Pool Noodle Advent Candles- Super easy bulletin board or display!

This easy-peasy door decor for Advent was inspired by a bargain bin of pool noodles in the late fall- they happened to be all purple and pink, so even though it was October...my Catholic teacher brain went to Advent!

I cut the pool noodles in half, attached to my door with heavy duty double sided tape (they stayed surprisingly well, despite the traffic and movement and bumping-up-against that happens to this door). I added some cardstock holly leaves, creased in half to give a little dimension. 

Then each week, we lit one of the candles with a chunk of yellow tissue paper. 

All in all, this display cost me less than $2 and got lots of compliments from kids and teachers alike.

Make sure you grab some pink and purple pool noodles when you see them!

Here is the "It's gonna be lit" heading if you'd like to use it:

40 Verses for 40 Days- Take a Verse Bulletin Board

My dear friend Kayla is pulling from the archives of her many years as a graphic designer to create a Teachers Pay Teachers shop filled with items to help teachers (and more) easily create lovely items to use in the classroom. She has this FREE! cute hand drawn clip art set of books, which of course would look great on your slides or worksheets, but my mind immediately went to a bulletin board! With my new Lent book coming out, I've got Lent on the brain and was inspired to use the books to make an easy bulletin board set.

I wanted to make a simple set that would work on bulletin boards of various sizes (even small bulletin boards) and also encourage kids to interact with Scripture during Lent. The main focus of the board is this "take a verse" sheet where people can rip off one verse at a time. There are forty different passages included, all relating to the Season of Lent. 

I printed out a bunch of Kayla's book images (open up those Bibles!) on different shades of purple paper (yay, Lent!), as well as a few key verses, and made a couple of options for a heading. Hopefully this set is a quick and easy way to add some Lenten decor to your classroom or parish bulletin board!

Click here for the "Take a verse" Scripture pages:

(Prints on two pages. Trim one of the interior edges, overlap, and tape. Cut on the dotted lines to make it easy to tear off the Scripture verses. I plan to print of a couple sets so that once one is torn up, I can just swap it out for a fresh one.)

Click here for a "40 Verses for 40 Days" Bulletin Board Heading:

(Intended to be cut horizontally and then use the four pieces to make a heading)

Or here's an alternative heading, either in outline letters or solid black:

Click here for a few Bible verses for the bulletin board:

And visit Kayla Phillips Design on Teachers Pay Teachers for the free book clip art!

Pray, Fast, Give Collaborative Bulletin Board

Rounding up ideas for Lent that needed updated on the blog, so I wanted to share this bulletin board from my school last year. We wanted to create something that the whole school could participate in together, something interactive, and something visual that kept us accountable to our goal of entering into the Season of Lent with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

So on this giant bulletin board (almost 12 feet across) we created a set of "jars" that students and teachers could drop slips of paper in with their Lenten sacrifices. I'm sure you've seen some version of this with an actual jar on a table, so we were just trying to make something that the students of our school could all visualize and join in with. This bulletin board is in a common hallway that all students walk past so it was really special to watch the jars fill up a little more each week of Lent.

I made the jars with clear lamination- I asked the teacher in charge of the laminator to just run through about three yards of lamination without any paper or anything. It worked perfectly- it was nice and clear and also fairly sturdy. I curved the top and rounded the bottom corners to give it more of a jar shape. To attach it to the bulletin board, I stapled (LOTS of staples all the way around the sides and bottom, leaving the top open. This allowed students to slide in slips of paper but they couldn't fall out. To make a table/shelf for each jar I used a roll of wide burlap ribbon and added some fake palm branches. Around the top of each jar, I added some twine with a tag including a Saint quote about that Lenten discipline to remind us of our purpose.

You could totally recreate this concept on a much smaller scale on a bulletin board or even on your family fridge/calendar area/etc. Lots of ways to be creative about sharing the importance of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving this Lent!

Click here for the "Pray Fast Give" title in this bold font. Each letter prints on per page, so this makes for a pretty big title. If you have a smaller bulletin board, set your print settings to print 2 or 4 per page.

I used these three Saint quotes to make "tags" for the jars. One quote for prayer, one for fasting, one for giving:

We swapped out the Lent bulletin board for this one celebrating Easter! No easy tips for this one- it was made with bulletin board paper, plastic table cloths, streamers, and dollar store fake flowers.

But I can offer you this printable heading in a matching font if you'd like!

(Lots of repeat letters in "He is Risen" so just print those pages twice!)

