We are a Sharp Bunch Bulletin Board

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This first grade bulletin board with a cactus theme is an adorable way to welcome your new students to a new school year and teach about multiple meaning words at the same time.

“I printed out letters that “We are a Sharp Bunch!”. I cut toothpicks (kabob skewers) and glued them to the word Sharp.

I purchased small cacti cutouts from the Dollar Tree. I printed students’ names and glued them to the cacti. These were stapled around the words.

I cut a large cactus out of green tagboard, added a face, and toothpick spines. I also added a speech bubble coming from the cactus that says “Welcome to First Grade!””

How can you use this board with your students?

• Talk about what “sharp” means – literally and figuratively.
• Brainstorm other words that have multiple meanings.
• Place multiple meaning words on separate slips of paper and place in a bowl.  Have students choose one randomly from the bowl and then write a journal entry (or draw a picture) showing 2 different meanings on each side of the page.  Some examples:  bat, park, bark, slice, fly, wave, ring.

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Multiple Meanings in the Hallway

Materials Needed:

• Black bulletin board paper:  Use black to help the cacti really pop out on the board.

• Cacti cut outs:  Perfect for adding student names to display on the board.

• Yellow large letters:  Use alphabet cutouts to create your title.

• Green large letters:  Use alphabet cutouts to create your title.

• Green roll paper:  The larger size and lightweight material is great for cutting out your large cactus.

• Construction paper:  Used for the cactus details and speech bubble.

• Decorative border:  Any fun border will work for this board.

• Toothpicks:  This one item really makes the bulletin board come alive as cacti.  Adding it to the green word in the title too!

Steps to Set Up:

1. Begin by placing the black background on your empty board.
2. Then add your border around the edges of the entire board.
3. Cut out your large cactus from the green roll paper and staple on the right hand side of the board.
4. Add the cactus facial features and speech bubble from the construction paper.
5. Place your title in the middle of the remaining empty space on the board.
6. Use a black permanent marker to write your students’ names on the cut out cacti and then staple on to the bulletin board filling in the empty space.
7. Finally use the craft picks or toothpicks to add cactus needles to the large cactus and to the word “SHARP” in the title.

Using a bulletin board for more than just decoration is a great way to integrate learning into everything you do within the classroom.

Even if this board was in the hallway of another classroom, the same multiple meaning lesson ideas can apply.  Use every chance to grab those teachable moments all throughout your school day.

How else could you use this bulletin board idea in your school?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Submitted by:  Melissa P.