Subtitle: How to Spend a Lot of Hours Working on Something That Might Turn Out Cute
Yeah, I know, it sounds funny.
But, you’ve made bulletin boards, right?! Sometimes they are inspirational!
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I have a few to share with you and tell you how we made them!
Encouraging Messages
This one was so colorful and bright we left it in the hallway for a very long time.
The background is just pieces of construction paper that I taped together (the tape is on the flip side!)
Welcoming and Decorative
Even though this one is rather simple I love it. It gets the message across and just has a great look. Plus it was super simple to make!
I originally planned to put photos in the empty spaces, but never did. I liked it plain- scientists posters are hanging above the board.
In your classroom, you also have the ones that stay up all year, like the Calendar or kid’s work.I have those, too, in the STEM Lab. But, what about the ones you have to decorate that hang in the hallway.
We have to change those more often (at least I did!)
The Ones in the Hall
The ones you are assigned to complete. Those are the challenging ones. I think it’s because we want them to look spectacular because everyone sees them. So, when I have one of those to decorate I really work hard to make them fabulous.
Both of the boards pictured were made after scouring Pinterest for ideas.
But, I did have one BIG problem!
I have to explain that our hallway boards are very large. We are talking about GIANT bulletin boards. Not the little square things or side panels by your white board. I am talking big.
The inside length measurement of the boards is 90 inches. That’s SEVEN feet. I needed ideas that could take up that much space!
So, Pinterest. I found, of course, ten tons of cute boards, including all those pictured above (and those are all my re-creations of pins I found).
Then I found this board idea.
“Ah Ha!” I said. “I can make that!”
And, I did. It took a long time- really way longer than I had anticipated.
But it turned out to be my favorite board of all time.
The Scientist
So, first I started with the scientist lady. I needed a lab coat. Easy, I just used chart paper, drew it free hand, cut it out, and then cut a slit and folded back the jacket lapels. Easy, peasy.
Well, the one in the photo has stuff in her pockets. I decided to make the pockets actually functional and put objects in them. So, I made two beakers and colored them with markers. Uh….boring. So, I got out the glitter.
(And I might add, my custodian was in the room and saw me getting it out, and I caught the frown on her face…..custodians hate glitter.) Anyway, my glitter beakers turned out fine in the little pockets:
Her Face
Now, for the face. I cut out a head and added some background hair. The eyes were easy, and I made a dimensional triangle nose. But I cannot draw a mouth.
So, I got the lip gloss out of my cabinet that I keep in there just for picture day.
A good coating of that on MY lips and then I just kissed the drawing.
Yep, it made a perfect little mouth. I added some colored pencil lip liner!
The 3-D hair is just strips of brown paper that I cut and then just stapled in place. I made curlies around her face.
The hand that you can see was rather empty so I made a hand lens. You can’t tell, but it actually has plastic inserted in the black paper…I’m a little OCD, what can I say?
The Pipes and Border
Then it was time for the pipes. Look back at the original board. The outside edge is a pipe that runs all the way around. It is connected to the static electricity ball and then has a few places where the open pipe is spewing bubbles.
So, I cut strips of yellow paper and made the piping. For the corners I just made it rounded and then I added the open pipes.
The yellow paper was just entirely too bright, so I coated it with colored chalk and rubbed it lightly with tissues and it now looks a little tarnished. I added pipe fitting connectors in yellow and bright colors.
My favorite thing is the photos. I added six little squares to the pipes and used photos of the kids in the lab. I can change the photos occasionally and leave this board up for a while!
The bubble dots were easy- just cut them free handed and drew around the edges with sharpie to make them cute. Now for the other bubble spewing pipe. First I made it with just bubbles, but it was a little plain, so I added pipe cleaners bent into zig zags.
Add a Title
I decided to go with Mad about Science. The letters were cut from a letter-making machine at our school (Not a Cricket. Ours is one you turn a crank and the letter rolls through and squishes the paper. Old.)
Here it is all finished!
I do love it and it stayed up the whole year. When I took it down I saved all the pieces and re-purposed them the next year. I am linking posts for you at the bottom about that!
In the meantime, I have so many sets of posters now that can help you decorate your space. Check the gallery below! (Click on any of the images to see more details!)
Have fun decorating your space and creating amazing bulletin boards!
LINKS FOR YOU:
- Mad About Science Repurposed Board
- Amazing Ways to Use Quotes Posters
- Ways to Decorate for Science
Perfect for your displays!
