The weather is hot and fine, there’s so many events and celebrations to enjoy, plus summer vacation is right around the corner!
Excitement is sure to be high and all the sunny weather is sure to put your students in a great mood – so why not invite some of that energy into your classroom with an amazing summer-inspired bulletin board?
However, coming up with ideas for a great summer bulletin board for your classroom is easier said than done but don’t worry – here are fifteen different ideas for the perfect summer bulletin board for your classroom.
Check out the ideas below, pick your favorites, and get decorating!
Bee Ready For Summer
This fun idea for a summer themed bulletin board is sure to excite your students for the upcoming vacation time and completely brighten up your classroom.
Start out by decorating your bulletin board to resemble a bright, sunny field with blue skies, sunshine and lots of flowers.
Then, make enough identical paper bees so there is one for each of your students. You can then stick a portrait of their face on each bee.
This can either be a photograph, or ask your students to draw a self-portrait of themselves. This will give them the opportunity to express themselves and put a bit of their own personality into their individual bee.
Then, take all the bees and attach them to your bulletin board. This will make your students feel like a part of a larger team as well as see themselves proudly represented on their classroom wall.
Cool For The Summer
With hot weather and summer sunshine comes lots of ice cream and popsicles!
This colorful bulletin board idea gets your students involved as you ask them to each design their perfect ice cream or popsicle treat. They can use any kind of medium and any colors to make each one a piece of art!
Then, once they are done, you can cut out the ice cream or popsicle and attach them to your bulletin board.
To really evoke the feeling of summer, design the background to resemble a sandy beach and include other bits of summer iconography like the classic beach ball, sunglasses, or flip-flops.
O-Fish-ally Summer!
Summer is closely associated with the sea and beach, so why not turn your bulletin board into a cool underwater scene with lots of dazzling fishes?
You can go all out and see many lots of different kinds of fish like clown fish, sharks, jellyfish, starfish, angel fish, the list goes on!
You can label each one to teach your students more about what creatures live underwater and even tie it to popular novels like ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister.
Plus, the pun of ‘o-fish-ally’ will definitely amuse your students and make them feel fun and playful.
Summertime Sunshine
One of the images that best encapsulates the vibes of summer is the image of the sun wearing a pair of cool shades with a big smile on its face.
Everyone loves the bright sunshine and warm temperatures that come with summer, especially your students. This is because the sunshine means they can head outdoors and play all day long.
So, try to evoke that kind of happiness by turning your bulletin board into a sunshine display. Use lots of yellow and orange colors, even include some foil to reflect and capture the same kind of shine that the sun does.
Around the sun, include photographs of your students’ faces cut out and stuck onto lots of miniature suns.
This bulletin board will perfectly capture your students’ excitement and happiness now that summer has arrived and will keep their mood up throughout the school day.
Have A Sweet Summer
Summertime is the best time of the year to go outdoors and enjoy the warm temperatures and clear skies, and there is no better way to do this than to enjoy a picnic.
Use checkered red and white paper to decorate the background of your bulletin board and fill the space with all of your students’ favorite treats and foods for their ideal summer picnic.
You can include classic dishes like potato salad and fried chicken, fruits like watermelon, and some iconic treats like apple pie and lemon bars.
Include your students, and perhaps as an end of the school year treat, throw a party using the exact same foodstuffs so your students can enjoy their dream summer picnic.
4th Of July
There are many celebrations that take place in the summer but the most iconic one is Independence Day on the 4th of July!
Celebrate this momentous holiday with a great bulletin board that informs your students about Independence Day but also makes them proud to be American!
Use traditional American colors like red, white and blue for the background and border, plus you can include images of some main figures in the War of Independence like George Washington and the founding fathers.
If your students are older, you can include large chunks of text, important dates, and perhaps even a copy of the declaration of independence.
This will inform them of all the important information they need to understand the importance of Independence Day and educate them about the history of their country.
We’re A Bunch Of Fireworks!
For younger children, kindergartners and preschoolers, you can still celebrate the 4th of July with a fun and colorful bulletin board.
An iconic part of 4th of July celebrations include fireworks so why not try and replicate a firework display on your classroom bulletin board? You can use a black background and then use glitter and bright paints to make a huge collage of lots of different painted fireworks.
You can even include portraits of your students to represent them on the bulletin board and also associate them with fireworks – bright, loud, and lots of fun!
