Reading Is A Gift

Each year at our school, each grade is assigned a month to do the bulletin board in the main hallway. This year I was given the month of December. I enjoy this month because you can do such fun things. When I was teaching in Alpine a few years ago, one of the teachers on my team wanted to do a "hand" tree. So each of the 90 students cut 9-10 hands each, and then we complied them into a mammoth tree. For that tree we used lots of hands cut out on white paper to make the tree look snowy. It was really, really neat. Then the students made ornaments and we "hung" them on the tree.

I knew that this year was the year for the major project. Hand tree it was. I had each student work to cut out 30 hands (they were SO thrilled with that, let me tell you). It took a lot more time than I had hopped for the students to cut the hands. However, we did discover that if the kids fold the paper and trace one hand, they can cut out several at one time. From there, I turned the hands over to my amazing wife, who cut a triangle and then started gluing each hand on, fingers down. 

We decided to go with the theme "Reading Is A Gift". As you can see from the picture below, the board turned out really simple, but eye catching. I love the rope lights that go around it. It makes me feel like I am looking out a large window, with a tree in front.

The students are currently making ornaments that will hang on the tree that will display their favorite book titles. I think it will look great.

Happy Holidays!

Later...