By now, the season of Fall is in full swing and Halloween is just around the corner – so there is plenty of inspiration to take from October when it comes to decorating your classroom bulletin board.
However, if you are stuck for ideas, then here are 15 amazing ideas for your classroom bulletin board that are all inspired by the themes of October.
So, let’s jump in so you can find the best idea that speaks the most to you!
Nuts About Fall
Fall is a huge season of change and a lot of people agree that it is also one of the prettiest seasons.
The trees begin to change their color and lose their leaves and nuts, animals start to migrate and settle down to hibernation, and nights become longer and longer.
For some people, all of this change may be a bit sad so try and celebrate it with your students with a bulletin board decorated with lots of acorns, large red leaves, bare trees and starry nights.
This will allow your students to see the beauty of the season and take away a more optimistic view on Fall.
Welcome To The Pumpkin Patch
Themes of harvest and bounty are also related to October as this is the time when a lot of vegetables and fruit become ripe for eating and enjoying.
One such fruit is the pumpkin (yes, pumpkin is in fact a fruit) and pumpkins are a huge icon of October due to their relation to Halloween too.
So, why not make a pumpkin-inspired bulletin board?
One idea you can try out is to make lots of drawings of pumpkins with your students, cut them out, and then stick a photograph of each student on their respective pumpkins.
Allow your students to pour their personality into their pumpkin and see themselves proudly represented on the bulletin board as part of a team in the pumpkin patch!
A Question Of Pumpkins
Speaking of pumpkins, I bet you’re surprised that pumpkins are actually a fruit and not a vegetable.
This is an interesting question to put towards your students to see what they say and a great way to explain to them the differences between fruit and vegetables.
Jumping from this, you could do a huge informational bulletin board all about pumpkins – what they are, how they grow in different stages, and what they can be used to make later.
You and your students could also have a huge debate about if pumpkins are vegetables or fruits, and even make a Venn diagram showing where some features of a pumpkin overlap with common thoughts about fruit and vegetables to show the arguments for both.
Goodnight, Nature!
Fall is the time of the year when our part of the Earth begins to die before it can be born again in spring. It’s a natural part of the seasons but some kids may find it more upsetting than others.
A great way to soften this is to make it out that you are just saying ‘goodnight’ to nature instead of it actually dying.
This way, you can make a bulletin board with pictures of trees and plants settling down to rest, or even show all the animals that hibernate (like bears, chipmunks, hedgehogs, and ladybugs) all going to sleep in their own beds.
It’s a cute idea that works especially well for kindergartners and young students.
The Tree Of Life
Younger kids will probably be curious about why the leaves on trees are changing color and falling off, so now is a great time to explain to them the circle of life and how the leaves of a tree reflect this.
You can make a giant painting of a tree on your bulletin board and have your students handprint leaves of different colors to show the different stages of life.
You can even leave the tree up all year round and just change the leaves every season. You can remove them all for winter, put up green leaves and flowers for spring and summer, then switch the leaves to orange and red for fall.
Batty About Halloween!
Of course, the big celebration of October is Halloween so it should be no surprise that your students will want to decorate their classroom for the holiday.
Decorate your bulletin board with black paper and use a color scheme of purple, lime green, orange and red to really evoke the feel of Halloween.
You can then ask your students to draw their favorite things about Halloween – like candy, trick or treating, dressing up, decorating their homes, telling spooky tales, etc.
Alternatively, your students can write what their favorite thing about Halloween is and stick the note onto larger pictures of wrapped-up candy, cauldrons, witches hats, or bats!
This will surely get your students excited about Halloween and happy that their classroom is decorated to reflect the holiday.
The Monster Ball
Monsters are a big part of Halloween so perhaps you could do a huge bulletin board celebrating your class’s favorite monsters!
You could do big group drawings of classic villains like Dracula, Frankenstein, witches, mummies, werewolves, ghosts and more!
Of course, they shouldn’t be too scary for younger children but older kids are sure to try and compete with each other to make the scariest, spookiest monster possible!
Perhaps you could turn it into a class competition or make your students come up with their own unique monster. This is a great way to work their creativity and put their teamwork to the test!
Spooky Stories
If you want to focus on your student’s writing creativity over their drawing and art, then why not hold a competition to come up with the scariest, spookiest Halloween story.
The best will be featured on your bulletin board to be proudly displayed to everyone who enters the classroom.
This means that all you have to worry about is decorating the background and border. Sticking to black and white is a great way to create a spooky atmosphere with lots of drawn-on spider webs and ghostly figures.
Trick Or Treating Responsibly
Halloween is all fun and games, but it also can be dangerous if children are not aware of problems they may encounter when out trick or treating.
