Bulletin Board Art Comes Home

Bulletin boards at home are usually demoted to the job of memo pad or catchall. But schoolteachers have long realized the potential of bulletin boards: they can transform a classroom from a pumpkin patch to an Easter parade, plunge students back to prehistoric times or fly them to the Orient. If schoolteachers use bulletin boards to stimulate, motivate, praise, teach, and beautify, why not do the same with yours at home?

Decorate your bulletin board to honor a birthday child, welcome the season or a guest, reinforce a home evening lesson or a scripture-study topic, display photos from your last family outing, or promote needed character traits. The possibilities are endless.

All you need to start is a good-sized board, some thumbtacks or pins, and a few basic art supplies. You can collect pictures, tinsel, fabric scraps, favorite cartoons, and stencils to help create displays. You may want to start a file or donate a large drawer to the cause.

Encourage children to develop their talents by asking them to help decorate the bulletin board. Frequent changing of the display keeps the excitement alive; in fact, taking down a favorite design is the hardest part of this art form!—Jan M. Smith, Key Center, Washington