Feelin’ groovy? Why not pick a groovy classroom theme? Carson Dellosa has Paisley Power.
Get your ’70s groove on with tie dye bulletin boards and psychedelic flowers. You can grab an old sheet and a vat of fabric dye and make your own.
Pinch a bit of the fabric and pull it up as you might a pocket handkerchief. Wrap it tightly with rubber bands. Do this repeatedly all over the fabric — randomness is part of the retro charm. Dye the fabric according to the directions on the dye package. You can repeat with more colors after the fabric dries. Kids love doing this, so consider involving the kids in the process. Add a cheap white T-shirt to your classroom supply list and let each student tie dye a shirt to wear on field trips, too, since you have the dye made.
Cut your fabric to fit your bulletin board and staple it on around the edges, or soak it in starch and smooth it over an old blackboard to repurpose it as a bulletin board.
Pete the Cat is the center of a whole collection of groovalicious bulletin board sets, from birthdays to behavior management.
Carson Dellosa has a Spectacular 70s set.
Their ’60s set might be a bit groovier.
Click through the pictures to see details.
There are peace signs and paisley galore in ready-made classroom decoratives.
Your parents might have posters in their garage or attic, too.
Bulletin board slogans for a groovy theme:
- A Groovy Class
- Ready for a Groovy Year
- Write On!
- Far Out First Grade
- Groovin’ in Grade 6
Psychedelic flowers are mostly just bright and flat. Use a cookie cutter or a simple flower outline like the one below as a pattern to cut flowers from bright papers. Use lots, and cluster them in random, overlapping groups.
Use bulletin board border strips to make headbands for your students. Measure, cut, staple into a ring, and wear!
Check out our Rock’n’Roll classroom theme for ideas incorporating music.
For upper elementary and secondary school, this is a perfect opportunity for an oral history project. Have students ask their parents and grandparents about some of the events of the 1960s and 1970s:
- the anti-war movement
- hippies and the counterculture movement
- the women’s movement
- the Civil Rights movement
Here’s a video made by a history class:
Online resources:
- Billo is a very groovy free font from dafont.com that will make all your classroom papers awesome. Or, rather, groovy.
- Gunter Borgmeister’s Psychedelic Flowers are fun to look at, and could be an intriguing part of your geometry lessons.
- The ’60s and ’70s were groovy, but also tumultuous. PBS has a ’60s lesson plan that encourages deep thinking.
We’re seeing protests across the country right now. What’s the same and what’s different? Use a Venn diagram to organize a discussion on the subject.
