Bulletin board space in a classroom can be tight. A valuable commodity, if you will, because teachers want every inch of their classroom to be well used and be a resource for learning. Even the walls. This is true even in a preschool classroom. Of particular importance, is bulletin board space for circle time.
But what happens when you teach preschool in your home and don’t have a designated classroom? Your wall space is even more limited.
Read how I created a learning space in my home when I didn’t feel like I had any space.
The solution you ask? Create a mobile circle time bulletin board.
The Advantages of a Mobile Circle Time Bulletin Board
The easy answer…it’s a way to give you more space when you have very little to begin with. And this was exactly what I needed.
A group of four friends and I started up a preschool co-op we run out of our homes. The reasons for participation vary for each mother from lifestyle and educational beliefs to time and finances. We all appreciate giving and receiving input about our child’s education and working together to educate as we feel best, both as trained and experienced professionals and mothers alike.
Be sure to read how to organize your own preschool co-op.
Unfortunately, none of us have a room to dedicate solely to a preschool classroom. Whatever room class takes place in must also serve as a genuine living or play space during non-school hours, so in our preschool we have no bulletin boards or centers that are permanent. Everything has to be mobile.
How to Create a Mobile Circle Time Bulletin Board
Our solution to needing a mobile classroom begins with the circle time bulletin board. Since I’m first in the teaching rotation this fall, I volunteered to put this bulletin board together.
The Basics of the Bulletin Board
Because even the bulletin board must be mobile, I selected a tri-fold presentation board to make our circle time board which is perfect size for our small class. I love how it folds away and stores nicely under a bed, in a closet, or in my case, between the piano and the wall.
Just a tip if you want to try this, buy the thickest tri-fold presentation board you can find. After passing this around to a few different houses, or even through regular use, it will start to look a little worn by the end of the year. I promise you will not regret spending and extra few dollars on the thicker, higher quality board.
There are four sections to this bulletin board. Along the top are alphabet cards. One the right side is math, including the calendar. (Here, the calendar serves an opportunity for more math instruction rather than instruction about time). The center is for phonemic awareness and phonics practice, and the left side is weather and the days of the week. The weather and days of the week printables I found at Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Alphabet Practice
Each day we sing the alphabet song, allowing the students to point to the letters as we sing them. I chose cards will real photos and laminated these cards, even though they were glassy card stock, because I know the children may use them as manipulatives. I lined this portion of the bulletin board with contact paper and used permanent double sided clear tape to adhere the cards. This does not actually make the cards permanent, but it does keep them where they belong, but the contact paper and lamination make it easy to remove the cards if needed, such as when you want to emphasize the focus letter. (Velcro dots work great, too!)
Math Practice
The right side of the tri-fold is for math concepts. As a group we decided not to have a focus letter or shape of the week, but to integrate those concepts into our daily curriculum. Research shows that in preschool practice in one to one correspondence counting is more important than number recognition, and that one to one correspondence practice does not have to relate to a specific focus number so we chose to integrate it into meaningful mathematics.
Each day the students will check in and participate in recording information via graphing. This is as simple as students giving their opinions of which farm animal they like better: cow or rooster. They will place a marker for their opinion in the appropriate place on the board.
The calendar is just a printout I made in a word document. It is in a clear protective sleeve so that it can be changed out monthly. Laminated and seasonally colored number cards will be added as we work our way through the month. Special events, birthdays, and holidays will also be recognized, as well as preschool days. Also during calendar time is when students will receive a daily dose in patterning practice.
Be sure to read about my math concept board for preschoolers.
Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
The middle portion of the tri-fold is for phonemic awareness and phonics. The three squares backed in green polka dot paper is for sound position identification. (Do you hear /m/ at the beginning of the word mat, or then end?) The large blue gingham outlined rectangle will serve as a place to put the photos used for phonemic awareness.
Weather and Days of the Week
The left side of the tri-fold is for weather, seasons, and days of the week practice. The days of the week review the terms “yesterday”, “today” and “tomorrow.” I found all three of these printables at Confessions of a Homeschooler. One thing I might add to the poster board is a weather chart that graphs the weather all month long. This would make a great class project and provide excellent and realistic practice in larger one to one correspondence amounts.
A Few More Tips for Creating a Mobile Circle Time
- Print on card stock for added durability, even if you don’t think it will be necessary. You won’t regret using tough card stock, while you might regret using regular printer paper if that something gets torn or bent.
- Print in color. The kiddies enjoy it so much! Color is inviting and provides tons of opportunities for extra teaching. Back your paper in color, too! It makes a bulletin board more inviting and gives it a “real classroom” feel.
- Laminate everything! Never underestimate how rough kids can be on things. Even if something isn’t meant to be handled by kids, the students will get to it (or a younger sibling), so you may as well laminate it.
- When you first introduce a bulletin board like this to the kiddies, be clear in establishing some rules and expectations. I don’t believe in bulletin boards that are “hands off.” But I do believe in teaching children behavioral expectations when using my teaching tools. So, this bulletin board can only be used with an adult and can only be used in the specific ways in which it is intended.
