Sep 28, 201910 min read

Favorite Bulletin Boards

Updated: Jun 23, 2023

Three years ago I started a new art teaching job and for the first time ever bulletin boards were in my job description! I am responsible for six bulletin boards, a display case, and a hallway gallery! Thats a lot of bulletin boards!!

I have discovered that I like making bulletin boards but they take awhile to make. The art that is ready to hang I lay out on the floor in front of the bulletin board and that's when I usually discover it doesn't fit. Either I have too much art or not enough. Usually I just show the artwork from one class at a time and I don't have enough art to fill a large bulletin board. Sometimes I recreate the project in a larger scale to fill up and balance the bulletin board. These are some of the bulletin boards I have created the last few years.

I will continue to update this blog post as I create new bulletin boards this school year so check back later I have six bulletin boards to maintain!

Charley Harper Winter Cardinals

2nd grade students created winter cardinals in the style of Charley Harper

The bulletin board February 1, 2020

“When I look at wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns…in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."---Charley Harper

Charley Harper Art by 2nd Grade

Second grade students learned about artist Charley Harper, his love of animals and nature. Using cut paper, markers, and paint students created a series of winter cardinals in the style of Charley Harper. Using what the artist called, “minimal realism,” students captured the essence of cardinals by using striking shapes, simple lines, and bold colors.

The process of building the Charley Harper Winter Cardinal Bulletin Board

This video shows the process of making this bulletin board

Radial Symmetry Paper Relief Sculptures

Grade 5 Students learned the difference between linear and radial symmetry, (Types of formal balance.) Students learned three origami folds; The Hat Fold, The Kite Fold, and The Samurai fold. Students applied their knowledge of radial balance to create a paper relief sculpture.

This video shows some of the creative process of creating Radial Symmetry Paper Sculptures. These sculptures are truly mesmerizing and have incredible visual impact when they are displayed together on a bulletin board. This is one of those art projects where ALL students have success! I love that this art project combines art and math and is a great way to teach fractions and symmetry. This art project works best with upper elementary students through high school.

I highly recommend this art lesson!

This art lesson was created by Mrs. Nguyen

and can be purchased at Teachers Pay Teachers... Link here

Flamingos

4th grade students just finished painting Flamingos!

This is the new Flamingo Bulletin Board.

This video shows the process of making this bulletin board

The Process of building The Flamingo Bulletin Board in pictures

When I lined up all the flamingo artwork by 4th grade next to the bulletin board... it didn't fit.! There was too much negative space around the artwork and I wanted more balance. I decided to create a larger flamingo scene in the center to make the board more exciting and give it the balance of positive and negative space that was missing. I started by painting flamingos on a large roll of white paper. When the flamingos were dry I cut them out. Then I was lucky to find paper that already had a water print on it. That water paper became the flamingo pond! The third picture shows everything taped to the board to see how the total design fits. Now I trace around flamingos and made pencil marks to remind myself how everything fits. Everything is removed from the board and the background is painted. I started by painting the sunset and then the grasses. When the background was dry the board was built. I could still see my pencil marks under the dry paint. The pencil marks reminded me how the board fit together.

Thank you Deep Space Sparkle for the Lesser Flamingo Art Lesson.

National Dot Day, The Bulletin Board

Art by Kindergarten

In Art class we talked about an international holiday called, Dot Day. We read the book, The Dot by Peter Reynolds. The Dot tells the story of one students journey of becoming an artist. Students also learned about artist Wassily Kandinsky. He was an abstract painter famous for saying, “Everything starts from a dot!” Inspired by Kandinsky’s Color Study. Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913. Kindergarten students painted Concentric circles that started with a dot sticker for Dot Day!

Jim Dine Heart Art

“A while ago I saw a painting of a heart and it reminded me of a valentine that I had loved as a kid.” Jim Dine

Jim Dine is a graphic artist, painter, and sculptor famous for painting hearts! Second grade students looked at Jim Dine’s heart art for inspiration. "Four Hearts" By Jim Dine is in the collection of The Tate in London. See the painting here http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dine-four-hearts-p04226

Jim Dine Heart Art.

Inspired by Jim Dine Grade 2 students created a six panel heart themed series. Students used different art lessons/techniques for each heart: crayon resist with watercolor, marker drawings, warm color painting, cool color painting, drawing with shading and shadows, and positive and negative space cutouts. This video shows the process of creating Heart Art.

