I Have A Seasonal Display Board....

[Abigail]

I just started a seasonal display board for the main daycare room in October. This is a large board for a home daycare, but smaller than what schools have. It's about 4 by 3 feet and out of the children's reach.

October we just did colored pumpkins that were all the same from the printer and then I took pictures of the kids and printed wallets to place on their pumpkins and the parents loved it. It was very look-a-like and blah in general.

So I'm looking for a November theme. Right now it has leaves as a border and a title "I'm Thankful For" I wanted to make it more meaningful and was looking for ideas on general things kids would be thankful for and put up pictures with words. I feel it's too late to ask for parents to provide pictures but it would have been nice to ask for pictures of their pets or parents but at the same time I don't like that it gives out so much information about a family either.

So I was thinking about printing off a lot of different pictures and having kids pick 2-3 each to decorate and display for the month. Please help me come up with a list. Also, let me know if you do anything similar.

1. Mom/Dad
2. Grandma/Grandpa
3. Pets
4. A Home
5. A Car
6. Food
7. Love
8. Friends
9. Siblings
10. Toys
11. Blankets
12. Stuffed Animals

My oldest child is a young 3 year old so I need to keep it basic but definitely like that our display board will have a variety of things for the kids to color and we can add to it each week until it's super full! What do you think? Add to my list please!

[Blackcat31]

Why give them suggestions of things you think they should be thankful for and instead ask them....

I think it would be more meaningful and super cute to hear their reponses.

Especially at their ages, kids are thankful for whatever means the most to them at this point in their lives....whether it is their favorite Sponge Bob video or their new bath toy. kwim?

[daycarediva]

My november bulletin board is

Miss. ***** is thankful for...

and then I gave each child a turkey with their name & picture on it, turkey feathers with descriptive words and am adding our related art work to it as we go along.

For example-
Jackie/picture-feathers say giggly cuddly smart kind playful zzzzzuppp (what she says instead of yes) tickles ribbit (her favorite thing in the WORLD is frogs so we have a secret code of ribbits, only me and Miss Jackster know what we are saying) blows kisses

It made a dcm tear up Monday morning. lovethis

[Abigail]

If I wanted to use pictures it would have to be something I could find online, so some of what they would say I wouldn't be able to find especially if I didn't know what their favorite toy at home was, etc.

I do like the idea of writing the thankful for on the feathers of a turkey. did you find the turkey in clipart or just draw it yourself? I don't think I want to print more pictures again this month I was thinking December I would do pictures again. Do you do something with photos every month?

I only have 3 kids who can talk the rest are too young so if I did a bunch of pictures that would be easier to include everyone.

[nothingwithoutjoy]

My family does a "thankful" tree at Thanksgiving--a branchy stick in a vase onto which we put paper leaves. I cut the leaves from paper we've painted (using orange, yellow, red; fingerpaint, watercolor, easel painting, whatever. Even crayon would be nice.) I put them in a bowl w/a pen and we add things as we think of them. You could put a tree on your board, take dictation from your three who talk, and then leave the rest of the leaves available for parents to add things, too--a nice way to include families. When my daughter was too young to talk, we just let her scribble on some of the leaves.

[daycarediva]

I just do one picture (a new one each month) the turkey feathers I got at dollar tree!

[Abigail]

I like the idea of having some available to parents. Instead of a tree because that will be part of Christmas I think I'll try to find a turkey for each child. I could do paper leaves, but maybe I could start out with popsicle sticks if I make it first to see if I can easily get 8-10 sticks on a turkey. We could write on the sticks and I'll buy nice colored ones.

Is their anything Thanksgiving related that we could easily add sticks or feather if I must use paper that could be for each child?

[Happy Hearts]

Why give them suggestions of things you think they should be thankful for and instead ask them....

I think it would be more meaningful and super cute to hear their reponses.

Especially at their ages, kids are thankful for whatever means the most to them at this point in their lives....whether it is their favorite Sponge Bob video or their new bath toy. kwim?

I did this with a Thankful Tree on our Canadian Thanksgiving and one 2 year old was thankful for monsters and aliens.