Art Education Daily

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Blooming With God's Word for Sunday School Bulletin Boards

Young students may cut out the stem, leaves and centers of the flowers. Each child either writes his own name on the center of his or her flower or the teacher may choose to take a photo of the student and cut this out in a circle shape to create the center of the flower. Then the teacher staples these to the bulletin board. Over the passing of several Sundays, petals with the scriptural references will be added around each flower's center as the student successfully memorizes his or her verses. Do not make all of the verses too difficult for little ones to manage; choose age appropriate verses. Some students find memorizing scriptures very difficult and some of them have additional learning problems that Sunday School teachers are not always made aware of. Be very careful to invest and encourage all your small charges in the building of their flowers. In kindergarten, students may have their feelings hurt by not filling out their flowers as easily as others!

Scripture verses that can be memorized by students who are either five or six years of age:

Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Deuteronomy 6:5 - You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Isaiah 43:5 - Do not be afraid for I am with you.
Isaiah 54:13 - All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.
Psalm 1:6 - The LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 19:1 - The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 23:1 - The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
Psalm 34:14 - Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Psalm 103:8 - The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
Psalm 118:24 - This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 136:1 - Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Psalm 139:14 - I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Proverbs 20:11 - Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.
Proverbs 30:5 - Every word of God proves true.
Matthew 1:21 - She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters.
Matthew 22:37 - Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
Matthew 22:39 - You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mark 10:14 - Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Luke 6:31 - Do to others as you would have them do to you.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 6:35 - 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.'
John 8:12 - Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 10:11 - I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:14 - I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.
John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31 - Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
Ephesians 6:1 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:13 - I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.
Hebrews 12:1 - ...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
I Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I John 3:16 - This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
I John 4:7-8 - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Fall or Four Seasons Bulletin Board for Sunday School

Children may draw and color pictures of an apple tree in each of the four seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Staple these together and insert them into a book jacket shaped like a large apple. This book jacket may be cut from red or green construction paper. The title of the book should be the same as the scripture included on the bulletin board, just left.

God has made the summer and winter. Psalm 74:17

In the open areas of the bulletin board, staple pictures or photographs of an apple tree in every season so that students may be given ideas about what they may include in their own drawings. I will include some clip art below that depicts apple trees during different seasons for this use. Read the Terms of Use before downloading.

Apple trees have pink blossoms during spring season.

Apple trees have delicious fruit during the fall season.

Snow clings to the branches of apple trees during the winter season.

Links to apple templates for the four seasons bulletin board:

A Thanksgiving Bulletin Board for Sunday School

Place a large horn of plenty in the center of the board, as well as some fruits and vegetables in each corner. Write the verse over the Horn of Plenty.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is Good! Psalm 106:1

Children may draw or use patterns to fill the horn of plenty. Have them memorize the verse and write it on a picture of their own horn of plenty.

Links to more horn of plenty themed activities and fruit templates:

Monday, October 10, 2011

Easter Bulletin Boards

Children celebrating the coming of Spring with bunnies and cookies.

Write an egg-citing story

"Bunny Tales" bulletin board

"Announcing The Egg Factory"

The next set of photos above show young students celebrating Easter in their classroom. The essays were about bunny tales that the children made up. There is also ''an egg factory" depicted above that was located in the reading corner of her classroom. Children colored their own eggs for this display. It is good to design bulletin boards that give children the opportunity to participate actively in decorating their classroom. This reinforces their sense of ownership and accomplishment in their own education. Their learning spaces should look positive and fun by all means! If children want to decorate their eggs with shapes, colors or even religious symbols, teachers should let them express themselves freely. It is not up to the teacher to control every child's "way" of integrating their own faith or interests into art projects. A compassionate teacher merely provides the space and opportunity for the freedom of expression and learning in the arts. Public school teachers may be tempered by the state, but the children are certainly free to express their own religious beliefs. The government pays teachers with taxes that originate from people with many religious faiths and this is why teachers should be tolerant of the religious differences of their students. But students are free participants in public schools and operate under less restrictive policies. In my mother’s rural classroom, most all of the children came from some sort of Christian culture. In contrast to the classrooms of yesterday, essays and art assignments that make room for multiple perspectives on faith topics should be anticipated in contemporary, public school districts.

More ideas for Easter Bulletin Boards:

Autumn Celebrations Bulletin Boards

A Pumpkin Patch bulletin board

"Purr-fectly Wonderful Cat Tales!"

"It's Owl-oween!"

"It's Owl-oween," up-close.

"Haunted Helpers"

Above are some marvelous ideas for fall bulletin boards that are sure to please, not frighten, little ones. My favorite is the pumpkin patch at the top. It's full of autumn colors; I can almost smell the cinnamon in the air and feel the crunching of leaves under my rake.
The Purr-fectly Wonderful Cat Tales bulletin board is for children's essays. In this exercise, the students were assigned the task of writing a creative tall tale about a cat. It's Owl-oween displayed essays by children based on facts, not superstitions, about owls. Children learned the difference between what is true about these remarkable creatures and what is folklore. They also completed a fun art project with paper owls to go along with the unit. And the small "haunted helpers" bulletin board showed students which classroom duties they would be assigned that week. Each child would have a little ghost assigned to him with his name on it. If your ghost was seen behind the tombstone with a certain chore written on the front, then you where expected to take care of that duty.

More links to Autumn Bulletin Board Ideas:

Thanksgiving Bulletin Boards

Natives and Pilgrims are displayed on the bulletin board

A pilgrim girl with a very large turkey leg

A corner view of Thanksgiving bulletin boards.

A Mayflower corner

My mother always used Thanksgiving time as an opportunity to teach her young students about the discovery of the new world and also about the lives and identities of Native Americans and Pilgrims. Students would often write stories about Thanksgiving themes or papers about American history. These would then become part of the bulletin board display.

The migration of geese is a bit more unusual subject for autumn bulletin boards but it is nice to study a less traditional theme now and again during the holidays as well. Migration is an ordinary and noisy event here in the mid-west. As a child I would look forward to watching the gathering and flight patterns of giant flocks of birds, not just geese, during the Autumn season. Including reminders of these kinds of everyday changes in the environment of a child's education can help them to remember practical scientific information.

"Some Like It Hot!" a unit on migration

More Thanksgiving Day Bulletin Boards:

Matter, Math, Industry, Continents, & Planet Bulletin Boards

"What's The Matter"

"Action Fractions"

How we use plants

The continents

Fast facts about the planets

The five sample bulletin boards above show students how to subcategorize information about the topics they are studying. This helps develop important methods of retrieving information from their memories. Many studies have shown that if children can learn "how" to think visually about what they know and how to retrieve facts from those visualizations, they will test better. In this way teachers are stimulating the learning processes, not just decorating their bulletin boards.

More Ideas for Science Bulletin Boards:

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