As a brief interlude to The Great Weeding of 2015-2016, I want to get back to my guiding words for 2016 of Create and Share. Late last week, I was prepping my April bulletin board for Poetry Month. I have pretty good organizational systems in place for keeping my bulletin board documents together in folders on my computer, but my system for keeping all the stuff for said bulletin boards is a bit, umm, shaky. As I was rifling through my stuff looking for some leaves, I realized that a lot of the things I put on most of my boards are smaller than the size of a standard piece of paper. So, after finding my leaves, and taking down my March bulletin board, I had a brilliant idea:

So it may not necessarily be revolutionary, but I wanted to point out a few things:

1. I used a standard, gallon-sized Ziploc.I like the extra little tab at the top! I wrote the title/basic subject of the bulletin board in the little white space.
2. I took a picture of the bulletin board and taped it to the front. This way, when I go to put it up again, I know exactly where everything goes and what all goes into it.
3. I wrote the month (March) at the TOP of the Ziploc, where you zip it closed. Eventually, my plan is to put all of these in some kind of stand up organizer, arranged by month (January – December). So writing the month at the top allows quick reference so I don’t have to rifle through all my bulletin board Ziplocs to find what I’m looking for.
4. I put everything I need for this bulletin board in this bag except for the title letters, because they are part of a set of letters. But that’s where the photo comes in handy, so all I have to do is pull out the letters I need.

So that’s it! Some of the kinks I haven’t quite worked out yet is what to do with some of those oversized things that won’t fit in a gallon-sized Ziploc. Anyone have any ideas for storage of these oversized items? I’d love to know!!

Also, how do YOU keep your bulletin boards together? I always try a new idea at least once. 🙂

BONUS Create & Share:

As an aside, here is my April bulletin board. I purchased letters from…Scholastic, I think, and wrote some of the popular types of poetry my middle schoolers read & study. Then, I wrote a basic definition of what that kind of poetry is. I had my art teacher paint the brown trunk for me (she’s the best!). Note the wordage on the trunk – and the title! 🙂

Happy Poetry Month, everyone! 🙂