Interactive Bulletin Board

Description of bulletin board

● I created this bulletin board to help students gain more exposure to community helpers
and what tools they use to do their jobs. One of my weeks at placement, the students had
a guidance lesson. Their guidance counselor comes in periodically to teach them a
lesson. The lesson she taught while I was there was different than normal. Typically,
they learn about feelings and emotions, but this time they learned about community
helpers. That lesson and its corresponding topic gave me the idea for my bulletin board.
I had previously had the idea that I wanted to do some kind of matching activity. I spent
some time trying to figure out how I could connect the two ideas. I also spent some time
researching different ideas. I eventually found the idea of community helpers and their
tools and thought that it would be perfect for a matching activity. I found a template on
canva that had different community helpers. I chose some of them and found two tools
that each would use through canva. I took the images of the community helpers, their
tools, and a title and printed them out. I laminated them to help them hold up better,
especially the pieces students would be moving. I created my interactive bulletin board
on a poster boardbecause my host teacher uses all of her bulletin boards and I thought a
poster board would be better for my idea. The poster board could easily be hung up, but I
also think the activity could work by laying the poster board on the ground. Especially
for first graders, I thought the ground might be better because reaching the top of a hung
up poster might be difficult. To create the interactive bulletin board, I taped the pieces
that would always stay in the same spot. I used velcro to make a spot for each of the
tools next to the corresponding community helper. I also made an envelope that the tool
pieces could be put into. I used velcro to make the envelope removable, so that students
could access it better, as well as the pieces inside. Also, I wrote the corresponding
community helper on the back of each tool, so that the activity could be self correcting.
Pictures
Purpose of the bulletin board
● The purpose of the bulletin board was to give the students more exposure to community
helpers. Also, the bulletin board helps students to have more exposure to the roles and
responsibilities of community helpers by seeing their tools. Students have to understand
what the community helper does, as well as the tools they use to do their jobs. I also
hoped that this activity would be fun for the students as well. I always enjoyed matching
activities and solving problems, so I thought that this could be fun for the students. Also,
the purpose of the interactive bulletin board was to expand on the lesson the guidance
counselor did with the students and further their understanding.

How it was introduced

● As I said above, this topic was first introduced by the guidance counselor. I took the
topic that she introduced and taught to them and used it to create an activity for the
students to practice what they learned. I first introduced the bulletin board to the students
by reminding them of the lesson and what they learned previously. I explained the
bulletin board by showing that the envelope is removable and contains pieces that have
pictures of the tools. I showed that the pieces can be velcroed next to each community
helper. I also explained that each community helper has two tools and that the students
can check their answers by flipping the tool cards over to see the answer written on the
back.

How students interacted with it

● I think the students enjoyed the interactive bulletin board activity. Not every student
completed the activity, but the students used it as an early finisher activity throughout the
day. Typically, throughout the day the students will have some down time after
completing other activities. Students will typically draw, play with play doh, or work on
other work, so the interactive bulletin board was easy to offer as another activity option.
Some students completed the activity individually while others worked in partners or a
small group. I enjoyed seeing the students use it individually, but I was especially
interested to see the students use it with a partner or small group. I liked to see the
dynamics of the students working together.