Bulletin Board: Together is Our Favorite Place to Be

I'm one of my district's two remote learning kindergarten teachers, and moved from a classroom I've occupied for twelve years into a new space that amazingly, has been an ideal fit for my materials, curriculum, and virtual learning plans.  While the bulletin board displays within the space will be easy to reference during live Zoom instruction and photograph for close-ups that can be added to Google Slides or elsewhere, this year my own students won't be navigating the school's hallways or displaying their artwork and creative constructions. I anticipate that I'll experience a serious case of withdrawals.

Despite my own students learning from home, the on-site classrooms of my colleagues are nearly ready for the arrival of eager, masked children.  These kids will be passing by my door as they begin and end their instructional days, and I want them to see something cheerful.

This is likely the last year that I'll use my "scribble kids," because frankly, they're more wrinkled than I am, but seeing them has cheered up my days and lowered my stress levels, and I hope they have the same effect on those who pass by them every morning and afternoon.

Whether on-site or remote, together is our favorite place to be.

Quick Tabletop Easel

For Open House, my Stars made traditional handprint turkeys for their families.  Since our walls are decorated with Veterans Day art, patterned maize, and harvest pumpkins for November, we had no space left to display the great gobblers.  Simple desktop easels to the rescue!

I cut four inch wide, twenty-four inch long strips of tagboard, and then folded each strip as shown, with three sections seven inches long, and a tab three inches long to fold over the edge:

After folding, I applied tape so the tagboard would keep its shape.  Our handprint turkeys, not being very heavy, easily leaned against the tagboard, but I stuck some tape behind them to keep them from sliding off or wibble-wobbling.

Our turkey art measured nine inches by nine inches, and these easels worked great!

My Stars also left their math and ELA journals at their desks for families to look through before they toured the rest of the room. 

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My Super Stars love crowns and hats!  Click here for last year's post about our turkey headgear!

Teacher Tip: Media Cart Modification

Occasionally, teachers no longer want or need a particular piece of furniture or equipment.  I inherited a gray metal book cart in May, first-come-first-serve style.

That's right, I jogged walked safely (yet quickly) up the hallway to retrieve it when the teacher sent out the come-and-get-it email.

Mobile vertical storage comes in handy for kindergarten students.  Materials can be rolled to different parts of the classroom or hallway, and the backside of the cart, with a teeny tiny modification, can become an additional display surface.

This year, I want to hang chart/writing paper tablets on the back of the cart.  Heavy duty magnet clips worked for one chart, but they weren't strong enough to hold two.  Hello Command Hooks!  I chose the style with the metal hook and bead since I figured they'd fit through the holes that are punched through every page of the tablets.

I positioned the chart tablet where I wanted it to hang, and slid a hook into the backside (without removing the clear strip from the adhesive) so I could determine where to anchor the hook.  Once I knew where it needed to be, I marked the bottom of the white plastic against the metal with a pencil, and then removed the clear strip.  Carefully positioning the hook, I pressed it firmly against the cart.

With the first hook attached, it was time to determine where the second would need to be placed so that the chart hung evenly.  I put one side of the tablet onto the already mounted hook, and then the other on to the second, with the clear strip still in place.  The adhesive on Command Hooks is STRONG, so you're not able to reposition them easily once they make contact.  Sure, you can pull the release tab and try again, but then you've wasted an extra adhesive strip when it wasn't necessary.

(The cart still needs some spray paint to cover up the scribbles that someone else added in order to label the cart.  Sigh.)

Ta-da!

Now the cart is perfect for mobile display and storage, and can also be an activity divider between learning centers.

~Spray paint, spray paint, spray paint.~

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What kinds of modifications do you make to equipment in order to make it more functional for your classroom?  What items have you repurposed to create learning materials for your students?