Drawing Them In With Bulliten Boards

          An important part of my job is making the school library an inviting, interesting place that teens and teachers want to visit.  My library serves seventh and eighth graders in an area that is considered inner-city for the Midwest.  I use several tools to brighten the library while hooking students into reading a variety of materials.  One of my favorite tools is bulletin board displays.  For the beginning of March I did two bigger displays; one Dr. Seuss themed and the other St. Patrick's Day themed. 

            For the Dr. Seuss display I used red and white tablecloths, Seuss border, a few classic Seuss sayings, and a stuffed Cat in the Hat that was donated earlier in the year.  I tried to select comical and fun books for this display.

            For the St. Patrick's Day display I used two tones of green tablecloths on the table and dark blue on the bulletin board.  The pot of gold was created with a Halloween caldron and gold tissue paper (it is amazing how many uses I have found for the caldron).  The clouds were made with some thin foam liner from computer monitor boxes and the rainbow is tissue paper streamers.  I also added shamrock accents that I found at the Dollar Tree and local party store.  The books I selected for this display are ones that are great stories that don't get much attention, you know those "hidden treasures".

            My students love using the displays as a resource.  They know they can check out the books and enjoy the novelty of the different accents.  In over six years I have only had a couple small items disturbed in a display.  I think this shows how much the students appreciate the effort.  Teachers enjoy the displays too and will often comment or stop to browse the books along side the students.

Now it's time to think of some new displays for the end of March/ early April...