Can you make your back to school bulletin board interactive this year? Today on the blog, I have a handful of ideas for classroom displays. These are perfect for the start of the school year, but if you’ve stumbled upon this blog post mid-year, don’t worry. I’m confident you can tailor these to any time of the year!
These back to school bulletin board ideas are designed for interactivity. Students might contribute something as the school year progresses or use a tablet or smartphone to scan a resource and get more information. Lots of the ideas on this list encourage you to use QR codes to link to online content. If you’re new to QR codes, here is a link to a post that shows you how to make them. You can follow the steps in this post to create QR codes to add to a back to school bulletin board.
Interactive Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas
The ideas on this list are ready for you to customize for your group of students. And if you try one out, don’t forget to snap pictures for your own professional portfolio and maybe to share on social media to inspire other educators, too.
Let’s jump into this list of interactive back to school bulletin board ideas!
Meet the Teacher
Create a back to school bulletin board to introduce yourself to students with fun facts and a photo. If you are going to have students create All About Me projects, this is a space for you to show off an exemplar they can use as inspiration for their own project.
Classmate Collage
Have students create a collage that includes their favorite items. You might use a collage-building tool and have every student make a collage in the shape of a square. Ask them to add text or write a caption to accompany their picture. This first week of school activity can help you create a bulletin board for back to school.
AI Photo Challenge
Incorporate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into your next bulletin board with an interactive twist. On the first few days of school, ask students to write a prompt that includes an animal doing something unexpected in a place they don’t usually spend time. Use these student-created prompts in Adobe Firefly to create images to display on a back to school bulletin board.
Learning Goals
To kick off the year, you might create a board with learning goals for the month or upcoming units of study. You can update this regularly or use it to give students a preview of what is coming up during the first few weeks of school. If you have student work related to these learning goals from last year, you can spotlight it here, too.
Book Recommendations
Create a board where students can add book recommendations during the first few weeks of the school year. You might start with several of your favorites or a couple of titles students loved from the previous year. If your students from the previous year created videos or multimedia content related to the books they read, you might create a QR code and link to their recommendations.
Inspirational Quotes
Display a selection of quotes from famous people to inspire students throughout the year. In addition to historical figures, you might want to choose quotes from contemporary people who students will recognize. If their quote was captured on camera, you might connect the link to a QR code and attach it to your bulletin board.
Birthday Calendar
Create a large birthday calendar for students to see whose birthday is coming up next. You might leave space next to each month so students can decorate their birthday month’s section as a group. This is an opportunity for students to show off their All About Me creations on their birthday, too.
Our Class Schedule
To kick off the school year, you might create a bulletin board with your daily or weekly schedule. You can refer to this space during the first few weeks of school or throughout the school year. To make this space more interactive, you might have movable pieces so you can shift the schedule as needed.
Historical Figures
To give students a preview of what is coming up this school year, you might create QR codes that link to websites featuring historical figures you will learn about in an upcoming unit. These QR codes could link to a variety of content, such as an audio or video clip.
Classroom Social Media
Create a classroom bulletin board inspired by social spaces like “Instagram” or “Twitter.” This interactive space can update with new content each week as students post pictures, notes, or short messages about what they are learning. This could complement an exit ticket or formative assessment routine, too.
Virtual Field Trips
Regular readers of the blog know that I’m a big fan of virtual field trips. You can use a bulletin board to display information about in-person field trips the class will take later in the school year. Alternatively, you might link to Google Arts & Culture resources to transport students to spaces you will study but won’t actually visit this year.
Augmented Reality Board
For an interactive back to school bulletin board, you can incorporate AR elements. Students can interact with them using a smartphone or tablet. There are lots of options for using augmented reality in the classroom, and this list has a handful for you to explore.
Global Pen Pals
Dedicate a bulletin board for showcasing letters, photos, and information from pen pals in different countries. This might look a bit empty during the first few weeks of the school year. But you and your students can build it out together over the course of the school year.
There are so many ways to celebrate the start of the school year. With these back to school bulletin board ideas, you can incorporate QR codes, give students a chance to contribute, and update them throughout the year. I can’t wait to see what you create. Share your back to school bulletin board pictures on Instagram or Twitter, and tag me @ClassTechTips!
