Tall Tales Lauren McGovern, John Fitch Elementary School Grade Level: 2-6 Special Education (Resource Room)

My inspiration for this bulletin board came to me at the start of the school year. I designed a permanent template, the tree, to be up year round in our hallway. I created the tree and had my students make flowers with short vowel words on the petals to be included in the grass. Each month I displayed new student work on the bulletin board.

This particular month was May and my students created Tall Tales. After teaching a mini lesson on tall tales and reading some examples my students created their own. For my special education students I provided them with a template in which to help them write their tale. I had students use adding machine tape to write their tall tales on for an exaggerated effect.

The tree was made using green bulletin board paper in which I crumbled up for an effect. I attached the tree to the wall and extended it to the ceiling. I used clothespins to attach it to the ceiling. For the trunk of the tree I stuffed it with newspaper to make it three dimensional.

What is great about this bulletin board used to display student work is that each season I was able to change the tree according to the season.