Kindergarten Bulletin Boards
Kindergarten bulletin boards can be valuable teaching tools, interactive learning spaces, a means of teaching your students about communication and spaces that provide your students with opportunities to make choices.
Types of kindergarten
bulletin boards
Main display boards
These boards are often in school hallways and function as places for parents to admire their children's work; usually all the students' work is from the same lesson.
Make kindergarten bulletin boards interactive
After reading a story such as Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins, photocopy the farmyard from the book pages and post on the bulletin board.
Photocopy the book cover and staple to the board.
Photocopy Rosie the Hen and the fox, then glue each one onto a piece of card
and cut around it.
Place Rosie and the fox onto a piece of string and attach them also. The children retell the story as they walk Rosie and the fox around the farm.
This kind of bulletin board works well with stories that have some sort of journey. E.g. The Gunniwolf, Wolf Island, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Theme Bulletin Boards
These displays are great for teaching. Post pictures, words, and samples from the present theme. It can be part of the science center display.
Creating a theme kindergarten bulletin board
E.g. Animals in Winter (See top image above)
Use bulletin board colored paper for fast bulletin board assembly.
Use a strip of white paper to create the winter day.
Use a strip of brown paper for under the ground.
Use brown to create a tree trunk and a log.
Cut flaps in the tree trunk and log before you staple them
to the kindergarten bulletin board.
Use a circle of blue for a pond.
Cut darker or lighter brownish shapes for burrows and mud under the pond.
Cut flaps and staple to the board.
As the students learn how animals survive in the winter months, they draw and attach their animals and animal name labels onto the appropriate places on the bulletin board. Everyone usually wants to put one animal under a flap.
Mini-bulletin boards in centers
Screw smaller boards to the backs of tables or desks or arrange the centers with an area for a small bulletin board on the wall to create mini-bulletin boards for specific center learning information. Child size panels are great for dividing centers and available from Dick Blick Art Materials
For example in the writing center, a list of commonly used words with pictures could be posted: to, from, Mommy, Daddy, sister, brother, names of students; in the science exploration center, post pictures relating to the science materials that are in use.
Student choice bulletin board
This type of board is divided into equal spaces with a name in each space. Each child decides what they want to display and when they want to change their picture or story.
Let the children control what they want to display. I had to let go here as my tendency is to display the children's best work.
Teach bulletin board display skills without referring to specific work - what is easier to see? a picture drawn with a yellow felt marker or a brown felt marker, a tiny drawing of your family or a larger drawing of your family?
Communication bulletin boards
I call this kindergarten bulletin board the "Mailbox". I leave notes for all the students over the course of a week and the students can post notes back for me or for their peers. One or two sentence comments such as, "I like your bee drawing" or " I noticed that you were kind to Susan when she hurt her knee", are sufficient.
I keep a checklist of student names posted near the top of the board to keep track of the students I have given notes to. The children ask me, classmates, buddies and older kids to read their notes.
A library pocket card stapled to the board makes a great message mailbox for each student. Another pocket card with papers that fit in the library cards is close by. Many children will make scribbles or little pictures at first, but as they gain confidence copying or sounding out words they will attempt to put words on their notes.
This activity encourages the children to write with a purpose as they must look at the name chart (posted on the bulletin board), ask how do I spell a certain student's name, and copy it. Peers often help them to find the correct name. Eventually I post their buddies' names too as the kindergarten students like to give notes to their buddies, whom often write back.
Teacher TipsCheck the height of your bulletin boardsA common problem in primary classrooms is that the height of the bulletin boards are designed for adults to view, not for the children. Lower the boards considerably if possible. Check paper width
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Make your life easy - Find out what size bulletin board paper your school buys. Usually there is a rack of papers in the paper storage room. Make your mini-bulletin boards the width of the paper. This saves time measuring and fussing with the sides of the bulletin board, trying to make the paper fit neatly.