Coming up with creative bulletin board ideas for middle schoolers and creating an exciting learning space is the first step in building a positive learning environment. A bare and boring classroom is hardly inspiring, and getting your décor right makes a massive difference.
Bulletin boards are essential in any school setting, whether displaying the periodic table, a classroom calendar, or welcoming students back to school. But, while they do wonders to spruce up dull and bare walls, bulletin boards are more than a colorful wall decoration. Instead, they are a tool that can help bring your curriculum or theme to life. At the end of the day, the curriculum is just a vehicle with which you teach valuable skills. So you want to make that content as engaging as possible to achieve your outcome.
A bulletin board can convey information to students, reinforce lessons, display student work, and more. However, making the perfect bulletin board for middle school students can be challenging. You must find a balance between something that is visually appealing and engaging but also enhances curriculum material.
Table of Contents
- What Makes A Good Bulletin Board For Middle Schoolers?
- 17 Bulletin Board Ideas For Middle Schoolers
- So Much More to Explore
What Makes A Good Bulletin Board For Middle Schoolers?
Here are some tips to ensure that your students enter a learning wonderland each day.
Be visually appealing and visible
Consider how advertisers grab people’s attention and apply it to your bulletin board. Choose color schemes that are visually appealing and don’t clash. Vibrant borders and multi-layered backgrounds can give your display depth, and your bulletin board should have a structure that makes it easy for students to read. The critical elements should be visible right away.
There is no point in creating the perfect bulletin board that is eye-catching, colorful, and amazingly informative, only to be ruined by its poor location. Make sure your bulletin board display is free of obstructions and well-placed to be effective.
Show them you know them
This is a bit more challenging early in the year, but as you get to know your students, gauge their interests and find something that appeals to all of them. It may be the latest book craze or film franchise. It may be a country or historical era. It will all boil down to the students you have at the time. You will definitely have their attention if you incorporate their interests into your display. Choose a theme together and if you have a split vote, reassure them that both themes will have a turn.
Keep a space that is not necessarily curriculum based
It is not easy to pick a random theme when tied to a curriculum. So keep a space aside for items that are ‘just because’ and let it be a space for learning and engaging with things that aren’t necessarily in a textbook or test.
Change it up
No matter how awe-inspiring your bulletin boards are, they will eventually lose their novelty. However, suppose you keep it updated and spruce it up sporadically. In that case, your students will begin to look forward to whatever surprise is in store for them.
Get your students involved
Let your students contribute. Maybe have a space for them to display their work. Put a space aside and let each student have a turn to create the weekly bulletin board. They can make it entirely about the things that excite them. Because each student will get their turn, they can indulge the student of the week and immerse themselves in their classmate’s interests.
17 Bulletin Board Ideas For Middle Schoolers
Having trouble coming up with bulletin board ideas? Here are some theme ideas to inspire you.
Be Yourself Bulletin Board
This might seem like a strange theme for a bulletin board, but it can be used in many ways. For example, one thing that most middle school students struggle with is self-confidence. This is when they’re trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be. You can help them by displaying different quotes about self-confidence that can be written on sticky notes. You can also make a wall of fame to recognize students using their talents and gifts.
Ways to love yourself’ board by Counselor Keri
This ‘Ways to love yourself’ board reminds the students to not to give all the love away and keep something for themselves.
Be Yourself Bulletin Board By Trapped Librarian
It’s a great way to involve the students by decorating positive adjectives to describe themselves.
Something For The Seasons
This idea is perfect if you have a large wall or outside wall where you can see the seasons change. You can also use this theme to celebrate holidays like Halloween, Easter, or Thanksgiving. Then, integrate the curriculum into your chart and show temperature highs and lows, cloud types, or any other concepts you have covered.
Falling Into Fall By Renée Glashow
This fall bulletin board idea from Renée Glashow needs only a slight title change and a few more embellishments to make it a great Thanksgiving display!
