Columbus Day is next Monday and if you're looking for a festive bulletin board to display during the holiday week, as well as a design that can be put up and taken down easily and without a lot of fuss, here's a cute option from Angie Spratt that would make a great addition to any early childhood learning environment! The elements are simple and the entire sail is created using your students' crafts, so all you'll need to do is add a background to the board and cut out the ship's hull!

Columbus Day Ship Crafts

It looks like the original design features super simple ship crafts - half circle 'hulls' cut from brown construction paper, triangle 'sails' cut from construction paper of assorted colors, and blue construction paper 'sea' backgrounds. This would be great if you're working with little crafters! However, if your students are a little older, you might check out one of these great handprint boat crafts...

Columbus Day Classroom Display

• Background: Cover the entire board with white bulletin board paper. Add a strip of blue background paper, the top edge cut to look like 'ocean waves' to the bottom third of the board.
• Title: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue..."
• Border: Complimentary solid or patterned trimmer.
• Decoration: Draw and cut the shape of a ship's hull from brown bulletin board paper, attaching it to the center of the board. Use a long strip/scrap of brown paper to fashion a mast and then arrange your students' ship crafts around it to create the sails!