Kids Crafts: Summer Bulletin Board

Since summer is winding down, I thought I would post pictures of my summer bulletin board before it gets changed over to the fall. I will be posting other toddler crafts I did over the summer as well, but at a later date. In the fall, I will be moving up to teach the three year olds, so expect a lot more craft posts (but for an older age) and I also want to take a crack at some different management things and learning centers!

Anyway, so for the summer bulletin board, I went with a clothing scene. We made t-shirts, sunglasses, and little flip-flops.

To make the t-shirts you will need:

• Watercolor paints
• White paper
• T-shirt template (Like this one)
• Markers
• Yarn (optional)
• Clothespins (optional)

To make the t-shirts, trace them onto white paper using a t-shirt template (or just draw your own if you can). Then have the children paint them using water colors. I thought it gave the shirts a nice tye-dyed looked. After the shirts dry, write the children's names on the front with a marker (I blurred their names out). An alternative idea could be to put their picture on the front OR make it look like they're wearing the shirt by putting their picture near the top. Once they are dry, take you yarn and staple each end on either side of the bulletin board. Then, hang up your shirts with the clothespins. You'll have your own cute little classroom laundry line! 

For the flip-flops you'll need:

• Construction Paper
• Ink
• Foam stickers

Because the shirts did not take up too much space on the board, I wanted to make flip-flops to go underneath. Looking at them makes me want to kick back in the sand! To make the flip-flops, having the children press both feet onto an ink pad, then make foot prints on a piece of construction paper. Cut out around their feet. Then glue small strips of the same color construction paper over top to make the thong part of the sandal. I had these cute foam stickers handy so I put coordinating ones on top to cover up where the little paper strips overlapped. 

For the sunglasses you'll need:

• Construction paper (Black and any other color)
• Crayons
• Glasses Template (I used this one)

These sunglasses were a super-easy, quick craft! Basically all we did was have the kids color on white paper. You can use any color paper you like and any decorating method you prefer (we used crayons). Then, I used a glasses template and traced it on the white paper. I cut the sunglasses out, then cut the middle out (the lens part). Then, I glued them onto the black paper and cut them out again so the black would show up as the lens. 

You can make all these individually or put them together like I did, but either way this kids will be ready to hit the beach!