Advent Candles Stained Glass Windows

 

What do you do with a plethora of left over tiny tissue paper squares? I cut way too many for a parish project a couple weeks ago, and got the brilliant idea to put them to good use to create “stained glass” windows for my classroom during Advent! 

• I rolled out a length of clear contact paper sticky side up on our classroom tables.
• Then gave my students a pile of tissue paper squares and had them go to work. 
• When they were done, I covered the other side with another piece of clear contact paper (essentially laminating them without the heat) and trimmed the edges. 
• The only problem is that we have five windows and there are only four Advent candles… so we added the word “hope” as a theme for Advent to the middle. (Another class requested a white candle for Christmas- we’ll see if we make it happen!). 
• I had several students not happy that I lit all the candles, but to be perfectly honest it was going to be impractical for me to plan to get out the ladder every Monday to add the flame, so all at once it was. 

Our windows overlook the playground, so I love that the whole school gets to enjoy our four foot tall candles from outside! Now we just need some nice sunny days (rather than the overcast sky) to enjoy the sun shining through their artwork! Happy Advent!

(P.S. You could use this technique for so many other Catholic symbols- imagine how good this would look with a Sacred Heart display, or a Nativity silhouette, or Saint for All Saints Day... so many possibilities!)

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Vocations Awareness Bulletin Board

Vocations Awareness Week is Nov. 3-9, 2024

This fall we were so excited as a school community to have three alumni enter into seminary and religious life! Wanting to spread the word and celebrate with our current students, I asked if we could create a display in time for Vocations Awareness Week highlighting the vocations that have grow from our school. Once we settled on the location, the project became bigger than I imagined, both literally (this bulletin board is much larger than I expected- almost 12' across!) and figuratively (because the response was so wonderful- I've run out of room to feature everything)!

With the extra space, I decided to create three sections:

1. One part highlighting specific vocations from our parish and school
2. One section honoring our pope, bishop, pastor, and parochial vicar, as well as seminarians from our diocese
3. And one part for "future" vocations- offering prayer cards, novenas, etc. for all students as well as highlighting different religious communities 

In addition to creating my own info to hang on the board, I also reached out to some religious orders to see if they could send us any brochures or prayer cards- and boy, they came through! We received some awesome vocation swag to share with students! We also receive a poster and prayer cards from our Diocesan Office of Vocations, so this was a perfect central location to include everything. I wanted the board to be something interactive that encouraged the students to walk by and take something home with them.

And after creating this bulletin board, I've already had requests to share info about how I made it. I've created a sharable version of everything that I can, but this is definitely a bulletin board that will need to be customized to your school or parish. I've tried to make a few tools to help you get started and hopefully can aid with inspiration! Also, don't be intimidated by this giant board- remember it was bigger than I was planning and I had to fill the space! You could make a board honoring and supporting vocations that is any size- the most important part is to encourage your students to be praying for those in discernment, praying for those living our their vocation, and praying for their own future vocation. 

P.S.- Just a note- we are already talking about making something to specifically honor and uphold marriage later this school year. The intention of this bulletin board was to highlight Vocations Awareness Week, which primarily focuses on the priesthood and religious life. So still more to come, not forgetting about the very important vocation of matrimony!

Here's all the details!

Items to add to the bulletin board

• Contact your diocesan vocations office (posters, prayer cards, etc.)
• Contact local religious orders (brochures, prayer cards, resources)
• Contact religious orders that have sisters/brothers serving in your diocese
• Reach out to other religious orders that you respect
• I would also recommend looking at the affordable resources available at Vianney Vocations. They have tons of brochures, booklets, and prayer cards that would be great for a vocation board (in addition to curriculum and books)
• Add coloring pages, printable prayer cards, brochures, etc. highlighting vocations, prayers for vocations, patrons of vocations, etc.
• Books to borrow about vocations

I added these awesome "Prayer for Priests" letter and St. John Vianney coloring page, both available from the talented Shari of Catholic Paper Goods as an easy activity kids could take with them. (Just a note, if you are planning on making copies of these for a whole school/parish, please make sure that you are reading her terms and using her license for bulk copies. Thanks for honoring the work of Catholic artists and creators!)

Title

I printed this out on brown kraft paper cardstock and cut it by hand, but you could do something similar with die cut letters or a cricut!

Click here for the "Here I am Lord" title with one letter per page (letters approx. 8.5" tall):

Click here for the "Here I am Lord" title with two letters per page (letters approx. 5.5" tall):

Template for highlighting individual vocations:
Click here for an editable template to display the pope, bishop, pastor, seminarians, etc. When you open this file, it will automatically make a copy so you can add your own information and photos. It also includes some saint quotes and headings that are also editable.

