Inspirational Posters

At the beginning of the school year, I like to build classroom community by giving my students opportunities to make the classroom their own space.  One of my favorite projects that I like to do within the first couple weeks of school is designing inspirational posters.  I first discovered this project on Joanne Miller’s Head Over Heels for Teaching blog.  This is a simple project but one that students really enjoy.  It encourages growth mindset and creativity, and the final products are great classroom decorations to have all year long.  

Materials

-Inspirational quotes on copy paper

-Coloring supplies

-Laminator and laminating sheets

The Activity

Begin the activity by showing your students a completed model. I like to take pictures of my students' posters each year and use these as models for the following year.  Explain to students that each person is going to receive an inspirational quote and all of the quotes are different.  Students are going to use the quote to design a colorful illustration that they think represents the quote well.  Some examples of quotes are “The best view comes after the hardest climb”, “No two flowers bloom in the same way”, and “Some days you have to create your own sunshine.”  Explain to students that the goal is to create a beautiful illustration that matches the quote and to fill in as much of the white space on the paper as possible.

When students finish their quotes, they share their quote and illustration with the class.  These inspirational posters can be laminated and displayed in the classroom for the school year.  They are a great source of encouragement and inspiration when students are having a challenging day.

Wrap-Up

This year, I was on a Deep Learning committee at my school and my class and I introduced this project to the entire school.  Each classroom received 4-5 canvases and students worked together in small groups to decorate the canvases to hang in our school hallways.  The project worked well with all grade levels as the quotes can be differentiated so younger students can illustrate simpler quotes while older students can illustrate quotes that require more critical thinking.  It was so nice to see this project that my class loved so much inspire the entire school community!

So far on my blog, I have shared a variety of activities for the beginning of the school year.  Some of the activities are the “Helping Harry” STEM challenge, Name Tag Design STEM challenge, Open House Mini-Mes and the Inspirational Posters.  What grade level do you teach and which of these activities do you think your students might enjoy?