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Easy Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas

You can't really be ready for the first day of school if you're still on the hunt for back-to-school bulletin board ideas. Good news, though! We put together some of the best back-to-school bulletin boards for 2022, from beginning of the year decorations that will welcome the students back to the classroom to bulletin boards that will inspire them to dive right into learning!

Bulletin Board Tips

Our Teach Starter teacher team has put up many a bulletin board over all the years in classrooms from Texas to Georgia to Indiana, so before we dive into the back to school ideas, we need to divulge a few hard-earned tips!

  1. Use a fabric backdrop. Paper is great, but 16-year teaching veteran Randi Smith (check out her all about me bulletin board template!) was able to keep some bulletin board fabric up for years because fabric holds up and lasts forever.
  2. Don't bother stapling all of your cutouts to your bulletin board right away. Instead, Smith suggests using thumbtacks so you can step back, eye up what's level and what isn't, then move things around.
  3. Use a permanent marker to hide staples. Find a marker that matches the color of your cutouts, and poof, the staples disappear!
  4. Start hanging words in the middle. This tip comes from long-time educator and Texas-based resource manager Natalie Brown. Building out from the center helps ensure you keep things even!
  5. Use clothespins. Planning to make a student work bulletin board? Teach Starter resource creator and former classroom teacher Brittany Collins suggests gluing tacks to the back of clothespins to display student work easily on your bulletin boards. Bonus, these "student work coming" printables work as a perfect placeholder until your students' work starts flowing in!

Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas

Best of all, we've got fall bulletin board ideas that will work for the first day of school all the way through until it's time to put up a winter bulletin board! Before we get started, don't forget to download a free set of bulletin board letter and number cut-outs that can be used with any classroom theme! Then peruse the list for ideas you can use at back to school time, plus a few bulletin boards you can set up for fall, keep for winter, and even use in the spring!

We're a Bright Bunch

Let your students know that the future is so bright, they have to wear shades with this fun back-to-school bulletin board idea. We used the generic letter cut-outs above for this, and the sunglasses are from our free Funky Bunny printable template! For an added personal touch to make students feel welcome, you can always add their names in the "glass" part of each of the sunglasses — first name in the left eye and first initial of their last name in the second.

we're a bright bunch bulletin board idea

Want a bulletin board set that's already put together? Try our colorful "We're a Bright Bunch" bulletin board kit with colorful crayons!

Learning Is So Sweet

Set just the right tone for going back to school with a bulletin board that emphasizes all the good that's in store! Learning really is so sweet when you've got pineapple letter cutouts and pineapple classroom decor cutouts to make this bulletin board creation super simple. Finish it all off with a few pineapple bulletin board borders, and you're done!

learning is so sweet bulletin board idea

Place Value Bulletin Board

Do you start off your school year with a review of place value? You're not alone! That's why the teacher team at Teach Starter created a place value bulletin board kit to make it just a little bit easier to get your classroom first-day-of-school ready!

Place value bulletin board

A Book a Day Keeps the Monsters Away

The perfect back-to-school bulletin board for a school library or a reading teacher, this bulletin board idea will encourage a love of reading and can easily be paired with a fall reading challenge!

Print the entire bulletin board set — cute little monsters included!

Welcome Back — Our School Just Got a Little Bit Brighter

Welcome Back — Our School Just Got a Little Bit Brighter bulletin board

It's the beginning of a school year, and you have a lot of faces you haven't seen in a while and a lot of new faces too! To make sure kids feel welcome is key, and San Diego, California teacher Ms. Hartig shared this fun bulletin board idea with us that lets students know right from the very first day of school that they're the real reason we teach!

Bee Brave, Bee You

Start your year off with a social-emotional lesson about being comfortable forging your own way in the classroom with bee-themed letters spelling out the words "Bee Brave, Bee You." Add our busy bee border trimmers on to complete the bulletin board!

bee brave bee you bulletin board idea

Welcome to Our Hive

Another fun bee-themed bulletin board idea for the beginning of the year, you can get double usage out of the fun bee theme by set up a "Welcome to Our Hive" bulletin board to welcome students when the school year begins. Use the bee letters above or the blank cut-outs, and add the hive from our free bee-havior tracker (get it?), and top it with this busy bees welcome sign!

We All Bee-Long

We hope you'll excuse us bee-laboring the quality of bee puns for your bulletin boards, but this one is a favorite for the Teach Starter teacher team. That's why we created this first-day-of-school activity that can be turned into a bulletin board focused on building a classroom family and making sure everyone feels like they "bee-long." Download the bulletin board kit, and you'll noticed each student has a small honeycomb to fill out, and there's a "we all bee-long" banner to bring the whole thing together.

we all belong in bulletin board

Student Work Coming Bulletin Board

We hinted at this one earlier with Brittany Collins' must try bulletin board idea! Are you a teacher who prefers to let students' own work take over the bulletin board? We are on, ahem, board with that idea, and you can make it work for your fall bulletin board too — even setting this one up before students come back to school.

But how do you possibly create a student work bulletin board without the student work already completed? Easy! Grab a pile of clothespins — one each for every student in on your class list — along with your hot glue gun and small tacks. Hold a pin upside down, so the gripper part is pointing toward the floor, add a dot of glue to the back, and add your tack.

