April Showers Bulletin Board

Using Student Photos to make a Spring Bulletin Board

To go with all of the awesome Spring crafts we made for our Spring Bulletin Board, we also had to have an April Showers bulletin board! We've had a ton of inside recesses due to rain lately, so the kids were quite familiar with the idea of a thunderstorm. And, what kid wouldn't want a giant umbrella so they could play in the rain?!

We've read several books about the rain this Spring - some of our favorites were Listen to the Rain and The Rain Stomper.

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This was the perfect craft to go along with our "April Showers" theme. First, I cut the plates in 1/2 and then cut the points along the edge. I did this free hand and it isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be!

Next the kids picked out their favorite colors of tissue papers. I have a box of Pre-Cut Tissue Paper Squares, which makes crafts like these super simple. Each student got 3 colors of tissue  paper and went to town crumpling them up. This was the tricky part - having to separate the squares to work with just one at a time, crumpling them not too much and not too little - great fine motor practice!

We applied liquid glue to the umbrellas in sections - once they finished covering up the glue they could apply more to the next part. Limiting the glue application like this meant less mess!

Once the umbrellas were dry, each child picked out a pipe cleaner handle and I attached it with hot glue. I took their full length pictures with my phone - I just positioned them in front of a blank wall and told them to pretend they were holding an umbrella. Then I removed the background of the pictures (see this tutorial for an easy way to do this!) and printed the pictures on cardstock.

My daughter painted in the grass, clouds and raindrops on the bulletin board, and then we added the kids' pictures and their umbrellas.

The kids were so excited to point themselves out to their parents as they were being dropped off this morning. Using their pictures makes the board extra special!