tables, etc) but there are a few things that are important to me.

view from the front of the room (where the white board would be... hopefully!)

So I wasn't sure at all how large a classroom actually is and went with 30'x25'. Maybe they are bigger but hopefully they aren't much smaller. I made this plan on Ikea's website which wasn't exactly ideal because they don't have things that you would typically find in a classroom (like student/teacher desks or tables)... so I picked a desk that was bigger than the one that I currently have at home and we're going to pretend those lines of desks are actually long tables and so where it looks like a student is sitting at 2 desks it's actually just one long table.

1) I would arrange the desks in a horseshoe shape around the perimeter of the room. I'm not sure if I prefer desks or tables but I know that I would not be happy with circular tables. In my plan there is space for 25 students (hopefully that would be enough). IF it's tables and not desks I would also need somewhere for students to put their individual supplies (unless we had classroom supplies instead - which is actually quite common now I've just never taught in a class where this was the case)

2) Some teachers don't have a desk at school which I think is crazy. I need a space to make my own mess and lay stuff out, and, well, just know that it's my space and not for my students to get into. To go along with a desk I would also want a bookshelf and either a cupboard of some kind or a couple of filing cabinets (well, one filing cabinet for sure) and perhaps some kind of small bulletin board for me to post a calendar and other important papers on.

3) I need lots of bulletin boards! 2 smaller ones for Science/TUSC and Classroom Economy Jobs and at least 3 larger ones for Math, ELA, Art, and MOLA. If I had another one to post art on that would also be nice but I've also never found it hard to find an empty bulletin boards in a hallway to post stuff on. Ikea doesn't sell bulletin boards so I didn't actually put any in the classroom but in this set up it would be ideal if there was a small one by the door and then some running along the left and right sides of the diagram.

4) A Classroom library space is a necessity. I would love to have a couch and a couple of different/comfy chairs to put in my classroom library as well. Along with a coffee table and maybe a side table or 2 (with maybe a lamp on it) would be perfect. Oh, and of course a couple of bookshelves for all the books. Ideally, I would want my library by a window.

5) I like to have a table at the front of the room so I can put supplies out for my students to come up and grab or use it as a space for small groups.

6) This year, I have been in a bunch of classrooms that have nearly a whole wall of windows which is wonderful! If I had that I would want some kind of ledge under the windows (or a long tall table) running along the wall where I would put a bunch of stools to use as a flexible seating option (that I'll be talking about in a later post)

7) Some schools still have desktop computers in the classroom so I added a spot in my plan to put a couple of computers if needed.

Other: Plants - I would want plants in my classroom. Preferably real but maybe I would start off with one or two and decide how well we do at keeping them alive. I'm also not sure if I have preference when it comes to desks or tables. Desks students can store their own supplies and books in (but get messy and things get lost in them) and tables I would need to have a spot in the room for students to store some things in (which would still get messy and things would still go missing). I have experience with both.

As for colours I've always liked turquoise, grey, black, and white.  I think it's a fairly neutral colour pallet.

Grade 5/6 Classroom

Grades 4-6 Basic French Classroom

What does your ideal classroom look like?

Psst... in case you missed it last week I discussed 5 Things I Would Try in my Future Classroom and I think you should take a look at it.