For February, you have lots of options for bulletin boards: African-American History Month, Presidents’ Day, Chinese New Year, Groundhog Day, National Children’s Dental Health Month, Mardi Gras — choosing is the hard part!
Valentine’s Day may be the most popular bulletin board theme. There are ready-made Valentine’s Day bulletin board sets:
- Scholastic Valentine’s Day Bulletin Board Set has happy hearts with arms and legs, plus a mail box. A good choice if you use Valentine’s Day for letter writing lessons.
- Carson-Delossa’s Valentines Day Mini Bulletin Board Set has the characteristic Carson-Delossa bears and mice, plus hearts. I like the heart-shaped hot air balloon on this one.
But it’s also very easy to put together a Valentine’s Bulletin board from scratch. Here are a few ideas:
- Have students study symmetry by folding paper in half, drawing half a heart, decorating it as they choose, and then cutting it on the fold to create a whole heart. Challenge them to decorate the other half in a way that preserves the symmetry of the design. That might be simply to match the decorations, or it might be to mirror them in another way.
- Have students make valentines, with all the usual doilies and glitter and whatnot, and post their creations on the board instead of or in addition to the traditional valentine card exchange.
- Challenge students to write love notes or valentine cards back and forth from famous lovers of the past or from literature: Cinderella and Prince Charming, Romeo and Juliet, James and Dolly Madison, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara, Cleopatra and Marc Antony…
- Cut big hearts from paper and use them to announce a “heart-y” love for math, school, chemistry, Spanish, or whatever else you’re studying.
African-American History Month also has ready-made bulletin board sets:
- Black History from CTP uses “Black History” in the header and then has bumper sticker shaped mini posters of African American notables like Wilma Rudolph and Thurgood Marshall.
- Notable African Americans Bulletin Board from Teacher’s Friend is a set of a dozen posters of African-American heroes.
- African American Achievers has circular vignettes of famous African Americans. You could put each one into a heart and cover two February themes at once.
- Trend Make-Your-Own Timeline Bulletin Board Set is a great starting point for any history-oriented bulletin board.
We know of one ready-made Chinese New Year Bulletin Board. Choose a crafts project from our Chinese New Year Lesson Plans and create your own, or cover your bulletin boards in red and add a shiny gold border. Then you can put up student work with a general air of festivity.
For Mardi Gras, use green, gold, or purple paper, and print and cut out some full color Mardi Gras masks or print out a blank mask for each student to decorate. Strew the masks around the bulletin board and trim it with Mardi Gras beads. (Note: if you live in the North and have no idea what we’re talking about, our Kansas City girl says that St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the North are much like our Mardi Gras celebrations. Parades, parties, frivolity.)
Carson-Delossa’s Healthy Teeth Bulletin Board has lots of useful information on it. If you prefer to make your own, we think a nice toothy alligator could be a good starting point. You can “sink your teeth into” books or subjects.
We’d love to see your February bulletin boards!