So, it could be a good idea to go over all the dos and don’ts of trick or treating. This way, your students are more prepared and know what to do should something go wrong when trick or treating.
You can split your bulletin board in half and do a do and don’t table with things like:
“Do stay with your parents or guardian at all times.”
and
“Don’t talk to strangers.”
and
“Do say please and thank you.”
Now is also a good time to go over the rules of crossing the road, what to do when you get lost, and the rules of healthy eating.
Put these pieces of advice and rules onto your bulletin board and by the time Halloween comes at the end of October, your students should have the advice drilled into their heads by now.
Dental Care
Kids eat a lot of candy and chocolate at Halloween, which puts them at risk of developing dental issues like cavities.
You may want to run a lesson about how candy is bad for your teeth when eaten in excessive amounts and focus a few hours around understanding candy so your students know why they shouldn’t try to eat it all in one go.
Your bulletin board could contain lots of images of teeth, showing the difference between healthy teeth and rotten teeth, as well as advice on how to properly brush their teeth.
With younger children, you can go over the importance of teeth brushing and how to do it, and go into depth with the science behind sugar and rotting teeth if your students are older.
With all of this information displayed on a bulletin board, your students will quickly learn to brush their teeth after eating candy and to not eat it all in one go.
What’s Brewing?
For a fun activity to take up space on your bulletin board, why not get your students involved by asking them to write the recipe for a witch’s potion?
The potion recipes can be completely silly and include funny ingredients like frogs, hair, tongues, bugs and poop – anything your students come up with!
While they are busy writing down their ideas, you can decorate the bulletin board with lime green and purple decorations, images of broomsticks and black cats, and print out several giant cauldrons in which you will stick the best potion recipes.
You can even make a giant witch’s head stick in the one corner of the bulletin board!
Assemble all of these together on your bulletin board for a fun, Halloween inspired display that shows off your student’s good humor and creativity.
Harvesting Good Thoughts
A great way to boost positivity and happy thinking in your classroom is to tie together the idea of being kind to others with the idea of the harvest.
Explain to your students that saying nice things to others is just like planting seeds and by being kind and friendly, they will in turn receive a friend.
Print out lots of line designs of leaves so your students can fill them in with good, positive thoughts and nice things about their classmates.
They can then color in the leaves, cut them out and add them to your bulletin board.
This way, your bulletin board will act like a ‘harvest’ of positivity that your students can revisit every time they have something good and nice to say.
Overtime, they will be able to see all the good things other people have said and how quickly it grows.
World Space Week
Every year, the UN holds World Space Week sometime in October.
This week is dedicated to celebrating the achievements of scientists and astronomers towards space science, so why not make a space-themed bulletin board to celebrate science?
You and your students can make a background of the universe with all the planets and stars, and older students can make research notes about different scientists or their favorite astronomical objects like black holes, supernovas or strange planets.
It’s a great educational way to decorate your bulletin board and ties in neatly with lots of physics lessons you can give your class.
Dia De Los Muertos
Another celebration closely related to Halloween is Dia De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead festivities that are celebrated in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. Although Dia De Los Muertos is spread over a few days, it often begins on the last day of October.
Dia De Los Muertos is best known for its bright colors and iconic skeletons, so you can take inspiration from this when decorating your bulletin board.
You can also show the differences from Halloween to Dia De Los Muertos, explain the different traditions associated with the holiday and how important it is to Mexican culture.
You may even want to ask your students to bring in any pictures of loved ones they have lost so they can be included in the bulletin board and be remembered – just remember to give the photo back once you want to redecorate!
National Reptile Awareness Day
Kids love lizards and anything with teeth – dinosaurs, alligators, crocodiles, snakes, bearded dragons, the list goes on. So, why not celebrate this by making a bulletin board for National Reptile Awareness Day!
National Reptile Awareness Day happens in October and was made to help raise awareness and education surrounding reptiles.
This means that you and your students get to celebrate their favorite reptiles and learn more about them.
You can make a fun bulletin board filled with information about all their favorite reptiles and also raise awareness about the problems facing each species.
For example, you may want to tell your students how plastic bags are killing large amounts of sea turtles or how poaching is leading to many iguanas losing their families or how climate change is threatening the homes of many chameleons.
You may also want to use this opportunity to destigmatize animals like snakes and help your students become less afraid.
This is a super educational way to decorate your classroom and also link it to something your students are sure to love.
Conclusion
There are a lot of reasons to love October and this makes it super easy to find fun and creative ideas to decorate your bulletin board.
So, if you are short on inspiration, just take a look at this list and pick out some of your favorite ideas!
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!