Thanksgiving bulletin board By Confetti and Creativity
These beautiful, festive, and super easy Thanksgiving bulletin board ideas are perfect for a middle school classroom
Don’t Have A Meltdown From We Are Teachers
Add some inspiration and mindfulness to your bulletin board for the winter season.
Make Time For Mindfulness By School Counselor Blog
This colorful, interactive spring bulletin board has QR Codes with different mindfulness activities.
Tree of Knowledge Bulletin Board
First, discuss with your students what knowledge means and what the tree will reflect. Then, you could get scientific and look at how we acquire and use knowledge. For example, you can have sticky notes about how things have changed over the centuries. The Greek scholars learned at the feet of their masters, the printing press opened the world of knowledge to many more people, and now we have Google! Next, you can look at genetics and how DNA can be used to find out about someone’s ancestry. Or, look at problem-solving skills, critical thinking, interesting facts, how the brain works… it’s your tree, so do whatever works for your classroom.
Tree Of Knowledge By The Balanced Literacy Diet
This Tree of knowledge bulletin board is to have students express and display their thoughts from their families in order to strengthen links between the home and the school.
Tree of Knowledge – Classroom Wall Decoration By Pop and Lolli
This wall decoration can be adapted to contain anything you like.
The Tech Knowledge Tree By Study All knight
This “Tech Knowledge Tree” word wall is perfect for the 21st-century classroom.
Proud Patriots Bulletin Board
Are students studying the Founding Fathers or the Civil War? Or maybe they’re creating a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence? This is the perfect bulletin board for any theme related to American history. Display pictures of famous American paintings and images of famous landmarks. You can also use this board to show pictures of famous people and facts about them or create a timeline of events.
Vote! let your voice be heard By Jessica Winston Saunders
Learning about democracy? Use your bulletin board to ‘campaign.’
Look Who’s ‘Running’ For 5th Grade!
It’s also a great theme when you are electing the class president.
Here are some great ideas to get your students involved in your décor
Patriotic Bulletin Board letters By Mixed up Files
Create display boards that perfectly coordinate with your red, white, and blue classroom theme. With this printable file, you will never have to return to the teacher supply store for extra letters again!
Book Nook Bulletin Board
This is a perfect theme for a classroom with many avid readers. You can use this wall to display book reviews, recommendations, and book covers. It is also a great way to spark discussions about books.
Find images of your student’s favorite authors and book covers, and create a collage. Maybe feature an ‘author of the week’ or have a student’ book club’ on the go.
Feature modern authors like J.K Rowling, Jeff Kinney, or Rick Riordan, but also look back on trailblazers like Roald Dahl and classic authors like Dickens, Shakespeare, and Verne.
Genres By Raise The Bar Reading
Teach your students about genre and display a genre word wall.
Which book do you recommend by Curious Firsties
Create a book recommendation board where students can write and leave reviews for their classmates.
Myths and Legends Bulletin Board
Myths and legends are not just cool stories to entertain your students. They come with a wealth of history, link to cultures, and can easily be linked to science and geography. How? Well, myths and legends were created when there was no explanation for things like seasons, day and night, rainbows, thunder, and lightning – the list is endless. So, using myths to introduce these concepts and then teaching the facts that are now understood makes it just that little more exciting.
The Odyssey From Study All Knight
Display this collaborative poster in your classroom. It’s excellent for teaching The Odyssey, but can lend itself to much more.
Cryptozoology Field Guide from Cafe Press
Cryptids are a great way to introduce animal classification and labeling skills. In addition, your students can create their own weird and wonderful beasts to add to the mix.
So Much More to Explore
There are so many fantastic bulletin board ideas for middle schoolers; I could write a book. Nature lovers can turn their classroom into a rainforest featuring animals and habitats worldwide. Science fans will love a theme focusing on famous scientists, science facts, and theories. Take your class ‘Around The Word in 80 Days’ and explore countries and cultures from across the globe. And I am only just getting started. The best part is that it is just as much fun to teach in an exciting space as it is to learn.
