My First Bulletin Board
'Check Out the Pond' was the first bulletin board design I created on my own. In September we built up our classroom community and covered a unit on 'Civics'. This board displayed the students at one of the school's events - Pinwheels for Peace - participating and helping one another. It was a frequent stop for parents during Curriculum Night!
Literacy Unit: Using Schema
I based my literacy unit on a modified version of Debbie Miller's section on schema (Reading With Meaning, Chapter 5.) For this bulletin board, I demonstrated that students should make "text-to-text" and "text-to-self" connections by displaying a frog surrounded by thought bubbles that were full of books we had read. The pictures helped serve as a reminder for students to actively connect texts, and the "froggies" have enthusiastically shared their connections with us ever since!
Writer's Workshop: Lucy Calkins' Authors as Mentors Board
Calkins' Authors as Mentors Unit begins by introducing published authors who can serve as models for students. One of the first mini-lessons involves getting students to think about condensing large topics - or "watermelon topics" - into smaller moments - or "seed ideas". To demonstrate, I created a giant watermelon with a "watermelon topic" - a trip to grandma's house - with several seeds inside, such as baking; watching movies; and playing cards.
Spartan Stars Board
We were very fortunate to have several MSU students fulfilling their service-learning requirements in our classroom. Their help was a great benefit for the students, and of course very appreciated by us! To recognize their involvement, I created a board displaying the students' pictures with names, majors, and years in cut-out stars (which is one of Red Cedar's mascots!) At the end of the semester, we used the photographs and stars in thank you cards. The froggies loved making them just as much as the college students loved receiving them!