**Bonus** If you happen to be from the Diocese of Peoria, click here for a set of slides that is partially complete for you!

Tools for the bulletin board

Here are items that I ordered from Amazon to complete the bulletin board:

(Contain affiliate links)

• Clear brochure holders, 12 pieces in 2 different sizes (these have been perfect! My only issue is that I quickly ran out of space!)
• Clear flat tacks (I used these to attach the brochure holders to the bulletin board- and they have held quite well. They are a little longer than regular thumb tacks and the flat head is necessary so the items don't get stuck as they are pulled out, which would knock the whole thing down.)
• Clear shelves (these are excellent in theory, but have not worked as well using thumb tacks- a couple have fallen down a few times. I think they would be excellent if you were actually able to screw them in to the wall!)
• Bulletin board border- just in case someone wants it! I wanted something neutral and not to flashy, with a nod to our school colors (maroon and gold) so this was a great fit

Book List

And click here for a post with a list of great books about Vocations:

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!

St. John Vianney, pray for us!

Monthly Devotion Signs

A follower recently reached out with a question regarding the headers I use for my monthly roundup posts. She's been using them as a bulletin board header to feature the monthly devotion, which I thought was a brilliant idea- and I'm sorry that I had offered them sooner in an easier to print format!

So here are two sets of monthly devotion signs, one in full color and one on a white background to save printer ink. :)

Click here for the monthly devotion signs on a colored background:

Click here for the monthly devotion signs on a white background:

You may also like these simple, text only signs: (available in both cursive and manuscript)

Best Year Ever Saint Yearbook Bulletin Board

I enjoy coming up with bright new decor for my classroom door at the beginning of the school year. This summer I thought of an idea to create a yearbook page, complete with superlatives and quotes and "class of" graduation years- but with the Saints! It was fun to think about which Saints might have been voted "most likely to succeed" or "class clown" or "cutest couple." I tried to come up with descriptions that hinted a little at the biography of each person, hopefully catching my students' interest and leading them to want to know more!

I had the 24x36" poster printed at my local office store for about $25 with a coupon. (Make sure you open and download the pdf file of the poster- the image itself in this post is a much lower resolution and will not print at that size!)

If you don't want to pay to have a large poster printed, you can choose the "poster" setting under "page sizes and handling" in the print dialogue for Adobe Acrobat, which allows you to print the whole thing on multiple 8.5x11" pages and tape them together. Or I also made a version that is black and white and prints easily, including all of the Saints, a title, and the quote. And there is a matching activity page where student can create their own yearbook entry, perfect for getting to know them in the first days of school. 

Click here for the full color 24x36" poster:

Click here for a black and white version on 8.5x11" paper. This one you can easily print on your own and either trim and make a bulletin board or line up side by side to create a look similar to the large poster:

Click here for a black and white version of the quote:

Click here for a set of "Class of..." signs- these would be fun for your bulletin board or for back-to-school pics!

Click here for a "Best Year Ever" sign that prints on 8.5x11 in black and white, perfect to use at the top of a bulletin board:

Click here for a student page where they can create their own yearbook entry- perfect for a get to know you activity!

Click here for a template for the stars I added to my door. I printed them on matching colors of cardstock and cut them out:

Update! A local friend saw my yearbook saints featured in the National Catholic Register here, and used it as inspiration to make a Jeopardy game for one of his classes. He graciously shared it with us! You can find it here!

And if you are setting up your classroom, you might also like these other bulletin board posts:

Saint Feast Day Boards- Growing collection for you to display!

At the start of the last school year, our classrooms received new smartboards. They are incredible and have really enhanced the ways I use technology in my classroom! On either side of the smart board is a 4x4' metal "chalk" board. Intended to extend the panel of the smart board and offer other writing/display opportunities, those boards came with "liquid ink" markers (aka chalk markers). My coworkers and I discovered that we loved the vibrancy of the chalk markers, but that they are a little more finicky to write with, take more time to use, and are much harder to erase than the typical dry erase boards we are used to. 

I decided to think outside the box of regular notes and the ways I used my dry erase boards during lessons. Instead, I decided to use these black chalk panels for more semi-permanent displays. I have long had a goal of better sharing feast days and celebrations without necessarily using instructional time. Creating a display on these boards was an awesome way for all six of my classes to get a little data dump on the saint of the day or special feasts. I also was able to utilize my collection of saint art and holy cards (that I have never utilized to its fullest before) as well as pull books from my library. 