Heart Art by Grade 2 students.

Starry Night

"The night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." ---Vincent Van Gogh.

Kindergarten students created these Starry Night mixed media landscapes. Students explored art materials, textures, moods, and colors of Van Gogh’s art.

This Starry Night art lesson is available at DeepSpaceSparkle.com find the lesson HERE

Art Is For Everyone

At ArtOfEd.com I read this great article titled," Inclusivity for All Learners in the Art Room" The article is from August 2019, it talked about creating a learning environment where every student feels included, valued, and encouraged! That's the environment I strive to create! I believe it is important for students to not only see themselves reflected in the curriculum, but also to see the great impact made by artists from diverse backgrounds.The article was written by Jordan DeWilde, This year he is teaching high school art.

Jordan DeWilde designed the above series of artist posters with inspiring quotes. These 25 artists demonstrate that "Great art has been made by men and women of different races, cultures, and communities throughout history." Art is for Everyone art posters can be purchased HERE. Thank you Jordan for inspiring all of my students with your amazing posters!

When I printed the letters I used a variety of fonts to reinforce the many styles of art!

Fall

This bulletin board celebrates Autumn. Art by Grade 2

Nugget and Fang

Nugget and Fang by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Michael Slack is a humorous story about friendships, and starting school. The illustrations depict a gentle & caring shark named Fang ...not an easy task with all those teeth!

First grade students used oil pastels and watercolor paint to draw an underwater background. Then students created sheets of painted paper for collage. Students cut out shapes from the painted papers to make Nugget and Fang’s body, oil pastels were used for drawing details and shading.

This art lesson is from Deep Space Sparkle

The Nugget and Fang Bulletin Board, art by first grade

Britto Bulletin Board

Second grade students used markers and printmaking techniques to create pop art in the style of Romero Britto. This art lesson is from Deep Space Sparkle

Britto art by Elementary students

Giraffes Can't Dance

What is YOUR talent...that you didn't know you had until you TRIED?

Kindergarten students read the book, "Giraffes Can't Dance" A fun colorful story about an African dance competition and a giraffe named Gerald who was brave to be different from the others and finally found the right music! Students painted Gerald dancing!!

Winter Birds and Birch Trees

This art project was inspired by Lois Ehlert, an author and illustrator.

We read, "Snowballs," a book about winter birds and building a snow family. "Do you think birds know when it's going to snow?" Students were inspired by Ehlert's collage illustrations of colorful birds eating seeds under birch trees on a gray snowy day.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We read the book, “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. This book has such a fun rhythm and rhyme that students giggled and then enjoyed joining in! This book inspired our first art project of the year as we are learning names of new students. We looked at the illustrations by Lois Ehlert and in her style created a polka doted border. Students glued the coconut tree pieces in place. Finally, students had to find all the letters of their names in a giant pile of foam letter stickers. Students put their names ‘falling’ out of the Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM tree.

Split Face Self Portraits

This challenging drawing project focuses on symmetry. Third and fourth grade students cut photographs in half. Using precise measurement and skillful shading, students carefully integrated the photographic image and the drawing so that the two halves connected gracefully.

This is a simple bulletin board that really showcases the skill and talent of my students and the artwork fits on the board pretty well too ; )

Self Portrait Drawings, Grade 5

Fluid Painting

What an exciting bulletin board and some how I fit all of it on one board, that was a challenge.

This video shows two Grade 3 students fluid painting!

If you are interested in Fluid Painting I wrote a whole blog dedicated to it HERE.

Rainbow Self-Portrait Collaborative Bulletin Board

I have seen many incredible versions of this bulletin board online. I was super inspired by Fanciful Art Room's version. I love the quotes she used with the artwork. You can read about her in depth process HERE. Thank you Fanciful Art Room.

I needed to add a boarder of colorful lines around the perimeter of the rainbow portraits because the portraits didn't fit on the board.

Grades K-3 drew Monochromatic Self-portraits and

Grades 4-5 drew Analogous Self-portraits.

This was our first art project of the school year (2017-2018). Students learned about the Color Wheel and this project introduced color relationships in a fun way! Each table in each grade was assigned one color. Students used markers, pencils, and crayons. The mixed materials allowed for various shades and hues of the same color. The fourth and fifth graders could use 2 colors: one color and one analogous color to make the intermediate color transitions in our mural. Kindergarten students created the border by drawing and painting different kinds of lines.

