This lively bulletin board from the National Federation of the Blind's monthly publication, The Braille Monitor, with its brightly colored butterflies and plethora of insects, is perfect for spring/summer reading programs and seasonal classroom library decorations! While the original board incorporates braille alphabet butterflies, you can choose to keep it the same {adding in a lesson on disability awareness, etc.} or alter the butterflies to display larger letters.

Literacy Bulletin Board

• Background: Blue bulletin board paper.
• Title: "Catch the Literacy Bug!"
• Border: Solid green trimmer or spring themed bullet board border. Along the bottom border, attach a long strip of Velcro.
• Decoration: 1) The Tree. From recycled corrugated cardboard cut and shape the pieces into a tree trunk and branches, mounting it to the left side of the bulletin board. From black construction paper, cut a large oval to place in the center of the tree trunk, twisting a long scrap of natural butcher paper to trim the "hole" in the tree. Cut leaves from green felt or construction paper, arranging them at the top of the trunk and on the branches. 2) The Butterflies. Find several butterfly templates online {like these - butterfly template #1, butterfly template #2, butterfly template #3, butterfly template #4, etc.}, using them to trace and cut butterfly cutouts from craft or construction paper in assorted colors - 26 in all. Glue a jumbo craft stick "body" to the center of each butterfly, cutting a black chenille stem in fourths and, after curling the tops, attaching two stem "antennae" to the top of each craft stick. Using craft pom poms or circles cut from textured craft paper, arrange a braille letter onto each butterfly or print the letters of the alphabet onto colorful paper, cut them out, and paste them onto the wings of the butterflies. Attach the butterflies to the board using Velcro dots. 3) The Insects/Critters. Along with the butterfly letters, the original board features smaller butterfly cutouts, egg carton caterpillars, a bird sitting in the tree, and {even though it's not a critter} a butterfly net! You might also consider adding other interesting creatures like chenille stem earthworms, egg carton spiders, pom pom caterpillars, bottle top ladybugs, etc.

What's great about this board, since the letter butterflies are attached with Velcro, it becomes interactive! Students will LOVE arranging the butterflies on the strip at the bottom to create different words!

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