Interactive Bulletin Boards LANGUAGE ARTS By Judy Meagher and Joan Novelli N E W Y O R K T O R O N T O L O N D O N A U C K L A N D S Y D N E Y
Contents From the Authors.....................4 All About Us Build community and introduce descriptive writing with this beginning of the year board..............9 Linking Letters Invite emergent readers and writers to play with letters.........13 Flashlight Fun Expand vocabulary and understanding of sentence construction.. 16 Sentence Scramble Help children make sense of sentences.....................18 The Sign Board Introduce sign language with a board that appeals to many learning styles........................21 Write On! Motivate young writers with these fun write on-wipe off boards.......24 Snip a Book Enrich your writing program with tiny blank books students will love.. 27 Poetry Place Favorite poems become building blocks for new poems at this hands-on board.......................30 The Daily News Build speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills here every day............................33 Take a Memo! Memos give students reallife reasons to read and write...........36 Chitchat Board Strengthen the link between oral and written language as well as communication skills............39 The Friendship Message Center Build real-life literacy skills with a board that invites children to exchange notes.. 42 What I Like About You This board brings out what s special in every child.........45 Story Boards Collaborative stories draw children to this inviting board..........48 Camouflage Capers This bright board combines writing and science in a gamelike format......................51 Unfold a Story The books on this board unfold as students collaborate to tell stories.........................55 Fairy Tale Mail Friendly letter-writing is the focus of this imaginative board....59 Bag a Story Young writers will have fun choosing character, setting, and conflict cards from bags and using them to build stories...................62 The List Board This list board has more classroom applications than we can list!.............................66 Tell Me How Children write directions then follow them to learn the importance of this skill............. 69 Shoe Shop Specific language stars at this fanciful board..................71 Pick a Pal With the help of a pal, children discover the world of reading around them.........................74 Snapshots Starters for more interactive language arts boards you can build......77
Handy Holders Having tools right where they need them offers children a welcoming invitation to visit the board and take part. Here are a few how-to s for making handy holders. Pin envelopes of all sizes and colors to a board to hold papers, graph markers, and other materials. Roll the top down on a paper bag. Pin or staple it to the board, or punch a hole and hang it from a pushpin. Boxes of all shapes and sizes, including milk cartons, make great holders. Punch a couple of holes and hang from straight pins. If you want the contents to show, cut a window out of the box and tape a piece of acetate to the inside. Hang felt pens in their original boxes. Empty the pens, use pushpins or staples to secure the box from the inside, then restock. Paper cups of all sizes hold markers, scissors, and other supplies. Staple or punch a hole and hang from a straight pin. Roll cardboard or sturdy paper and staple one end flat to hold paper and other supplies. To make see-through pockets to hold numerous pairs of scissors, stitch or staple acetate at regular intervals to a strip of cardboard. You can do the same thing with resealable sandwich bags, stapling several to a strip of cardboard. Fruit baskets make colorful holders. Use pushpins to attach to your board. Use tagboard strips to make pockets for holding just about anything. For a change, tack up clothesline and use clothespins to hang materials such as graph markers or small paperback books. Dangle the clothesline to clip materials vertically. 6
Bright Borders Materials Steps assorted paper supplies pushpins markers border order form ACCORDION-FOLD BORDERS You can adapt the pattern shown here to make just about any kind of repeating pattern for a bulletin board border. Make sure that children leave a section on both the left and right uncut as shown. (Otherwise the pages will come apart instead of staying attached.) Brighten displays by inviting students to help create one-of-akind borders. Often a bulletin board topic will suggest an idea. For example, children s self-portraits are just right for displays about themselves. (See All About Us, page 9.) For an appealing border you can adapt for many boards, see Accordion Fold Borders, below. For even more inspiration, start up a classroom Border Company a bulletin board for creating student-designed borders for your class and others. This think tank has great potential as a learning tool (ties in language arts, math, problem-solving, and more) and self-esteem booster. Count on it being one of your students favorite places to spend time! 1Section off an end of a chalkboard or wall. Have children cover it with butcher paper and add a heading that says The Border Company. Stock a nearby worktable with markers and other materials students might like to use. 2Together, create a border order form. (See page 8.) Make copies and store in a folder or clipboard near the display. 3Brainstorm kinds of borders. If possible, take a tour of other classrooms to see a variety of borders. (Bring clipboards to take notes.) List ideas. Let children fill out a border order form for practice, using one of the ideas. Review length of border strips, descriptions, and so on. 4Guide children in making a few border samples, each about three feet long to show any repeating patterns. Display these with labels at the Border Company board. 5Have children take border orders for other classrooms and design them. 7
Name Date The Border Company BORDER ORDER FORM Name of Client Date Bulletin Board Subject Border Description To Do Sample Border Only Full Border Border Size Top Bottom Left Side Right Side Other Total Length of Finished Border Date Needed By Comments 8
All About Us Begin the year with a board that lets students get to know one another and gives you a jump on building a spirit of community in your classroom. Variations are included to show the many forms this board can take. (See page 10.) Use your board with the reproducible (see page 12) to encourage even more interaction. BORDER BOX Borders that work well for this board include handprints, student-drawn faces, and pictures of a variety of homes. TIP Plan ahead for this activity by asking parents to send in photographs of family members, their children engaged in favorite activities, and so on. In class, allow students to build their houses for this board over a period of days, adding information about themselves and their families. Consider setting up a workstation stocked with blank paper and other supplies near this board so that students can add on to their houses when they wish. LANGUAGE ARTS LINKS Students write or dictate words and sentences about themselves and then read others work to find out how they are like and different from their classmates. 9