April is national poetry month and to celebrate, consider spicing up your writing center or classroom library with this cute "poet-tree" from the librarians of Algona-Pacific Library in Washington. While the original board depicted an orchard tree and apples scripted with famous poets, you can certainly tweak the board to fit your classroom needs. Here are a few ideas:

• Create a "blossoming" spring tree, trading the apples for flower cutouts.
• Have students pick and write their favorite poem onto the cutouts.
• Invite students to write their own spring poem, scripting it onto a cutout.

Spring Poetree Bulletin Board

• Background: Cover the top three-fourths of the board with light blue bulletin board paper and the rest with green background paper {cut with wavy, uneven strokes} to create a landscape – grass and sky.
• Title: "Pick-a-Poetree", "Our Classroom Poetree", "Our Top Poetree Picks", etc. - The title will change with the theme and purpose of your bulletin board.
• Border: Spring themed bulletin board or complimentary solid trimmer.
• Decoration: Draw or trace a barren tree (i.e. trunk and bare branches) onto natural or brown bulletin board paper. Include a few branches, but intentionally leave the tree cutout sparse. Crumble the paper to create a textured bark-like look. After mounting the cutout to the center of the board, cut several long strips of natural or brown background paper loosely twisting them and attaching them to the tree to create 'three-dimensional branches' {and fill the tree in a bit!}. Add apple or flower blossom construction paper cutouts, depending on your selected theme, and fill the tree in with leaf cutouts made from various shades of green paper.

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