• Celebrate families with a Family Fun Time bulletin board.family image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
  
  In second grade, students continue to build on reading and social skills while learning more about the world around them. Encourage class participation and content mastery with some easy, interactive bulletin boards for the second-grade classroom. The ideas can be tailored to fit other grade levels, too.
  
  

Pilgrims

• According to California state standard 3.2, second-grade students should be able to use vocabulary and art to describe different time periods and cultures. Around Thanksgiving, study the Pilgrims and create a Pilgrims bulletin board. Title the board, "Mr./Mrs. Name's Pilgrims." Then cover a bulletin board with blue paper to signify water. Draw or paste a large boat and write "Mayflower" on it. Create a male and female Pilgrim template, and make enough copies for the students in your class. Then, have students cut out the Pilgrim templates and decorate them as they wish. If time permits, you could even take a picture of each student, and use his photo as the face of the Pilgrim. Allow students to paste or staple their Pilgrims to the Mayflower. If there's still space on the board, have students write down a few facts about the Pilgrims. If not, encourage students to share their knowledge in the form of a class discussion.
  
  

Jungle Journey

• Encourage second-grade students to read at home with a Jungle Journey reading contest bulletin board. Cover a bulletin board with grey or black paper and draw or paste a large jungle animal on the board. Some examples of a jungle animal include a giraffe, zebra, lion or elephant. At one end of the animal write the number of books you expect the students to read in the given time period. Then, place a zero at the other end and have numerical increments all along the animal. For instance, if you draw a lion, you could have the number 20 at his head. On his tail, you could write zero, and then write 4, 8, 12 and 16 incrementally across his back. Next, create several monkey cutouts and write a student's name on each one. Students should start at zero, but as they read, allow them to move their monkey to the correct number of books that they've read.
  
  

Family Fun Time

• Celebrate cultures and families with a Family Fun Time bulletin board. To do this, cover a large bulletin board with a bright color. Then, have students create houses using construction paper. Ask students to bring in a family picture. Paste the pictures in the center of the construction-paper houses, and allow students to write their family members' names at the bottom. Paste or staple each house to the bulletin board.