For all my teacher friends out there, this turned out to be an awesome all school bulletin board.  We asked all the students to bring in one of their favorite books for our Havurot group on Friday.  Basically, our whole school separates into small groups of 6 or 7 once a month for the whole year to work on different projects.  It’s really nice because kids of all ages get to work together and learn together.  Anyway, each student brought in their own book and those that forgot, got to take one out of the library or look up the cover on a computer or iPad.  We talked about each book in our group and then had about a half hour to create our own book covers to recommend our books to others.

Some kids created their own art, but most copied the covers.  We don’t do copying very often, if ever, but I have to say, they LOVED it.  Every age group was successful and the overall effect is pretty spectacular.  It’s so much fun to see kids walk by and comment on the different covers.  You hear things like “Ohhh, I love that book.” or “Oh man, I wish I did that one.  That is so my favorite.”  All the parents love to come by and find their child’s cover.  Each time I pass I notice a different fantastic cover I hadn’t noticed before.  The most popular books wereThe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Wonder by R.J. Palacio, which I can’t wait to read this summer.  I think eight kids did Wonder.  So, if you’re looking for a great bulletin board for your school, here’s a great one.  I’ve included the book template to make it easy.  We printed it on card stock and only gave the kids sharpies to use.

One of the many awesome Wonder examples.

We have about 200 students in our school so I had to find room in a different area for all the covers.  Those little clothespins are the cutest.

I love that the kindergarteners book covers are just as awesome as the sixth graders.

Here is the clip art we used, photocopied onto white card stock.  I only had this picture of it blank which you can print, enlarge and trace if you want.

I’m happy this bulletin will live throughout the summer.  I’m going to put up a little envelope on the side with papers and little pencils so that kids can write down which books they are interested for summer reading.  Happy summer everyone!