So much Twitter love from my post about my walls this year. Y’all know how to make a girl feel good! I don’t have my lesson plans ready, and am not entirely sure what I’m doing on the first day (which is tomorrow) but hey, why not sit and write a blog.
So, for all who have asked, here are the pictures again, along with some files. Nothing is super-special, but it works for me, so maybe it will help you out too.
Be…not a new creation. It used to hang on the bulletin board on the wall on the way into my room. This year I moved it into the classroom into some “dead space” that isn’t good for much else–it’s too high to display student work and I don’t like to fill my walls with “helpful posters”. I added the Be You…But Be the Best Version of you to it this year. That is just adhesive vinyl I cut with my silhouette machine. Sorry about the picture quality. I didn’t realize it was so bad.
Here is a pdf of the BE and adjectives. I just printed them onto white copy paper, trimmed the words down, and glued each one onto colored copy paper. Laminated, for durability and presto…a fancy little wall of inspiration. BE
For the bulletin board in the hallway, I’ll be honest–I really was looking for something that I didn’t have to change. Ever. I strongly dislike making bulletin boards. So. Much. Work. So, I scoured Pinterest (don’t judge–there are some good ideas on there) and saw a picture of a bulletin board that said Take what you need…Give what you can. And had post-it notes all over it with positive traits or words of encouragement on them…stuff like “peace”, “patience”, “you’ve got this”, etc. The “Give what you can” side was for people to leave encouraging words for others. Last year, I did the “take” half and picked up post-its all year long. Every day. No kidding. They just didn’t stick. I really just did this on a whim, to get the board covered; I was quite surprised to see kids really take the words–I know some just did it to be cute, but several stopped me and said they really appreciated the extra encouragement. I didn’t do the “give” half because, honestly, I wasn’t sure what kind of stuff the kids would leave behind and I didn’t want to have to police it.
So, this year I decided to “kick it up a notch”. Partly because a few kiddos really appreciated it and partly because I’m tired of picking up post-its.
I selected a few traits that I thought the world could use more of and googled “quotes about…” each of those traits. I ended up at brainyquote.com and had tons to choose from. I picked some different quotes for each characteristic, copied them into a table, picked some fun fonts for each, and hit print. Cut those bad boys apart and stuck them in the appropriate envelope. So this year if you are in need of a little kindness you can just pick up a quote that will hopefully help you get through the day. If you want the quotes, here are links. Each word is a separate link. (Again, I used the silhouette and vinyl to make the purple letters).
confidence faith Hope humility kindness love patience peace self control
I really like the “Give what you can” idea, but again, am fearful of what some little darlings might want to leave behind so I combined that idea with another one I found–a Random Act of Kindness challenge.
It’s pretty basic, and certainly not my original idea. But I’m hoping it gets the point across. We need to be kind to others. The challenge is to take a task, do it, then post to twitter using our school hash tag or send a picture for me to add to the board. I only used tasks that are free, just to keep it simple for my students.
Here are the “steps” to the challenge: Random Acts of Kindness
Here are the tasks I came up with: Random Acts
7-18-18 ETA: editible version of Random Acts of Kindness
It’s pretty simple stuff–sit with someone new at lunch, clean up after someone in the cafeteria, give a shout-out to a lunch worker or a maintenance person or a secretary, stuff like that. I’m also hoping that kids will come up with other acts they can do and add to my list. That’s what the suggestion envelope is for.
I figure if even just a couple of kids get the message and spread kindness, or find the encouragement they need, it’s worth it.
Hope you all have a great school year. We start tomorrow with students! And now I better go do some lesson plans.
These are great ways to bring character, kindness, and team building to your classroom. Great ideas and thank you for sharing.
Thank You for sharing this great idea!!!
Where did you get your brown envelops?
Thank you for the time and energy you took to put this together and making it so accessible for use. It is wonderful!
Hi! Could you by chance your other inspirational quotes that go along with the “Take What You Need” bulletin board?
I love this bulletin board, and am not computer-savy enough to make a grid like of inspirational quotes like your “patience” grid that you included.
I WOULD APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH! 🙂
If you look about halfway through the post you should find links to quotes for each of the traits.
i love your idea. i would like to try it in my school. thank you for sharing
Hi! I LOVE THIS. If I provide you with my email, is it possible to get an editable version of this? Amazing work!
Great ideas & beautiful presentation! Way to go!
I am copying this as we speak. THANK YOU for putting the time and energy into creating this!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing! People like you make my life sooo much easier!
I am the managing editor of a magazine that encourages and inspires Christian educators. I would like to discuss an article proposal with you. These ideas for positive bulletin boards are very inspirational, and I think would be of interest for our readers. Please contact me via the email used to write this comment if you are interested.
Love this idea!!! I am absolutely going to use this in my classroom next year and maybe even at home!
What a great idea! You are showing them, the giving part.By mid year, they should be able to master the giving part and act on it.
Love this! Thank you for sharing and for doing so FREE. So hard to find excellent ideas for kids without having to pay a fortune. 🙂 Happy School Year 2019-2020!!
First of all, thank you. This is an incredible resource! Second, did you make the brown envelopes or get them somewhere?
Thanks, again.
I bought them at Hobbly Lobby, and just cut the flap off. Seemed to be faster and easier than making my own.
Hello. What size are the big letters, letters in the middle, and letters on the envelopes? Thanks!
Oh goodness – I hung that so long ago I’ve forgotten the actual sizes. I think for my board I used 4″ and maybe 3″ for the large words. On the envelopes, I just used whatever height would ensure the whole word fit on the envelope. I hope that makes sense. So the word “love” is probably a little taller than the word “humility” because fewer letters = more space to fill. With my silhouette I was able to simply re-size them to the width of the envelope.
I hope this is helpful to you. I think the size you make everything is dependent on how much space you have to use.
Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it!
How did you make the purple letters?
I didnt understand what silhouette & vinyl was. I like those letters and style a lot.
Amazing job!!❤🥰
A silhouette is a special machine that cuts paper and vinyl. Vinyl is a material that is sticky on the back.
If you don’t have those, you could just find a font you like and print the words in a large size onto plain paper, then cut them out.
I love love love all this positivity in the classroom. I have worked years with teachers where there was nothing but negative reinforcement so this is WONDERFUL ♥️. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING.
Thank you so so much for sharing this. I am going to use the Random Act of Kindness bulletin. It is a fantastic way of creating and reinforcing a positive environment!
What grade did you do this bulletin board for?
High School, grades 9-12.
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Thank you for sharing the good ideas.
Really appreciate much. Great!
I love this idea! What fonts did you use? for the purple lettering?
It’s been years since I made that, but my best guess is that is was either Magnolia Sky or Lilly Belle. Those were my favorites at that time.
I love love the Take What you need idea, do you have the quotes you used for each envelopes. I only saw quotes for kindness .
Each word is hyperlinked separately in the post above. You will have to click each attribute to get to the corresponding quotes.
This is awesome!!! Is there a way you can send in a word document (not pdf) so I can change fonts? Thanks! (lmills@ccisd.net)
Thank you so much. I am a preschool teacher, and you did a tremendous amount of work putting this together. I love it.
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Love this, thank you so much for sharing. I’m a school nurse at an elementary and was given this idea by a colleague who helped to put this together for our staff who are working above and beyond. I added some of your great quotes !
Simply Awesome…. Beautiful … Thank you… You certainly are a beautiful soul. Stay Abundantly Blessed Always….