They’re placed front and center of the classroom for a reason as they are the focal point of lessons and any information that needs to be delivered to students.
Getting students to look at the whiteboard and pay attention to it, however, can sometimes be an uphill task.
One way to ensure that your students look at the whiteboard and check the information they need is to make it cute and worth looking at.
Instead of just filling it with important, but occasionally dull, information, you can dress it up with cute decorations instead.
This will make your students more likely to look at the whiteboard and the information it contains.
There are many ways you can make your whiteboard look cute and they don’t all require you to be a talented artist.
Being a skilled artist does make decorating your whiteboard with cute ideas easier, but it’s not essential.
In this article, we have the 9 best cute whiteboard ideas to try today. Many of them require no artistic skills at all and some will get your students engaged and involved with the whiteboard ideas.
1. Countdowns
Many different important events occur throughout the year and you can use these events and holidays to make a cute idea for your whiteboard.
Countdowns are a great way to mark the passage of time and help get students looking forward to special holidays.
There are many different holidays that you can count down to, such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.
You can also use a countdown for school-specific events such as school vacations, prom, sports game, or show.
You can draw your countdown in any way that you want. The photo we’ve included uses a cute image and text for the countdown but if you’re not skilled at art, you can just include the text and countdown.
This is also a cute idea for getting students involved and engaged in the classroom as you can get a different student to erase the date and write the new number each day.
2. Would You Rather
With this idea, you can get your students to think and consider their opinion on a variety of different questions.
All you need to do is give your students the option of two different scenarios and ask them which they would prefer to do.
Each student can mark down their preference and as a class, you can count the answers up and see which option is the most popular.
The questions can be posed every day or once a week, depending on your preference.
You can also ask your students for ideas for questions as well. The questions can be serious or lighthearted and a mix is probably the best option!
3. Birthday Celebrations
Birthdays are a big deal for children and one of the cutest whiteboard ideas is to celebrate the birthday of each of your students.
Each kid is sure to be pleased and surprised when they walk into the classroom on the morning of their birthday and see a birthday message on the whiteboard.
You can personalize each birthday message to reflect the personality and likes of each individual student as well.
If you’re good at art, why not draw a few pictures that reflect what each student likes?
This is something else you can get your students involved in as you can ask the friends of the birthday student to create the birthday greeting.
4. Favorite Things
This is another way to get your students involved and engaged.
Children usually have firm opinions about what they like and what they don’t like and you can use this idea to get them to express their opinions.
Once students have given their answers, the teacher can either summarize them and write them or get the students to write their own.
Although the photo asks about the favorite thing about fall, you can easily adjust this for any time of the year. You can use different seasons or holidays such as Christmas.
You can also ask your students their favorite thing about school or any other subject you can think of so this is an idea that you can come back to several times throughout the school year.
We like this idea because it asks students to be positive and think about what they like. Hearing what their classmates like can also get students to think about other things as well.
5. Monday Motivation
This is the first of our ideas that is themed for a specific day. Of course, you don’t have to use these ideas on the specific days that we’ve listed, but we like the alliteration and themes!
No matter how experienced and skilled a teacher is, it can often be difficult to motivate students at times. This is where motivational slogans can be helpful.
There are many cute quotes out there for every situation that can help motivate your students and writing them on your whiteboard is the perfect way to get your students to see them.
Using a different motivational quote every Monday is a great way to start the school week, as well.
You can tailor the quotes to be topical and help with any issues the class had the week before or any you expect to arise in the rest of the week.
6. Talented Tuesdays
It can be difficult for students to realize where their own talents lie.
Students are prone to comparing themselves to their peers and this is often unfair as they usually compare themselves to students who are better at a specific skill and ignore the skills that they lack in.
Every child has a skill that they excel in. Instead of allowing them to focus on their weaknesses, this idea asks students to focus on their strengths instead.
Writing all of their answers on the whiteboard will show your class how everyone is different and has their own special talents.
7. Warm Hug Wednesdays
Wednesday is hump day and is often the day of the week when students need some additional motivation.
Warm hug Wednesday is the ideal way to give your students some extra motivation and support during the mid-week lull.
Although the photo in this article uses Olaf from Frozen and he is the inspiration for the idea of warm hug Wednesdays, you can change the character each week.
Choose a different popular character each week to make your students smile!
This is best for teachers that have some art skills, but if you do struggle, you can always ask your more talented students to draw their favorite characters instead.
8. Thankful Thursday
This is another great idea to get your students into a more positive mindset.
Giving gratitude for the good things in life is a common part of mindfulness practices and you can bring this into your classroom as well.
Every Thursday, ask your students to name one thing that they are thankful for.
It doesn’t have to be something big or important as it can be something minor that means nothing to anyone but the student themselves.
This is a good practice for your students to adopt and one they can take with them into their adult lives. You can ask the students to say their answers out loud or to write them on the whiteboard.
9. Foodie Friday
This is another fun idea that will get your students engaged!
Food is a big part of life and this is especially important for children as they need the fuel from eating to help them grow and keep their minds active.
Ask your students what their favorite food is and get them to write their answers on the whiteboard. If you have the time, you can get each student to draw their favorite as well.
Students are sure to enjoy drawing on the whiteboard and by the end, you’ll have a whiteboard full of cute and colorful answers.
Hopefully, you’ll get a wide variety of different answers. Don’t worry if students pick unhealthy foods and don’t discourage this.
You can use the answers as part of a discussion on healthy foods if you wish!
Final Thoughts
In this article, we listed the 9 best cute whiteboard ideas that you can try today. We picked a variety of different ideas that can work in any classroom.
Many of the ideas don’t require any artistic skills from the teacher at all and can be used to get students thinking and engaged with their whiteboard.
Many of the ideas will help the students get into a positive frame of mind as well.
Whether it’s motivational quotes or asking students to give gratitude and talk about their favorite things, your students can feel more positive because of these cute 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!
