I consider a well-planned bulletin board not only informational, but a work of art – my media assistants think so, too – and together we have created a variety of bulletin boards over the past few years.  

Below are a few things to think about as you create your library’s bulletin boards:

In her article Interactive Bulletin Boards – Make the Classroom Experience More User-friendly, Beth Newingham states, “ I can spend hours creating beautiful bulletin boards, but if they are not meaningful or if they do not serve a real purpose for my students, I find they do nothing more than take up important space on my walls.”

Cara Bafile interviewed author/educator Michael Gravois in her Education World article “Pretty” to Practical: Using Bulletin Boards to Teach, and he explained that, “too often bulletin boards are just thought of as decoration, when they really should emphasize the learning that is taking place in the classroom. Those two qualities do not have to be mutually exclusive; a bulletin board can be both educational and decorative.”

From Carolyn Tomlin’s article, Staff Newsletter: Bulletin Boards Make a Difference, is a helpful list of criteria:

As you create bulletin boards for your classroom, evaluate them using the following criteria:

• Does it convey a message?
• Is it bright and colorful?
• Is the children’s work displayed neatly?
• Is the material related to the children’s level of development?
• Does it build a healthy self-concept?

Lastly, I wanted to share a wonderful resource with you – Julie Greller’s  blog, The Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet – and her post “24 Places to Find Bulletin Board Display Ideas”.

Wishing you a spectacular school year!