Preventing Student Board-em!

I have been working on my classroom boards, it takes more time than I thought! Most teachers at my school go in and work on their boards, desk placement, and organizing materials the first weekend of August. I have many things going on that weekend so I thought I would be proactive and get started early! I have three boards decorated. A Frozen board, Boggle board, and a Christian theme board that has the school theme for the year. I work in a Catholic school. One board I left blank for displaying student work throughout the year.

This is my Boggle Board. Each week we will play Boggle to enhance higher levels of thinking and vocabulary. This is how it works: Each week I will put up new letters on the board. The students will try and create as many words as possible in their time given. I will use a timer, oh yes, it's timed! The students will compete against each other and I will keep a running list of the weekly winners. The handouts are in the large manila folders and the letters are in the smaller manila folder. I will have the students check the words they question, by looking them up in a dictionary. If the word is listed, they get credit for it, if it is not listed, then I will have final say. Middle school students love to compete and the fun activity is educational so it's a win win! The Boggle letters I got from Teachers Pay Teachers website. TpT has many great products.www.teacherspayteachers.com I laminated brightly colored card stock with my at home laminating machine and cut them in squares to use to attach the letters to. I used velcro tabs so I can change out the letters every week.

My Frozen Board has a purpose I promise! When I teach 'Theme" to my eighth graders, for a theme analysis assignment I am incorporating Frozen. On the board is the lyrics of "Let it Go". The 6th laminated card stock is asking the students what their "theme song is"? When it is time for  my theme mini-lessons, I will have the students bring in lyrics (school appropriate and approved by me in advance) that they feel best represents themselves. We will do an analysis of the lyrics and see if in fact the song they chose still fits. I will model this for them using "Let it Go", and then they will move on to independent practice using "Let it Go" while I circulate the room. We will then come together and discuss whole class and if everyone is ready, they will move on to their lyrics that they brought in. This is great for a close reading strategy as well. There is much more to the "Theme" unit than what I have here! The Frozen poster was only $5.00 at Wal-Mart. The music notes I purchased at Mardel Christian & Education store. The lyrics I downloaded from the internet and put them on card stock. I laminated the card stock with my at home laminating machine. The letters that I spelled "Theme" with are from Michael's.

This is my Christian Theme Board. We have a new biblical theme every year. This year's theme is: "Grow in wisdom, age, and grace…and Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and Men."  Luke 2:52 

I added bright and fun colors to draw the students attention. I purchased the inspirational posters from Mardel Christian & Education store.

A website I recently came across I love is: www.erincondren.com 

I will post again in early to mid August with my first day lesson plans. Feedback is always welcome. Enjoy the last bit of summer!