Comic-Con
During summer, Comic-Con usually takes place in San Diego and this is a great way for you to celebrate your students’ favorite stories and books with them.
Those who attend Comic-Con often dress up as their favorite characters and talk about their favorite books, films and television shows – so why not do the same with your students?
After you have talked to them about their favorite media, you can gather your findings and represent them on a huge, fun bulletin board.
You can include posters and book covers, pictures of your students favorite characters like Spider-Man or Batman, and even ask them to draw themselves dressed up like their favorite heroes.
Not only will this encourage reading and creative thinking, but it will also give your students the chance to talk about their favorite hobbies and share them with their friends.
International Friendship Day
Speaking of friends, International Friendship Day usually falls during the final day of July and this is the perfect opportunity for you to teach your students about being kind and respecting others.
Your students can make portraits of themselves with their best friends and you can use them to decorate your bulletin board. You can also include lots of examples of friendly behavior such as saying nice things, sharing their toys, and including people in activities.
This will educate your students about how they can make friends as well as give them the opportunity to show their thanks and appreciation for the friends they have.
Father’s Day
Another important celebration in the summer is Father’s Day. It is a time when we remember our fathers , and thank them for everything that they did for us.
As teachers, you can help your students learn more about what makes a good father by creating a big bulletin board full of all the good things their fathers do for them.
It doesn’t even have to celebrate fathers only – it could be step-dads, uncles, grandfathers, brothers, all the important male figures your students have in their lives.
Just like with International Friendship Day, it teaches your students the importance of respecting and thanking the important people in their lives who care for them and love them.
Building Sandcastles
A fun activity you can try out with your students that will get them excited for summer vacation is designing sandcastles.
Building sandcastles is a popular pastime when visiting the beach, and you can use this activity to improve your students’ creative thinking and planning.
With older students, you can talk more about structures and encourage them to think about how they can make their sandcastles strong and sturdy, while younger students can be encouraged to design creative and fun castles.
To really blow their minds, you can use your bulletin board to display some of the most amazing sandcastles and sand sculptures in the world.
This will prove to them that anything is possible if you set your mind to it and that art is not restricted to paper and pencils.
Staying Safe In The Sun
It’s important to remember that even though your students will be out having fun in the sun, they should also know how to keep themselves safe.
You can start off by talking to your students about the dangers of the sun and reminding them that it can cause skin cancer and other serious health problems.
You can use your bulletin board to display all the symptoms of sunstroke and all the steps they should take to stay safe while playing in the sun this summer.
Such steps can include always wearing a hat and sunglasses, wearing sunscreen, drinking plenty of water and staying in the shade when they feel themselves getting too hot.
You can also teach them about stranger danger to encourage them to stick with their friends and family this summer.
Summer Vacations
Get your students excited for summer vacation by asking them about their plans and sharing them with the class. They can create postcards with drawings of themselves off on vacation or visiting relatives or enjoying some time at home to enjoy their hobbies.
Use these postcards to decorate your bulletin board along with lots of summer iconography including blue skies, airplanes, popsicles, suitcases and more!
This will excite your students for their summer vacation plans and also encourage those who don’t have any plans already to think about the best way they can spend their vacation time.
Our Desert Island Paradise
Sunshine, sand and palm trees – all of these things may make you think of beaches but they are also commonly associated with desert islands.
This fun bulletin board idea involves turning your bulletin board into a scene on a desert island. You can even include shark fins in the sea and a single palm tree on your desert island.
Around your desert island, you can include all the things your students would like to take with them.
Ask them if they could have one thing on their desert island, what would it be? They could say their favorite book or toy, or perhaps they would rather take their pet with them.
Ask them to draw their desert island item and then include those drawings on your bulletin board to display their answers.
Sweet Memories
And finally, why not turn your final bulletin board of the academic year into a collage of all the best moments of the previous year.
You can pull together some of your students’ best work and display it on your bulletin board.
Include photographs from field trips, experiments you have done together, books you have read as a class, celebrations and games, and all the important moments you have all experienced together as a team.
It’s a great way to show your students just how much they have grown over the previous year and all the amazing things they have achieved.
Conclusion
The ideas above are only a few ways you can use your classroom bulletin boards to get students excited for summer. There is no right or wrong way to do so, but hopefully the suggestions above will help you find a new approach to your bulletin board.
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
