I finally finished my new bulletin board today and I’m so excited to share it with you!
I like my bulletin boards to do more than just look pretty. My goal with this one was to make an interactive board that would be fun for my students to use when they needed a break from their schoolwork but would still involve using some thinking skills. I also wanted something that kids of all ages could enjoy. And, yeah…I wanted it to look good, too.
My classroom is decorated and labeled in dots and I wanted to play off that theme. What has dots? A Twister board! I was going to make a homemade board with a white flat twin size sheet and laminated paper circles but happened to find a Twister game at the thrift store for $1.00! I stapled the mat to the board and used border from Dollar Tree to pretty up the edges.
Next, I wanted to turn each dot on the Twister mat into an activity. I decided to choose one type of activity for each of the dot colors. Red dots became Scattergories boards, blue dots turned into Logic Puzzles, green dots became Sudoku, and yellow dots turned into Boggle boards. After I cut out paper circles in matching colors to be just a tiny bit bigger than the Twister board dots, I printed the games, cut them out, glued them on the paper circles, and laminated them. After cutting off the extra lamination, I used self-stick Velcro dots to attach them to the Twister board. I also added letters to the board so it reads Brain Twister.
I then grabbed folders that matched the dot colors and filled them with directions, response sheets, answer-check sheets, and anything else that would be needed to play. I used scrapbook paper (cut to 8.5” x 11” so it would fit in my laminator) and my letter cut-out tool (I got it for like $4.00 on Zulily and it’s awesome) to make “pockets” that were stapled to the board after laminating to hold the folders.
I am so happy with how it turned out and I’m super excited to introduce it to students tomorrow!
Do you make interactive bulletin boards? I would love to hear your ideas!