Every teacher is required to have a bulletin board display (Standard Based Bulletin Boards) for their classroom, where the display is changed every six weeks. Of course, there is more to it than just changing. They have to put the TEKS covered, feedback on student work, highlight work that was above and beyond, etc etc etc...It takes a LOT of work and time. And the library? Nope...didn't get a bulletin board. So I resorted to using the windows of the library, but after awhile, it looked...trashy...just because I have a LOT of windows (think fishbowl). The displays blocked the view and would curl if not taped correctly, and don't even get me started on Scotch tape and the remnants left behind. 
Then, lo and behold! A teacher had an extra bulletin board and asked if I would adopt it! The clouds parted, the room filled with light and a choir of church boys sang a song of praise! My mind started whirling about what kind of displays I would create, and best of all (one of those catch-22 things) I didn't have any guidelines but creativity on my side. So off I went! First place I looked was the listserv, where I found people who had collaboratively worked on booklists with similar themes (Thank you thank you thank you for sharing!!!). Then it was onto Pinterest to see what else was out there (wow...AMAZED at the creativity!). And have you ever heard of dumpster diving? Well, I kind of did that too. I'd see something I thought would be a great display and took it out of the trash and into the workroom. Nothing like cardboard for 3-D effects!!So then it was time to think about what kind of boards I'd like to do. The ones starred are ones I took queues from through collaborative posts online. Then I thought I better start thinking of my own themes (so use, borrow, share, post any of these ideas - it's what librarians do, right?)
*August-September: Students Recommend: hand out colorful shapes of post-its and ask students to write their favorite book of all time and their name. Put these hodge-podge on the bulletin board (I had to use an outside window for this one and it looks better in person than in picture form)*October: Off With Their Heads! Their Heads Are Off!: a split bulletin board of books of bodies with no heads and those with heads and no bodies. For Halloween, of course!
November: Hardcopies to E-books: another split bulletin board display of books in hardcopy format, and the other on e-book format using dumpster diving treasure! (got a poster from vendors and cut out the little book covers; pasted them on the front of the Mac cutout to look like apps).
December: Flurry of Series: series books to get you through the Christmas break. I'm even thinking of putting the books on snowflake cutoutsJanuary: New Year, New Books: Display the newest titles in the library as well as a list of up and coming titles for the year
Do I even need to ask what I'm doing to February? Again, dumpster diving for cardboard to glue streamer paper onto heart shapes
March: March Madness: It's all about basketball titles and...I'm struggling with this month. You know why? Here's what's commemorated for this month (from Wikipedia)
Irish-American Heritage Month
National Celery Month
National Colo-rectal Cancer Awareness Month
National Essential Tremor Awareness Month
National Nutrition Month
National Professional Social Work Month
National Women's History Month ( I could definitely work with this topic!)
National kidney month
April: Eggstravaganza! Only books about pregnancy and babies...JUST KIDDING! Taking Time for Tayshas: Put up our state's recommended YA list, including annotations (Public School Library Month!)
May: May I Recommend?: This time I'll put up not only great YA reads I recommend, but also put out titles and covers of recommended reading for the summer.
So there they are in all of their glory, accentuated with "unique finds." If you have any bulletin board ideas you'd like to share, please leave a comment :)
May: May I Recommend?: This time I'll put up not only great YA reads I recommend, but also put out titles and covers of recommended reading for the summer.
So there they are in all of their glory, accentuated with "unique finds." If you have any bulletin board ideas you'd like to share, please leave a comment :)
7 comments:
Donna, a library co-ordinator shared this idea with me and gave me permission to use it here :)
March comes in like a Lion and out like a Lamb – Out with the old books and in with the new (New Arrivals; new ideas for reading; first time authors; or fiction/nonfiction) or Classics to books that have been redone Romeo and Juliet to Romiette and Julio, West Side Story, etc.
No “Lion” these new arrivals are …
Or a split bulletin board Lion books (dystopia, thrillers, fast paced adventure) Lamb (chick lit, romance, slower paced adventure)
I think it's really important to create displays that align with the curriculum. So an assignment I give my pre-service library students is to create a display based on a theme such as Perseverance or Trust and give it a title that doesn't shout the theme. Then the kids are challenged to identify the theme based on the books, graphic novels, poems, song titles, etc. displayed.
Notice that I use themes and not topics such as Christmas, Spring, Ethnic Heritage because all students must have awareness of theme for STAAR and EOC. I'll be glad to share my list of themes.
That is a fantastic idea! Please share your list of themes. I really like that they're not the "typical" ones. We could all use new ideas :)
Thanks Sharon!
Please share then themes
We did an "Everything is Better with Bacon" board. We put up copies of book titles with Bacon in the title or the words "with Bacon". We then gave students strips of paper bacon so they could add to the fun (interactive). We had so much fun adding these; students actually scoured the shelves to try to top one another! My personal favorite was "To Kill a Mockingbird with Bacon".
We spun an idea on an old fortune cookie game using "with bacon" to add to the titles of books. We used the slogan, "Everything is better with Bacon" and then put up copies of book covers with those words added to them. We then made it interactive by giving students paper bacon strips so they could add to the board as well. Some students got so into it that they scoured shelves looking for the right "thing" to add to the board (these are high school kids!)My personal favorite was, "To Kill a Mockingbird with Bacon". It was fun.
That's such a GREAT idea! Thanks for sharing :)
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