Fish Tacos

Classroom Bulletin Board Ideas

Whenever I start a new unit I try searching the internet for new bulletin board ideas. This doesn't usually help. There are tons of ideas for primary teachers, but as you move up to middle school, less and less ideas appear.

That is why I thought I would post some of my favorite boards through the years. I know the more ideas I see the more my creativity gets moving.. enjoy.

The Art of Persuasion: Students were asked to bring in examples of visual persuasion. They then presented their examples to the class and stated which of the 12 techniques appeared in their example. Finally, they stapled it to the board to for a collage. Turned out very cool.

Poetry: Students wrote the examples used for the Forms of Poetry side. Famous poets were quoted on the Poetic Elements side. These boards were very helpful for having students practice using the vocabulary associated with poetry.

Art Board: By far this is always my favorite board. I just cover it in whatever art the students have created for the week. Left: A study of contrasts. Right: After going to Australia for the summer I was inspired by their art, so were the students, they did a great job!

US History: The first board is persuasive posters the students created advertising different towns in the colonies. The middle one is a US History timeline. Students drew events in history and, once we studied them, were responsible for creating a small drawing and description to go on the timeline. The final board are the story books students created to teach 3rd graders about the Declaration of Independence.

Photobooth Props

Photo booth props are so fun! There are so many great sites to get templates from. I downloaded these from here. They were so simple. Print. Cut. Glue to stick - I got these sticks at Osh - 5 for a dollar. Then the best part... play!

Wine Glass Display

So I saw this gorgeous wine glass rack on pinterest and decided I would really like this at our wedding. We were required to supply our own glasses and barware and that alone seemed like a really good reason to go thrift store shopping and have B build the rack. He didn't feel exactly the same way, but was still totally willing to give it a try. It turned out even better than I'd hoped. Great to know I scored such a handy man!

Table Names & Seating Chart

Roatan: Our First Kiss

Tahoe: Where B Proposed

I wanted to do a seating chart for the wedding. Mostly, because I wanted an excuse to make something creative, but also because everyone recommended it.

I really wanted to tie-in our love of travel, too. I had already decided to name the tables after important places in our lives - so I just needed to come up with a original way to display the table names and a fun way to display the seating chart.

A couple weeks before the wedding I came across a tutorial on making canvas portraits and I decided I just had to try. The craft store had a sale on canvases and so I committed to it. I think they turned out great!

Then I needed a seating chart. What I really wanted to do was take this map that has traveled with us through California & Honduras and use it. I finally decided to decoupage it onto a large canvas and then use brads and yarn to label who sat where. It didn't come out exactly like I imagined, but it worked perfectly and added a lot of fun to the day. Plus, it was a simple way to show our story.

We just had to go with the dorky title. It was too tempting.

Handmade Bouquets

photos by Ben Sheriff Photography - www. bensheriffphotography.com

So for the wedding I wanted to make my own bouquets. There were lots of reasons, but the main one was because I wanted to make them a year in advance, put them in a box and pull them out the day of the wedding - ready and gorgeous to go. It worked!

They weren't all the difficult to create. They did cost a little bit, but not anymore than flowers would have and, again, my main reason was convenience. I didn't want to worry about storage or transportation and this allowed me to relax and enjoy the day. Plus, they turned out so unique.

Materials: Beads, buttons, wire, glue, ribbon, feathers, and any other details or accents to make it pop.

1. Gather your materials & sort your buttons. I wanted my bouquets to be turquoise and brown so I spent a few weeks thrift store shopping for buttons of varying hues. This turned out more difficult than expected but I lucked out when one of the ladies from the sewing club gifted me with bags and bags of buttons. B helped and in a couple of hours we had all the buttons sorted. This chip platter was great to use as a sorting plate.

2. Make some flowers. I still wanted my bouquet to have flowers, but just the kind that never wilt. I am an avid scrapbooker so I went to the craft store and bought some paper flowers. Then using the wire and a button I threaded the center and created lots and lots of flowers.

3. Add more beads. There are so many amzing beads and button in the world. I just couldn't include enough. I decided to string beads and buttons together to make more additions to the bouquet. I used them at the base of feathers and wrapped them around barley and wheat. If I could add a bead - I did. 

4. Sort, mix & match.  I gathered all the items I had created and began sorting them into 8 piles for 8 bouquets. I checked that each bouquet had paper flowers, buttons & beads on wire, feathers, barley and wheat. Then I added more feathers, plastic leaves or plastic baby's breath to make the bouquets a bit bigger. I mixed and matched until I liked the pairings. I added peacock feathers to mine to make it different from the others. Finally, I wrapped them all with matching brown and turquoise ribbons. A dab of glue and they were done.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Hosting a bridal shower is always a delicate balance between wanting to do something gorgeous & classy and wanting the guests to have fun & relax. Recently, I co-hosted a bridal shower for a friend in Honduras. I didn't have a lot of options and I didn't know the guests too well, so my co-host & I opted for a photo scavenger hunt. We made a list of things to do, people to find and places to visit and then sent people off in teams to take pictures and discover the town. Everyone had so much fun and returned with lots of fun stories and recommendations for our night on the town.