Christmas Owl Bulletin Board

I am super proud of my Christmas bulletin board. It went through a lot of last minute changes. I planned all of my bulletin boards at the beginning of the school year in a two week span, and I thought I had completed everything for all of the boards for the entire year. But as I was pulling out the Christmas decorations for this board I realized that I had forgotten to complete the larger pieces of my bulletin board. Oops! 

In the end I still really liked how it turned out, even though it barely hinted at the white Christmas decked with Christmas lights like I had been going for. But we had a fairly dry December so it all worked out. 

                                  

Aren't they adorable?? I put a lot of time into these guys, so you better think so! I drew the sweaters entirely on my own, which is why they are a little less polished than everything else. The caps and bow-tie are a hybrid of free internet clip art and my personal touches from Photoshop. It was an unnecessary amount of effort, when I discovered that Etsy sells clipart a few days later.
 
The ornaments and lightbulbs were purchased from an Etsy store. I did recolor the ornaments to match the color of the light bulbs.

To create the owl snowman, I just traced the original owl onto white construction paper and drew in the buttons with a sharpie. I also drew the carrot free-hand on orange construction paper.

The gift and the hat were free clipart from the internet, but I recolored the hat to match the gloves, which were purchased in a set with the ornaments (I think).

The original plan was to turn the leaves of the tree into holly leaves and drape the Christmas lights from branch to branch. And I also wanted to cut out some white construction paper to run across the bottom of the board to look like a blanket of snow, but obviously I didn't get to that either. Just some cute ideas to keep in mind for later.

Next: Spring OWL Bulletin Board

Thanksgiving Owl Bulletin Board

Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday. I love the Americana, the tradition, the Christian heritage, the anticipation of Christmas starting the minute the dishes are washed and put away. It is awesome. This Thanksgiving bulletin board also ended up begin one of my favorite boards to prepare. It actually was the first one that I made and served as the inspiration for the whole "interchangeable bulletin board" idea in the first place. 

Thanksgiving OWL Bulletin Board

 

I got the inspiration for the pilgrim hats from a clipart that I found on the internet, but drew and redesigned myself in Photoshop. (It took hours!! A few days later I discovered that I can buy all kinds of super cool clipart from Etsy. Next time I will just buy the clipart. It took way too much time and frustration to do it all myself.)

If I could do it all over again, I would change the phrase to "Seniors Giving Thanks." I thought of it too late. 

There were pumpkins on the board with the Thanksgiving owls, but for some reason they didn't make it into the picture. I got the black-and-white clipart from a free classroom resources coloring page. I added the color myself in Photoshop.  The pumpkins were kind of a disaster. I definitely could have done better. I wasn't thinking about how the stem and curly-que would do in the laminator when I chose them. The smaller ones were all bent up and folded over, so I had to just cut them off. 

 

Next: Christmas Owl Bulletin Board

Fall September Owl Bulletin Board

The school where I teach starts school the last week of August. By the end of September, the air is a bit cooler and the students are finally almost adjusted to the new school year, but they are also in need of a little refresh. Since everything is so new, it is hard to totally change up the board. I just added some fabric leaves that I found at Michaels. They were really pretty leaves too. I just sticky-tacked them to the board. Occasionally a leaf would fall off, but my students would always crack up because the leaves were falling off the trees outside too. 

Oh, and if you are wondering how students feel about the "less mature" bulletin board for high school seniors… They often mentioned that they enjoyed how fun it was. They said that the board wasn't stuffy and boring like a high school board usually is (loaded with information but not all that interesting to look at). 

Fall September OWL Bulletin Board

For a closer up of the leaves:

Next: Thanksgiving Owl Bulletin Board

Interchangeable Back-to-School Owl Bulletin Board

We are just days away from the end of the school year here! It has been an amazing year. It has been challenging, as my role at the school completely changed just two weeks before the start of the year. It has be difficult, readjusting to civilian (non-ministry) life. But it has also been a joy because I have had a chance to fulfill my career pursuits and purpose. 

Because my role at the school changed so dramatically at the last minute, I knew that I wouldn't have time to change my bulletin board and classroom decor every 4-6 weeks like I really should. My goal was to come up with some sort of board that would have the same base for the entire year and I could just change the accessories from season to season. 

My classroom had two bulletin boards. One board was used entirely for memos for class, schedules, and important paper. It was also very difficult to get to. It was bottom of the board was beneath the top of the two heavy teacher's desks in the room. I put a paper background that coordinated with my other board and alternated the double-border from the other board. 

My theme for the year was owls and I used the verse Colossians 1:10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knOWLedge of God; 

It wasn't so obvious, but did you see what I did there? OWL. Knowledge? … ok, so I know it is lame, but it was a great verse to use for my class. 

So this was the standard background that I used on my board. A sky blue paper background and a double-layered green then yellow corrugated border. 

From there, I double-sided taped on the tree that I had no intention of moving throughout the year. (See below.) I personally do not like stapling through bulletin board materials that I spend a fortune on. So if possible I   laminate all of my materials than tape or sticky tack them. If I absolutely have to, I will put a single thumbtack through a corner of the item rather than two holes per corner for the staple.

Because I teach high school seniors, I geared my bulletin board toward seniors. So I used the phrase "Seniors Increasing in Knowledge." It is slightly crooked but it does the trick. The owls and trees are from Carson-Dellosa, which I purchased at a local teacher supply store. The letters and apples were also purchased at a local teacher supply store, but I do not remember what brand. 

For the rest of the school year, I will be adding "accessories" to the board that I created and designed myself using Adobe Photoshop and/or legally free clipart from the internet. 

Back-to-School OWL Bulletin Board

Next: Fall September OWL Bulletin Board

Missions Baskets & More

My church just celebrated its 25th annual missions conference. It was an incredible time! We took on four new missionaries, ordained a man from our church who will be leaving in a few weeks with his family for the mission field, and had three returning missionary families. They will be scattered throughout the entire globe - Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and the remote Pacific islands. Some of them I know personally and some of them I met for the first time, but by the end of the conference they all felt like family.

In effort to honor missionaries, I mentioned a few weeks ago about missions store or closet. This idea certainly does not work for everyone. There is the whole concept of stocking it and storing it, not to mention maintaining it. Something that might be a little more a feasible for your ministry is something as simple as a missions basket or missions gift bag.

Instead of having a "store" where the missionary or their family get to go in and select all of the items that they want, you could instead put together a collection of similar items into a basket or a gift bag (or one of those fun reusable shopping bags with your church logo imprinted on it). This might help you control the value of the gifts that your missionaries receive - if you are on a strict budget. Or it will make sure that your missionaries receive a fair amount of product or gift.

It might even be fun if you had individual families sign up to put together the baskets. (Less work for you!)

Other ways to get additional families involved would be:

1. Allow families to host the missionaries in their homes overnight. It will save you money on hotels and will be a life-changing experience and wonderful memory for your church family. Be sure to carefully select the families that you allow to host missionaries though. You want this to be a good experience for the missionary and a good representation of your church.
2. Have families sign up to provide a meal for the missionaries in their home, at a restaurant, or on the church property. 
3. Let people volunteer to provide services for the missionaries, such as car washing or mechanic tuneups, computer repair, hair cuts & styles (if professionals), manicures & pedicures, babysitting so that mom & dad missionary can go on a date, etc. 

God didn't call me to the mission field, but I have always been completely willing to go. I love missionaries and want to do everything in my power to help them understand how much I love and appreciate all that they do. I may never be able to visit that missionary on the field, but I want them to know that they always have a home at my church.