Creative Thanksgiving bulletin boards will brighten up the classroom during November and keep students focused as they look forward to the holiday break. Each bulletin board idea can be modified for a younger or older age group by requiring more or less student involvement in the preparation.
Giving Thanks Bulletin Board
For a creative thanksgiving display, have each student decorate a cut-out of a turkey feather and label it with something they are thankful for. Each feather can be decorated with a variety of stickers, glitter and other craft items, leaving room down the middle to write the name of someone or for older students a sentence describing someone or something they are thankful for.
Turkey Time Bulletin Board
Young students enjoy making simple hand-turkeys that can make a colorful Thanksgiving display. To make a turkey, each student should trace around his or her hand on a piece of brown construction paper. The thumb should then be decorated as the turkey head. Students can then cut out tear shaped orange, yellow and red feathers to add color to tail feathers and a darker brown shape for feathers on the turkey body.
Thanksgiving Table Bulletin Board
As the class studies about the first Thanksgiving, they can put together a display of what the first thanksgiving table might have looked like. Have students color or cut out and decorate various foods that the pilgrims would have eaten during this harvest feast and decorate the display. For a fun twist, the teacher can poll the class to see which food the students would like to taste and have a feast in the class on the last day before Thanksgiving break.
Thanksgiving Myths Venn Diagram
A great way to tie the lesson into a bulletin board display is to have students work on a Venn Diagram as they learn about the various myths surrounding Thanksgiving. The display should show three sections: things that the pilgrims did that are not done today, things that the pilgrims did and are still done today, and things that the pilgrims did not do and are not done today. There are some great thanksgiving books that can help teachers with this lesson and display idea.
This Thanksgiving season get creative and spice up the classroom walls with a colorful Thanksgiving display. Utilizing class lessons and craft time will enable the displays to be more interactive and add meaning to lessons learned.
Look for other creative bulletin board ideas.