When you've added a tack to every pin, download these fun student work buffering and under construction posters. Set them up on your bulletin board, and you've got a completely designed display ready for your students' work! Best of all, this is a fall bulletin board, a winter bulletin board, a spring bulletin board … basically you just got the entire school year done!

bulletin board idea student work coming

Add a Little Sunshine to Someone's Day

This bulletin board idea works for back-to-school time to remind students to be kind to one another, but it's also a perfect hit in the doldrums of winter when you need something bright and cheery on the walls of your school hallways!

Print the bulletin board kit here, including clouds, sunflowers, and the letters you'll need!

All Are Welcome Welcome Board

All Are Welcome bulletin board

Inclusion matters. Let your students know that no matter who they are, the minute they walk in their doors they are your kids with this back to school bulletin idea from teacher Amy Jones (and check out her crafty ideas on Instagram while you're at it!). This is one of those bulletin boards that would work near the doorway to the school or in any hallway, in addition to fitting in perfectly as a classroom bulletin board. It's also the kind of message you can hang on a fall bulletin board, put up for winter, and still have around in spring.

Kickin' It In Your Grade

Kickin' It In Your Grade bulletin board

Fall is soccer season in many parts of the country, so bring those weekend game vibes into the classroom with an uplifting message like this one from Tampa, Florida teacher Alexis. Kick things off just right this school year!

Birthday Bulletin Board

Kick the year off with a special place in the classroom to celebrate your students' birthdays! This under the sea theme is a snap to put together with our jellyfish birthday display template, or check out our other birthday bulletin board ideas!

birthday bulletin board under the sea

We're O-fish-ally Ready to Learn

Carry on that under the sea theme with a reminder that it's time to turn their brains back into school mode. These fun under the sea animal cutouts pair perfectly with the words "We're O-fish-ally Ready to Learn" in our ocean letter set!

We're Glad to Sea You

OK, OK, we'll stop with the fishy puns, but there are so many ways to dress up your bulletin board with under the sea animals to welcome kids back to the classroom! Let everyone know you're glad to "sea" them, and you've got a talking point for your discussion of homophones this school year.

Gear Up for a Great Year

If there's one thing we teachers love, it's puns, amiright? We created this fun robot bulletin board with the robots, gears, and letters from our robot pack! It works for a classroom door too.

robot classroom door decorations

You Are a Rainbow of Possibilities

Another great way to open the school year is to remind kids that it's a blank page with so much possibility for them. Cover a board in black construction paper, and add these rainbow letters for a seriously simple bulletin board!

Video Game Bulletin Board

Go retro with this vintage video game bulletin board idea that doubles as a great first-day of school activity to help students get to know one another. After students fill out their game tiles, put it all together a Tetris-style bulletin board that will impress their parents on meet the teacher night! Download the video game bulletin board kit, including the score tile, banner, and game tiles!

video game bulletin board idea

Back for S'More Learning

These cute camping cut-outs and camping-themed letters are absolutely begging to be used to spell out "Back for S'More Learning!" If you're doing a camping theme in the classroom this year, all the better!

In This Class, We Think Like …

In This Class, We Think Like … bulletin board

Set expectations early with a back-to-school bulletin board idea that lets your students know you think they can do big things! This fun board idea comes from @crafty.ms.g, a fifth grade teacher with some brilliant ideas on Instagram!

Color Your World

If you love interactive bulletin boards that pull the kids in as much as we do, how about turning your back-to-school bulletin board into a giant coloring sheet that the kids can work on all year?

giant coloring activity

The Sky's the Limit

Encourage your students to take off on a learning journey in the new school year with these fun astronaut cut-outs and letter set that promotes aiming high.

Soar Into Learning

Double up on your astronaut puns with a Soar Into Learning bulletin board! Grab some space-themed decor from our space classroom theme pack to make set-up a snap!

Reading Colors Your World

Reading Colors Your World bulletin board

The perfect bulletin board for your classroom reading nook, this idea comes from teacher Chelsey Hanke who reminds her students that "Reading Colors Your World." Pair it with these fun crayon decorations for a bulletin board that's as colorful as the rest of your classroom.

Other Classroom Bulletin Board Ideas

Need something that can stick around for a while and help kids learn? Try some of these ideas!

  • Use Pennants to Decorate Bulletin Boards: We have a huge collection of printable classroom pennants that will spruce up any bulletin board.
  • Set Up a Help Center Display: Give your students starter tips for spelling, writing … anything you're planning to focus on that they might need help with!
  • Make Your Bulletin Board an Icebreaker: Another interactive idea, this Friends in the Pond Interactive Icebreaker Display, is an example of how you can use your board to break the ice.
  • Set Up a Word Wall: Check out these editable word wall templates that are extremely easy to print or edit to create your own words!
  • Set Up Welcome Signs: Save time with these pre-designed classroom welcome signs that can be personalized for your class.

Need more bulletin board ideas? Check out bulletin board kits and decorations already designed and ready to be downloaded!

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Source: https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/back-to-school-bulletin-board-ideas/