When our school was designed and built about ten years ago, they really tried to think of everything. One of those things was that hallways tend to become display space in elementary schools. It was a smart thought, right? However, instead of lining the hallways in beautiful, soft cork, it's this unfinished, scratchy, slivery wood material. You can, technically, staple into it, but the staples don't like going in, and they don't like coming out! Most teachers have a set of pliers for this purpose.
So for the last two years, instead of switching out cutesy thematic bulletin board displays we've stapled a solid paper background and silver boarder on in September, and then stapled a piece of laminated construction paper for each student. Last year, I put the student's name and picture in the corner of their spot, and then throughout the year we use clear scotch tape to attach student work to their special spot. The idea has caught on and spread from the kindergarten classes to most of the primary hallways now. It's SO much faster and easier to manage throughout the year than pulling out staples!
For next year, I think I'm going to purchase one of the a-la-carte flat colored sheets from Walmart in their dorm section to use instead of a paper background. My teaching roommate purchased fadeless paper and cut and laminated it, but I think I might just try scrapbook paper? Something cute and colorful, or maybe just solid cardstock. Last year we taped work up, but it fell down a lot. I think this time around I'm going to Mod Podge coordinating scrapbook paper onto clothespins, and hotglue on two clothespins per kid. We can still tape on, but I think for most of our work, one or two clothespins will be plenty. I even collected clothespins that had been written on front and back out of people's trash at the end of the year last year! =)
Now to chose my colors and get my Mod Podge on!