- For storing all those little pieces for the calendar and weather, laminate a few pages of blank or scrap paper. Send them through a three hole punch and put them into a binder. Now that they are laminated you can use that double sided permanent clear tape to stick those pieces in a binder. I find this especially helpful because everything remains organized and visible. Note: more cards are on the back side of the paper in the picture below. And, I also use this same system for the month names and numbers.
- Finally, and most importantly, there are hundreds of awesome circle time bulletin boards to look to for ideas, but which one is right for you? Decide on what you’d like to include based on the needs and level of your child(ren). Do what you feel is best.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
This is awesome! I am doing a little preschool from my home and I have the same problem with no dedicated space. I came up with the same solution to use the display board. Mine is very similar, but I didn’t put the ABC cards on top. That is such a great addition! I am going to add those before school starts. Thanks for the inspiration!
This is an AWESOME idea! It turned out great. I love it!
Thanks for sharing with my Super Link Party! 🙂
What a great idea using the board. What I like even more is your idea of a preschool co-op with your friends! That’s brilliant and I’ve never heard of it before. Something I may start to consider. Looking forward to exploring your blog more.
The board came out great. I have almost as many kids as the co-op preschool! I noticed in your about section that your son is 3 and your daughter is younger. Do they both participate in the preschool or is it primarily kids who are three? Ours are 21 months and I am wondering when you started the preschool? We do educational activities at home but have not tried a formal circle time yet.
I participated in a similar preschool co-op last year after my son had just turned two. He was a year younger than the other kids, but still got a lot out of it. In fact, I’m fairly certain that is why he already knows all his letter names and sounds, and he is fairly good at one to one correspondence, too. This year, William is still the youngest, but a lot of the kids are new to the co-op, and the gap in ages is not as significant. Ages for the entire group range from just three years to just turned four. The ability levels still range widely, though. Some kiddies don’t know any letter names or sounds, yet the oldest is ready for decoding, and she most likely will be reading by the end of the year. This is why I have written my own curriculum, which I will post about at the end of September.
That is really inspiring. I look forward to reading your curriculum. Thank you for answering my questions.
I plan to post more about the co-op. I forgot to mention, though…because each of us moms are close friends, we work hard to make our co-op successful. One thing we do is that whoever is not teaching volunteers to either take the younger sibling (such as my 16 month old), or that mom stays to work as a aide, while watching younger siblings as well.
I love this set-up. I am going to have to put one of these together for my preschooler. Saw this over at The Imagination Tree Link-up. Glad you shared. (Momma’s Fun World)
I really wish I would have made my calendar mobile. Some days we homeschool in our studio upstairs. Some days we work in the downstairs play nook. I’d love to be able to take it outside, too. We only do our calendar board when we work upstairs. This is great!
What a CLEVER idea! I think the uses for this are endless in many different classroom settings. Thanks for linking up & sharing on TGIF. Have a GREAT day,
Beth =-)
Awesome! I have a little hanging chart I use for the months and days of the week, but I think I like your board much better. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
Congratulations! Circle Time for the Mobile Classroom is one of this week’s features on my Super Link Party! Come on by & grab a featured button! 🙂
http://earning-my-cape.blogspot.com/2012/09/super-link-party-17.html
DO you have a blog button? If so, I will be happy to display it on my sidebar for the week, under Featured Guests. 🙂
You can leave me a comment on my blog or email me by clicking the “contact me” tab on the left of my blog page. 🙂
I love it! Thank you so much for posting on Saturday Show and Tell. I hope you’ll be back this week to link up some more great ideas! Have a great rest of the week!
-Mackenzie
http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com
Hi Sarah!
Thank you for linking up this informative post in Homeschooling on the Cheap this past week! You were a top clicked post and I’m featuring you today! stop over and see your feature! I can’t wait to see what you share again this week!
Kelli
http://3boysandadog.com/deals/2012/homeschooling-on-the-cheap-september-6-2012/
Great idea for a mobile classroom. Thanks for sharing how you put your board together at the Sunday Showcase.
I love this..I am currently a preschool teacher and wanted ways to get around center restrictions in my center and this was it!!!
Awesome , I really like it.
I LOVE this idea. What size is the board?
It is a full sized presentation board that kids use for science fair projects and such.
Like 5 feet tall?? I think I found some at Wal-Mart but mine does not look as big as one in the picture…If you could share the dimensions I would truly appreciate. thanks
Oh, no, mine is only three feet tall. The center section is two feet wide and the flaps are each one foot wide. I know you can purchase them at Walmart, so you’re probably looking at the right thing. Although, I bought mine at an office store because they tend to be about twice as thick, (and twice the price), but so much more durable. Hope this helps!
This is the one I purchased. Yours looks so big with the letters at the top. Thank you so much!!!!
This is the solution that I have been searching for! Thank you so much! Love the math board too!
It is a wonderful solution to small spaces or if you don’t have a formal teaching room and need to keep things put away. I have a math board for my 3-4’s class I’ll be posting about in August, and also a revised version of this board as well.
I love your ideas and would like to incorporate some of them into my preschool classroom. You stated that you would post more information or have items, like your lesson plan templates, available for download. As schools in our area start in August, how soon could you make items available? Thanks in advance for your ideas!
I hope to get them posted within the next week. I understand that the new school year is quickly approaching, so I’ll do my best to be timely.