These feast day boards were a source of joy for me during the school year and something that I enjoyed creating! I started taking photos and posting them on Instagram (you can see the highlight here) and decided to somehow make them sharable for you! 

Below you'll find all of the most common questions I was asked as I shared these, as well as a folder of all of the photos and a slideshow with the whole collection. Whether you pull these up on your smartboard in your classroom or use them as inspiration for your own chalk art, I'm happy to share them with you!

Here some answers to the most common questions I've received when I post these on Instagram:

• The boards are magnetic blackboards attached on either side of the smartboard in my classroom. They are about 4'x4'. At the beginning of the year, we discovered that writing on them with the liquid ink chalk markers wasn't super practical for normal classroom notes- they are are more challenging to write on than a dry erase board & marker. They also have to be erased with liquid (I've learned that a squirt bottle of water and microfiber cloths are the best combo).
• Because they don't erase easily, I decided to use them for a display that would apply to all of my classes and could be left up for a few days. It made the extra work worth it, and also was nice that they would stay looking fresh since they don't erase easily. Making displays to celebrate Saints and feast days just made sense!
• The chalk markers that I used were a combo of the markers that came with the board and a generic brand. They worked the exact same way as any other liquid chalk marker that I've ever used. I planning on ordering these and these to use for the new school year. (affiliate links)
• The artwork on display is from things I've been collecting for year and years- prints I've purchased, holy cards I've saved, things I've cut out of calendars, etc. I finally got all of them organized by month in this accordion folder and am so happy that they are actually being displayed now! While I have work from tons of artists on rotation, I have a lot of work from Catholic Paper Goods, Catholic Family Crate, Providential Co., Jordan Avery Art, and Saints Alive. I also print public domain images and photos as needed to feature certain Saints.
• One of my favorite things about the boards is using them to feature books for the Saints feast days. I've tried to do this in different ways over the years, but never consistently. This year turned that into a habit and it was a great opportunity to get my students to pick up more books about the Saints! You can find my lists of books organized by feast days each month on this page.
• I displayed the books on two 17" magnetic shelves. Those things were strong! I could load them with books and they didn't move an inch! You can find the shelves that I used here. (affiliate link)

You can click here to access the whole folder. As of right now, there are over 50 photos, but I will continue to add new boards here as long as I make them!

I've also added all of the images to this set of Google Slides- perfect for pulling up on your smart board for display! The slides contain all of the boards I made during the 2023-2024 school year. (I'll probably go back and add new boards, but likely not until the end of the school year ;) )

Saints & Sports Bulletin Board

Our Catholic Schools Week activities are themed around the Olympics and the Saints- each class is representing a country around the world and a Saint from that country.

I love a good theme, so switched up my bulletin board to feature Saints living well- playing sports and enjoying the outdoors. I plan to share their stories with my students, and will be reading some excerpts from Pope St. John Paul II's speeches to athletes. (There is a great list here, and you can check the full text on the Vatican website)

I want to share with my students that we can celebrate the gift of athletics and sports– as well as challenge them to see how we can use those talents while also serving the Lord and growing in holiness.

Saints included are:

• Pope Saint John Paul II (hiking, skiing, camping)

• Blessed Chiara Luce Badano (pictured playing in the snow, also a tennis player)

• Saint John Bosco (encouraged students to play sports)

• Saint Carlo Acutis (soccer)

• Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati (mountain climbing, skiing)

• Blessed Gianna Molla (hiking)

• Blessed Benedict Daswa (played soccer)

• Servant of God Michelle Duppong (grew up on a farm)

• Venerable Carla Ronci (riding a Vespa)

• Saint Dulce Pontes (played soccer)

• Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan (pictured riding a bike)

• Venerable Guido Schäffer (surfing)

Saints & Sports images here:

 

Sports & Virtue Quotes from JP2 here:

"Be Saints" letter outlines here:

During class that week, we talked about Saints who were athletic. Each grade level chose a particular Saint, so I also specifically taught about St. Sebastian, Ven. Teresita Quevedo, and Pope St. John Paul II. This slide show includes a favorite Fr. Mike Schmitz video using some great sports analogies, a video for the three Saints chosen for our junior high classes, as well as photos of the Saints and the sports/activities they did. Click here for the presentation:

Then I had the students pick one Saint they were interested in and do a little research. I included some great wisdom from JP2 to athletes on the back, hoping that they might take it home and hang it up as a reminder!

Click here for a printable version of the activity:

And click here for a digital version you could assign in Google Classroom, etc.:

If you are looking for more bulletin board ideas, check out this post: