Kids' crafts are a great addition to bulletin boards.
Bulletin boards in a preschool classroom serve several purposes, including bringing bright, lively colors into the room, displaying the children's artwork and setting the stage for an educational theme. Preschools and daycare centers open during the summer have endless options to choose from for bulletin board design. Summer can be evoked through weather references, seasonal foods, warm-weather activities and nature.
Weather
In the more extreme seasons like summer and winter, the weather tends to take center stage in the lives of most children. Since summer is typically a season of bright, warm sunshine and blue skies, create a bulletin board with a sun theme. Use blue for the sky background; dollar store lightweight vinyl tablecloths work well, as does gift wrap. Then have the children paint paper plates yellow, and draw a sun's face on them. The sun's rays can be made from cut-out handprints, or you can cut fringe around the edges of the plates. Alternatively, photograph each child and glue the cut-out picture to the child's painted plate. Sunglasses also make a fun bulletin board idea, with each child's picture in one "lens" and his name in the other.
Foods
Certain foods evoke thoughts of summer, such as watermelon and ice cream. Have the children make paper watermelon slices with glue-on seeds, which can be used as a counting activity as well. The bulletin board can be designed as a watermelon patch, complete with vines and an ant border. Ice cream treats come in just about every shape and color and a ice pop-themed board will add fun to a classroom. Let the children decorate a basic ice-cream-bar-on-a-stick shape with markers, crayons, glitter, stickers and/or paint. Design the board itself as the side of an ice cream truck with the children's ice cream bars attached like a visual menu.
Activities
Warm-weather, outdoor activities make great summer bulletin board themes. Consider a beach theme, which is easy to accomplish with a sand-and-sea background and shells or sea creatures to represent each child. Camping is a summer activity that incorporates the outdoors. Tents, canteens, campfires, marshmallows, canoes and flashlights each evoke the camping theme on a bulletin board. For July, an all-American red, white and blue board will remind the children of Independence Day fun. Inexpensive bunting and miniature flags are easy to come by in the latter half of June.
Nature
Toddlers are fascinated by nature, and nature is in its full, blooming glory during the summer months. A bug bulletin board is a great way to introduce a unit on bugs and insects, and easily lends itself to crafts. Egg cartons cut apart, turned over, painted and given pipe-cleaner legs and antennae can be made into countless bugs with one or more body sections. A background with a pond or river, grass, flowers and/or woods will create the right environment for the children's bug creations. A "Flower Power" board is also appropriate in the summer, with plenty of green and blue in the background to evoke a sunny summer day.
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