Summer Bulletin Board Ideas

Pirates and Sea Theme Activities for Day Care and Preschool

Jun 20, 2009

Spruce up the classroom during the hot season and let the children learn something new with these fun and interactive bulletin board ideas.

These easy bulletin board ideas are sure to be a classroom hit in a day care or preschool environment, and ideas and activities for the themes are suggested below. Introduce these themes in Circle Time with a good book or fun songs that incorporate the ideas!

Ma-Arr-velous Pirates

Have each child create his/her pirate hat. Do not add the eye patch or feathers. Take a close up picture of each child. Once developed, cut the head out of each picture. Have precut strips of red and black paper and let the children glue the strips in ABA or ABBA patterns over his/her shirt cutout. Using black construction paper, draw the pattern for the eye patch and encourage child to cut out independently. Let them pick a colored feather and glue to where the hat is on the picture. Paste each "pirate" on the bulletin board.

Pirate Reading Activities

Introduce the Pirate Theme by reading a few books like How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long [Harcourt, 2003] and for the younger kids, That's Not My Pirate (Usborne Touchy Feely) (Board book) by Fiona Watt [Usborne Books 2007].

Pirate Craft Activity

Send a note home to the parents asking for shoeboxes. Let the children decorate the boxes like a treasure chest. Have pretend gold coins, or the chocolate gold coins, or beads (be creative!) and let the children fill the chests. Talk about maps and why we use them. Using a dry erase board or large butcher paper, create a map with child participation on what should be where. Let the children create a map on construction paper and play games hiding the chests.

Pirate Math and Sensory Activities

At the sensory table, have strips of red and black paper to cut further, various "gold" looking items in water for sink/float activities, or water and toy boats. For math, play teacher-made board games like using a piece of cardboard paper with squares, and dice with coins as play pieces. Have a child roll the die. They count what they rolled, and count that many pieces. They then place each piece on a square, and count how many they have left to fill the entire square up.

"Class Name" Goes Beyond the Sea Bulletin Board Idea

Pass out sheets of sandpaper with a star pattern already drawn (for younger children have the pattern cutout). Let older children cut the pattern out independently. Using the gold glitter glue let them decorate his/her star fish. Discuss other creatures that leave in the sea or on the beach while they do this activity.

Talk about the different shapes. Draw a sail boat on the dry erase board and ask what shapes they see (crescent for boat, rectangle for pole, triangle for sail). For younger children, have the shapes precut out of construction paper. For older children, encourage them to draw the crescent and triangle themselves. The straw will be used as the pole. Once they color and decorate their sailboats, provide glue to glue the straw as the pole.

The brown butcher paper is the "sand", the blue for the "sky" and the yellow for the "sun". Cotton balls may be glued in bunches for clouds and blue crepe paper may be glued above the brown butcher paper for the "sea" and "waves". Stick with tape or glue each starfish on the "beach" and the sailboats in the "sea".

Sea Themed Educational Activities

Add sand and seashells to the sensory table, have books about sea animals like seagulls, dolphins, or whales in the reading center. Use seashells in the math center for counting games. Have shakers and sand blocks for a music center and a CD with beach themed music for the children to play to.

Pirates and the sea aren't the only summertime things kids can learn about, but these themes and bulletin board ideas are sure to bring some fun, interactive and educational energy into the classroom.

The copyright of the article Summer Bulletin Board Ideas in Preschool is owned by ChristaCarol Jones. Permission to republish Summer Bulletin Board Ideas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.