Bulletin Board--December

As I have mentioned before, I update my hallway bulletin board on a monthly basis.  I had an internal conflict with this particular bulletin board.  Many of my colleagues opted to decorate their boards with Christmas themes and images.  Though I celebrate Christmas on a personal level, at the same time I understand that several students within my school have different backgrounds and celebrate other holidays and have other traditions.  Understanding that I would not be able to address the plethora of traditions, I decided to take a common theme that can be found in any culture, background, religion, etc. 

On the Scholastic website I found several December bulletin board ideas.   I loved the idea that showed a world, wreathed by a holly garland with the words "Peace on Earth" next to it.  Associating holly with Christams, I was hesitant to include it on my bulletin board.  However, I did a little research and discovered the following things about holly: 1)It is one of the few plants that can thrive in the harshest environments, 2)People hung holly around their windows and doors in order to keep out evil spirits, and 3)The bright green leaves and red berries were a reminder that even on the harshest and darkest of days, Spring is always around the corner.  Using this information I conducted a mini lesson on symbols.  We discussed how the holly could serve as a symbol in our world today.  My students came to the conclusion that in our 'winter of discontent' (meaning the turmoil, wars, despair that we are smack in the middle), the holly serves as our reminder that 'spring' or a fresh start/new beginning is around the corner.  After we finished discussing the holly, we talked about the symbol of peace: the white dove.  We read a short story and viewed a music video.  Both were very different in content, but both had the same message: peace.  I passed out copies of a white dove (found on the Internet) and asked the students to fill their white doves with thoughts of peace for the upcoming year.

To create the world, I projected a cartoon image of the globe onto the wall and traced the outlines on green paper.  I cut out the pieces and glued them onto blue butcher paper.  I then stapled the bottom half of the world and then stuffed it with scrap pieces of paper.  Then, I finished stapling the rest of the world onto the bulletin board.  The stuffing helps make the globe stand out, and gives the board a nice 3D effect.