When designing the bulletin board in my classroom, I wanted to use photographs in an inspirational way for my students. My district has an initiative to demonstrate pride for the city that it is in so the two came together perfectly with this one.
I loved the idea of creating a bulletin board that would inspire my students to think of speech when they are outside of my speech room. Using visuals on my bulletin board helps my students do just that. When they are out and about around the school or community, they make connections between what is in our speech room and the outside world. The more they reference our speech room outside of their speech time, the more they may think about what we actually do in there.
I often get asked where I purchased the wooden bulletin board. It is actually just Fadeless Designs Weathered Wood bulletin board paper that I purchased from Amazon. I have since spotted it at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Joann's Fabrics as well for less than $10. Remember to bring along your coupons or use a coupon app to save even more!
The ruler clip boards were from the Target's Bullseye Playground. I had the burlap ribbon border, twin and clothes pins on hand. I cut out the letters using my Cricut Machine.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN PHOTOS:
First, I took some photos of student hands making a heart above a neon green piece of poster board. The poster board served as a green screen. I quickly learned that this was a lesson in following directions and fine motor challenge for a few of my friends.
Next, I put out an all call for photos around town. I also took a few of my own on our school campus. The power of teamwork never ceases to amaze me. Our night custodian sent me so many gorgeous photos. I also received a couple from a fellow SLP Blogger, Rock Chalk Speech Talk from when she had lived locally for graduate school. It was awesome!
Using the Green Screen app by Do Ink, I placed the photos that I had acquired as overlays on the heart photos. The beauty of this is that you can do so right from your iPad or iPhone.
To do so, layer the scenic photo on the bottom layer. Then add the hand photo to the middle layer. The image will look as if the hand is in front of the scenic photo. To have the image on the hand, select the rainbow circle on the bottom (this determines which color is washed out depending on the color of your green screen). Typically, I select a bright green. However, this time tap on the hand portion and the photo will appear within the hand. To adjust the opacity, adjust the sensitivity bar.
Once you have saved the image, you can open the image in a photo editing app and convert it to Black and White. I used the app Color Story; however you can also do so by simply editing the photo with your device's built in editing features. I then printed the photos on card stock using my regular printer.
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. What bulletin board inspiration tips do you have? I'd love to know. Let me know in the comments below.
 |
No comments