The bulletin board also included famous quotes about colors and rainbows from artists and writers throughout history.

This picture shows the process of lining up everyones portraits in the color order of the rainbow. They did not all fit on top of this table but I needed to visualize how the colorful self portraits transitioned.

These are the quotes in the mural;

“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”

-Pablo Picasso

“What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. Each face in the rainbow of colors that populate our world is precious and special.”

-Morris Dees

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

-Maya Angelou

“The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you do the work.”

-Patricia Clafford

“Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come shining through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”

-Cinderella

“People are like the pieces of a picture puzzle, each differing in shape, but matching the rest, and thus bringing out the picture.”

-Felix Adler

"What Lift's You?"

Kelsey Montague-Interactive Collaborative School Mural.

International street artist, Kelsey Montague, began a #WhatLiftsYou campaign to provide people with the opportunity to share what inspires them. She chose wings, separated with a space for each individual to stand.

Special thanks to All the student artists who contributed each feather.

I collected 80+ feathers!

you can read more about the process of making this mural HERE

Thank you Cassie Stephens for your "What Lifts You?" inspiration

you can find her lesson for a collaborative/interactive bulletin board HERE

UNITY QUILT

A Collaborative Mural

Kindergarten to Grade 5

Thank you Savanna Snow Wilkins for sharing your Unity Quilt collaborative middle school art lesson. I had to try it with my elementary students especially since our school theme this year is "belonging" and this Unity Quilt brings all of us together...

Quilts by Libs Elliott

You can see Libs amazing quilts and read more about her process here, https://www.libselliott.com/

Link to Joshua Davis. He wrote the code that randomly generates compositions for Lib's quilts.

Making A Collaborative Unity Quilt

Kindergarten students design a quilt square that will be part of a LARGE scale paper quilt to hang in our school.

Grade 1 students add their squares to the quilt and watche it grow!

I used this package of precut 6"x6" bright squares because the colors are so stunning and would not fade as quickly as construction paper...Also they are precut! Available at Michaels.

I also used an additional package of precut 6"x6" squares because we have six background colors in our Unity Quilt, one color per grade!

Background color by grade; Kindergarten pink, Grade 1 blue, Grade 2 yellow, Grade 3 green, Grade 4 purple, Grade 5 orange.

UNITY QUILT REQUIREMENTS

For the additional paper shapes that students cut and glued onto their backgrounds I used double sided origami paper. The colors are bright and beautiful and the paper is thinner and easier to cut. 200 sheets, $6.00, available on Amazon

Origami paper was cut into squares, rectangles, and triangles and placed in a few aluminum trays (or baskets). Students selected from the trays, three additional colored shapes of their choice. Students were asked NOT to cut the large background square and ONLY cut the three pieces of paper they selected using straight cuts ONLY to make smaller squares, rectangles, and triangles. When we examined Lib's quilts students noticed that Lib's uses geometric shapes cut with straight lines only. Students did not notice circles or heart shapes in Lib's quilts.

IF a students asked for a fourth color to add to their design I said, yes!

I encouraged students to use ALL the scraps of paper in their designs...using all the scraps was not always possible.

Students took their time to arrange the shapes on the background 6"x6" square. Once the composition was established I passed out the glue and all of the shapes were glued to the background. By waiting to pass out the glue I could make sure that thought went into every design!

Grade 5 Students add their square to the Unity Quilt and watch the quilt grow!

Traditional quilt designs created with paper. Teacher examples

We talked about traditional quilt designs and symmetry. Students could design their squares anyway they wanted! I created a few paper quilt designs to share with students.

student quilt squares that show some hints of traditional quilt patterns.

Many students were fascinated with quilt patterns and recreated elements of traditional quilt designs in their square. If you are looking for a book with quilt patterns to share with you

students this one is great, Traditional Patchwork Quilt Patterns: 27 Easy-to-Make Designs with Plastic Templates (Dover Quilting) Paperback available on Amazon.

The quilt needed to fit on a bulletin board. Rows of 5 fit vertically. The squares were taped together with painters tape on the back and hung in rows.

Thumbtacks held the rows in place temporarily.

One student in Grade 2 really enjoyed this project...he was excited about the idea of a school collaboration. His design included a flap that opened. He wrote a message under the flap.

"I'm so happy, this project will be awesome baby!"