Ever had to scramble to figure out how to cover those blank bulletin boards before the students return to school in the fall? Or maybe you gave back all the artwork before the last few days of school and you don't want the hallways looking sad and bare during those exciting last days? A couple years ago I was inspired by a post from Cassie Stephens where she used bingo daubers to draw large banners that her students then painted as a field day activity. She used these to decorate the halls the following school year when they came back to school and I was instantly in love with the idea. I realized this was the perfect activity to end the school year for some of my classes that earned a fun day and it could double as a way for me to cover the bare bulletin boards at the end of the year and beginning of the next!
I have a variety of bulletin boards, including a display case at the entrance to our school, so I have a lot of different sized areas to cover, so we used a large roll of paper and some smaller poster boards for our paintings. If you haven't heard of bingo daubers or how awesome they are for the art room, definitely check out Cassie Stephens' blog-she has tons of ideas for them. Basically it just involves a refillable bingo dauber and some slightly watered down India ink. I wish I had an exact formula to give you, but I make it up as I go! My favorite thing is how easy it is to draw/paint nice clean black outlines on large papers using the bingo daubers. I could literally draw all day with one of these, it's so fun! Pro tip: make sure your paper is heavy enough that the ink won't soak through, or definitely make sure you use something underneath so you don't get surprise stains on your surfaces! Pro tip #2: Go over your outlines once the kids are finished painting. I hadn't done that step yet in the picture above and it looks a little sloppy. The touch-up makes a huge difference!
Bonus: My super simple welcome back display case. I grabbed a bunch of art and school-related objects, made some colorful book jackets with construction paper, and scattered them throughout the case with our painted posters as the background. (Peep the unfinished poster. We didn't quite have time to finish this one during our last class, but no big deal. I think it looked great overall and that's all that matters)
Extra Bonus: Use the bingo daubers and some fluorescent splatter paint to create a fun poster for classroom decoration. The one below currently lives on the small bulletin board behind my desk.
Hope this inspires some fun back to school or end of the year displays!
Thanks for reading!
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