Types of Bulletin Boards Used in the Classroom

Bulletin boards can be used not only for classroom decoration, but as an essential tool for classroom communication; between teachers and students as well as teachers and parents, staff, visitors, or volunteers. There are four main types or categories of bulletin boards that can (and should) be utilized in the classroom including child-created, decorative, conceptual, and interactive.

1. Child-created bulletin boards are an effective tool used in the display of student’s work—art projects, writing prompts, science projects, etc. The children feel a sense of pride, seeing their work displayed and knowing they helped to create the bulletin board, while parents and visitors can enjoy seeing the childrens' work and learning what has been going on in the classroom.
2. Decorative bulletin boards are used to add color and aesthetics to the classroom. In many cases, these are themed boards, following the seasons, holidays, or other areas of interest. Many supply sites, such as MPM School Supplies, offer themed bulletin board sets that can be recycled from year to year.
3. Conceptual bulletin boards compliment the subjects being taught in the classroom or give more information on subjects that are found to be of interest to the students. These boards are designed to illustrate concepts using pictures wherein the visual representation helps students to understand the concept more fully.
4. Interactive bulletin boards are designed to get the children involved. Made of materials that are moveable/hands-on, these boards, when developmentally appropriate, can help the formation of: students’ eye-hand coordination skills, visual discrimination skills, left-to-right discrimination skills, one-to-one correspondence skills, problem-solving skills, letter recognition, numerical recognition, color recognition and small muscle coordination skills.