So then I had an amazing idea. I will show you my plans for this year, things I have tried in the past that really work, and some amazing ideas from some fantastic teachers.
Please click on any of the bulletin boards and it will take you right to the original source of the photo.
One of my favorite things to do, as a teacher, is decorating my classroom. I love the ooh and aah my classroom gets on Open House night. I found these two bulletin boards on Pinterest and thought ooh and aah! I also thought about the time it took this teacher to put the board together and how much their students must mean to them. Wouldn't you love to be a student in these classrooms????
Last year I decided that one of my biggest makeovers in Daily 5 would be my writing. My students hated writing. I would have the biggest class disruptions in writing. So this summer, I read many blogs and found this awesome product from A Cupcake for the Teacher called Writing Center Starter Kit. Many teachers have it. You have to take a look at it. It makes such a functional bulletin board. No wasted space!
Some other functional bulletin boards I have used in the past are the Add It Up! board and the Boggle board. These are great boards for centers or morning work. I change up the Add It Up depending on the number of digits we are working with. I also change up the letters on the Boggle board depending on the sound pattern we are practicing.
The Equation Station is a new activity I have found on Pinterest this summer. It looks awesome. I think I can use it when I am teaching addition up to 3 digits and mental math strategies.
Tracking students progress is very important. In my second grade inclusion classroom, I do not like to track grades on bulletin boards. I track them privately, so it is between the student and myself. I do like to track how much they are reading. Since most of the reading practice happens in school, all students have a chance to shine. We use 100 Book Challenge at our school. In my class last year, I made a gigantic vine across the back of my class. Students were little bees flying from flower to flower as they read more and more books. This was a great motivator. I celebrated every 50 steps.
I can't wait to get into my classroom on Monday so I can show you what I can really do. So watch out for our next link next month... Classroom Reveals!!!!! I can't wait!
