Bulletin Board Recipe: Literary Showers

There is nothing I love more than a fantastically whimsical bulletin board, and the bulletin boards this year are some of my best work.


The literary showers bulletin board is a very simple one for any educator to do. The following materials will be needed: background paper, border, various colors of construction paper, tape, fishing line, bulletin board letters, two medium size binder clip, paper clip, ceiling hook, and an umbrella. This board took roughly over an hour to make, but a large part of that was developing the correct way to hang the umbrella.


 First, add the background and border to your bulletin board. I opted for the cloud background, but honestly you can use any background you think would match the theme of your board. The same goes for the content on the raindrops and umbrella. I chose literary elements but really you could use any content for your teaching area. 

 Next, cut out rain drops (roughly 20-30) and add your terms to each. You will need to cut out raindrops for each term to make it double sided.


Once you have them all labeled, take two feet of fishing line and lay it down the middle of one of the raindrops. The raindrop should be located towards the top of the line with about seven inches above it. Next, secure the fishing line by taping it to the back of the raindrop.


To stick the next side of the raindrop to it, make a couple tape folds and then lay the other raindrop on the top of the other. A little trimming may be necessary if your drops do not look equal to each other. 



You will repeat this step with two other raindrops so three are attached to one line.




For my bulletin board, I made five strands with three raindrops on each one, so you will want to repeat this whole process until you have enough strands for your board. Next, you need to attach the strands to the umbrella and let me tell you, those babies are secure! I knotted the strands at least six times on each end of the umbrella. If your knots are not very tight, they will slip right off.





Once all the drops are attached, the bulletin board letters need attached and actually stick to the umbrella perfectly with regular tape. *Simple tip- find the center letter of your word and start with sticking it to the umbrella so all sides of your words are equal and even.




The umbrella's main anchor is the ceiling, but can be done quite simply. First, hang your hook on the ceiling, then take the medium binder clip and clamp it to the top of the umbrella. To suspend it from the ceiling, take a paper clip and loop it through the binder clip arm. Lastly, place the paper clip through the hook on the ceiling.

The final step to this entire process is to angle the umbrella towards the bulletin board. Take about three feet of fishing line and attach it to the handle of the umbrella. Make sure you attach it in the middle of the line. Make one last loop in the line for the binder clip to hold onto the line, and then hang the binder clip from the ceiling so your umbrella is fully suspended.


And viola! A masterpiece that your students will love and teachers will drool over.