Whiteboards are a central feature in every classroom. They’re an important tool for giving information to students and can be used for reminders and directions.
Getting students to look at the whiteboard isn’t always easy, however, but you can make your whiteboard more appealing by decorating it with some seasonal images and decorations.
November is a great month of the year for decorating whiteboards as there are so many themes and motifs to choose from.
It’s the month of Thanksgiving, the harvest, and the fall, and all of these are full of great ideas for whiteboards.
If you’re struggling with ideas for your whiteboard in November, however, then this article is for you.
We have the 8 best November whiteboard ideas for you to try today and have picked a wide variety of different ideas.
Some of them do require some artistic skills, but many of them require no skills at all. You can also get your students involved in several of these ideas and get them engaged.
Let’s get started!
1. Thanksgiving Countdown
There are many events and themes that run throughout November but the biggest of these is Thanksgiving.
It’s a national holiday so all schools are closed and it’s a great time for families to get together and enjoy delicious food as a family.
For these reasons, Thanksgiving is probably the event that your students are looking forward to the most.
You can take advantage of this excitement for your November whiteboard ideas by creating a Thanksgiving countdown that counts down the days until Thanksgiving.
This is a great idea that is very versatile and can be as easy or as complicated as you want.
If you’re artistically challenged, you can just draw a square and change the number inside it every day.
If you’re better at art, you can make a more elaborate design factored around the countdown.
You can also get your students involved in this countdown by asking a different student to erase the date and write the new one each day.
2. Turkeys
One major motif of Thanksgiving is turkeys. It’s the most popular meal served for Thanksgiving dinner across the country and the Presidential turkey pardon has become a fun annual tradition.
This makes turkeys a great choice for whiteboard ideas. There are many different ways you can draw a turkey as you can draw an ultra-realistic turkey or opt for a more cartoonish style.
You can also draw a turkey as it’s prepared for being cooked and eaten as this might be easier!
3. Fall Leaves
This is an easier idea to draw than many others on this list. Even the artistically challenged can draw a few leaves and they’ll look great if you use multiple colors, such as red, orange, and green.
You can draw a pile of fall leaves in the corner of your whiteboard, but we like to draw them as a garland around the whiteboard.
They can be drawn across the top of the whiteboard or as a border around the whole board.
We like this idea as it keeps the drawings out of the way of the working area of the whiteboard and still leaves plenty of space for you to write what you need.
4. Pumpkins
Pumpkins are another easy image to draw. They don’t need to be perfect or symmetrical so you don’t need to worry if your pumpkins become a little misshapen or slanted!
They come in all sizes and colors as well so you can make a colorful display of pumpkins on your whiteboard.
Pumpkins are a popular theme for Thanksgiving because they’re a fall fruit. They’re a common item found at any harvest and no Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a delicious pumpkin pie!
Your students may also have a craving for Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte as well so nothing says November like pumpkins!
5. I Am Thankful For
We love this idea as it gets the entire class involved and can be used as an activity to get your students engaged and interested in the reason behind Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks and you can use your whiteboard to get your students to say what they are thankful for.
There are many different ways you can do this on the whiteboard but the easiest way is the method in the picture.
Simply write “I am thankful for” in the center of the board and ask your students what they are thankful for. The teacher can write the answer or get the students to write their own around the center.
You could also write the title as a heading and list things underneath as a bulleted list.
If your students love drawing, why not get them to draw what they are thankful for instead of writing it? This is an idea that can be used for a topical lesson near Thanksgiving.
6. Peanuts Thanksgiving
Peanuts is closely associated with many different American holidays and Thanksgiving is no different.
So many of us have grown up while watching the antics of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts family, and the short movie A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is a staple in many homes across the country.
The photo we’ve included for this entry shows Snoopy and Woodstock dressed as pilgrims with a Thanksgiving dinner on the table behind them.
Snoopy is one of the easier cartoon characters to draw as he consists of only a few different shapes so even if you’re not a good artist, you may be able to pull off a decent Snoopy!
If you are more skilled, however, you can draw many different Peanuts images from the special that will delight your students.
Why not draw the entire Peanuts crew around their Thanksgiving table? You can take this idea and make it as complicated or as easy as you want.
7. Cornucopia
As well as Thanksgiving, November is often seen as the time of harvest. It’s at the end of the harvest season and much of the harvest festivities are focused on November for this reason.
Some of the most common crops in the United States such as corn are harvested in November and many harvest ceremonies occur during this month.
Talking about the harvest is important and is an ideal way to get your students to understand the importance of agriculture and farming to the country and their own lives.
Learning how food is produced and harvested will give them a better appreciation of where their food comes from and the hard work of those who grow it.
The most common image that is associated with harvest season is cornucopia. It’s based on a curved and hollow goat’s horn and is typically drawn overflowing with fruit, corn, and flowers.
You can draw this on your whiteboard and include whatever crops you wish. If your state is known for certain crops in particular, you can choose these and teach your students about them.
8. Fall Favorites
This is similar to the “I am Thankful For…” entry as it is an idea that can get the entire class involved and engaged.
It’s also a flexible idea that can be used at any time of the year with a few modifications so even if you don’t use it in November, you should keep it in your ideas book for a different month!
With so many things happening in November, it’s a good idea to ask students what their favorite part of the month or season is.
You can either brainstorm as a class and write the most popular ideas on the whiteboard or ask each student to contribute their answer.
Most students love the opportunity to write on the board so get them to write their answers themselves.
It’s important that you allow your students to be honest so that you will get a variety of different answers.
Encourage them to pick important events to them, such as birthdays, sports games, or even the release dates of movies or video games they’re looking forward to!
Final Thoughts
In this article, we listed the 8 best November whiteboard ideas for you to try today.
There are many different themes and motifs that you can choose from in November and this makes it a very versatile month for whiteboard ideas!
Some of these ideas do require some artistic skills but many of them don’t. Regardless of your artistic talents, you should be able to find something on this list that will suit you and your whiteboard.
We also included a few ideas that are designed to get your students engaged and involved with their classroom.
You can encourage your students to show what they are thankful for or their favorite things and events in the month.
We hope you enjoy these ideas and use them in your classroom!
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!
