Easter Bulletin Board

I was responsible for the April bulletin board upstairs in front of the K3 classroom. I'm not really sure why we rotate decorating this board. I have almost too much space outside of my own classroom including a bulletin board that I have to keep up with. I never realized how quickly student work can seem out dated. For example, the life-size leprechauns the students made for St. Patrick's day seemed out of place by only a week later. Therefore, I try to rotate student work hanging outside of my classroom on a regular basis and that takes enough time to keep track of.  But anyways, I was assigned this board and really had no idea what to do. It being a Catholic school, I knew to concentrate on the  true meaning of Easter. Having never done a religious bulletin board I went searching online for ideas and that is when I came across this photo

http://www.boardsgalore.com/RobinW.html

I liked the look of it but knew I wouldn't have time to make such an elaborate cross. It honestly wasn't my top priority with the zoo field trip, grades, report cards, conferences, etc. all falling within that same week. Therefore, I decided to do my own version of this bulletin board:

Once a month, the 5th graders, which are K5's "Spirit Buddies" come to our classroom. This time it happened to be just before Palm Sunday. Therefore I told the story of Palm Sunday and how people used palm leaves to worship Jesus. We then brainstormed a list of ways we can show Jesus our love today whether it be by loving others, singing praise songs, going to church, reading the Bible, etc. Then the 5th graders helped my K5 students to make and decorate their own palm leaves. This worked well and the students all seemed to really enjoy themselves. Plus they would make the perfect backdrop for my Easter bulletin board. I then made a very simple cross and added photos I had taken of some of my students. Not everyone's picture made it on the bulletin board but everyone's palm leaf did. It had to be up by Monday, April 2nd and I was sick all weekend. I managed enough energy to go into the school Sunday and hang it all up. Unfortunately just a few days later this board was taken down so that painters could come and paint the main floor hallway over break. However, I was glad to find that my efforts didn't go to waste as the bulletin board did get hung back up soon after break. As you can see it is very simple and the idea is totally stolen but it didn't look half bad after all.