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Ericas Ed-Ventures

Primary Education Ideas

Birthday Bulletin Board and More Polka Dots!

The picture below is of my birthday bulletin board from a few years back.  It is all over Pinterest and a colleague of mine said she also saw it on WeTeach.  She knew it was mine because of the cows!  I am flattered that so many people like my idea!  I thought I would share some tips for making your own.
This birthday bulletin board is unique because I use photographs instead of writing the students’ names and birthdays. In my classroom,  I have a limited amount of wall space, otherwise I would probably place the photographs in the middle of a cake graphic representing each month.  So instead, I place a photograph of students under a small month heading of their birthday month.  The students in the photograph are holding up a calendar number to represent their birthday day.  I include myself, my classroom aide, and the classroom pet (look closely at March).  The photographs were taken infront of cow fabric.  I drape the fabric over an easel.  It creates a consistent background and as you can see goes with the border.  You can modify the fabric to go with your theme.
This year’s theme is polka dots.  I created new monthly headings (available at Tpt in my Bright Polka Dot Packet {here}). I don’t have students yet, so there aren’t any photographs up.  I plan on photographing the students in front of polka dotted fabric or a polka dot shower curtain.  I also take individual pictures of each student infront of the backdrop.  These photos are used for center grouping, name tags, labels, and their September scrapbook entry.
I just created this new door decor with my students’ names and uploaded it to TpT!  I am so excited, I have not had a number this low- ever!  I am the consult classroom, so the principal tries to keep my numbers lower than the other three classes.  So, if the other classes had 25, I would have 23.   The bad thing about having the lowest number of students is that I am always the first one to get a new student and that throws off my numbering system.  I now wait until the day before school starts to assign the students numbers.
Here is an updated photo of my Writing bulletin board.  It was bothering me that the purple “g” in “writing” was not showing up against the black background.  
The posters are available in my Writer’s Workshop Resources Packet.
I will continue to create and laminate as long as I can until Hurricane Irene comes.  I live on the south shore of Long Island, NY.  It is expected to hit us on Sunday.  I live alone and will either go to stay with my parents or have them come to me.  They live on the water and may be forced to evacuate.

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Comments

  2. Love the birthday idea as I love all your ideas. Best of luck with the hurricane. I am at the Jersey shore so we are waiting for Irene as well. I hope the power doesn't stay off too long…what would I do without my blog stalking. Thanks for following my blog. I was so excited to see new peeps!

    marybeth
    http://cialinichat-mbcialini.blogspot.com/

  3. Oh Erica,
    Your room looks awesome…I am sorry you are in the path of the storm. I'll be praying for you and all the other people this is going to effect. I live in Florida…so I am very familiar with hurricanes…be safe:)

    4th Grade Frolics

  5. Stay safe Erica! I am just north of you and waiting to see what happens. I'm glad you'll be with your family.

    LOVE the birthday idea, it's brilliant!
    Kristen

  6. I hope Irene loses steam. I am originally from the south shore of LI & I remember getting hurricane days off from school when I was little. Stay safe!

  10. Erica, I'd like to use your polka dot month labels for my own birthday bulletin board, but the links to TPT and TN aren't working properly. Can you help me find them? Thanks!