My 1st attempt at a bulletin board

I'll admit that I wouldn't consider myself much of a fan of doing bulletin boards.  My high school level teaching experience just didn't really require me to do so.  By moving to the elementary level it was just a matter of time before bulletin boards would catch up to me.  So here's my 1st attempt at a bulletin board.  I don't actually have a physical bulletin board to decorate, but there's a nice (empty) wall space next to my office that I just made into a bulletin board type wall space.  My school offered to get a bulletin board installed for me but I passed up the offer.  I wasn't quite sure how this bulletin board would turn out and once you get a bulletin board installed, I'd have to keep/maintain it.  If this doesn't work out, it can easily be "converted" back to an empty wall again.

Thanks to the tips and ideas from fellow counselors on various blogs and Pinterest I had the courage to create a bulletin board.  My inspiration was from a bulletin board I saw on Pinterest.  Here's my finished product:

Counselor bulletin board

So here's what I did to re-create the "Whoo can help you with" bulletin board:

-I typed the list of reasons to see the counselor in Word and printed them on Avery clear address labels.  To download the label template click here.

-I used my school dye cutter to cut out pictures of leaves using construction paper and to spell out "whoo can help you with..." letters.  I like to laminate the construction paper before using the dye cutter (just easier for the shapes/letters to already be cut and laminated that way, but do what works for you).

Dye cutter blocks (I used a maple leaf)

Dye cutter

Leaves, cut and labeled.  There are some blank ones too

I had some of my crafty students draw a tree from brown butcher paper from my school.  Another crafty student drew the cute little owl in the tree.  I liked the idea of students having a little input in the bulletin board because it shows a them a little ownership in the project (plus students are ALWAYS willing to help).

Student created tree & owl

I had a teacher friend write "Your JYJ Counselors" on a yellow sentence strip (I don't have teacher handwriting by a long shot) and I added pictures of myself and the counselor intern under the tree.

Picture of myself & counselor intern Dhruti

The trick to getting things to stick on (without falling off) concrete cinder blocks is...a hot glue gun!  It's also easy to peel off and doesn't damage the walls.  Thanks to some teacher friends that let me in on this little secret.

See how easy the glue peels off

I'm pleased with my bulletin board attempt and think that it's a great way for students, staff and parents to know what we do and that we are here to help!  I don't feel as intimidated about the whole bulletin board process, so I plan to try more in the future.  What cool or neat bulletin board ideas have you done or plan to do?