Hit: Heroes Bulletin Boards

[Clay and Jan Cole <rccole@TEXHOMA.NET>]

Hello all
Several people requested a hit on my query for a catchy bulletin board
slogan concerning Heroes.  My elementary school's theme is Celebrating
Heroes: Past, Present, and Future.  I was overwhelmed with your ideas, and
prompt help.  Thanks to all who contributed.

Here is a composite of the ideas:

How about past Olympic "heroes"? With the Summer Olympics imminent, Carl
Lewis, Nadia Comanici, and even Eric Haiden, although he is winter, would
qualify as heroes, and would be timely.

Upstart had a campaign called A Heroe is more Than a Sandwhich a few
years back. Try creating a huge sub sanwhich in the middle of the board
with construction paper. Add lettuce (courage), tomatoes
(perserverance), salami (education), cheese (talent), etc. Surround the
sandwhich with photos of "heroes" strips of paper with quotes from them
or their biographers and books. Book reports could be done like
sandwhiches--bread (title and author), lettuce (setting/time period),
salami (education,jobs, heroic deed), etc.

I'm not sure by your posting if you are looking for famous people or if
these are acceptable: pictures of firemen, policemen, nurse (school
nurse's photo with a drawing of a nurse's uniform), Red Cross
Volunteers, teachers, librarians (a hero to any child doing research
projects :-)  and other unsung heroes of everyday life.
Just a thought, good Luck with your project.

I don't know if this will serve but I  found a wonderful bulletin board idea
here that might be adjustable. It recommended putting only the first line of
a variety of books on a bulletin board and letting the staff and students
guess where they came from.  Can you use a similar idea using your
nonfiction
books on specific people?  Or quotes attributed describing or attributed to
some "heroes"? (i.e. Give me liberty or give me death.)

How about "Readers are Heroes" or "Be a Hero - Read". Snip some teacher pics
and put in place of some faces on book covers with the ubiquitous "welcome
back" banner at the bottom. Maybe not clever, but that's my idea. If the
sexist 'hero' is a problem, I know a local LMS who uses it with the word
'she-ro' as in: heroes and sheroes. (The feminine 'heroine' evokes the wrong
image in her neighborhood).

With the Olympics happening in September, why not do a theme around
Olympic heroes of the past and present?

Just a simple idea...here goes:
1.)  Choose maybe 10 (more or less) heroes who are associated with different
occupations...i.e. Wilma Rudolph, track;  Florence Nightingale, nurse;  etc.
2.)  Put either each person's name or a picture of them on one side of the
bulletin board.
3.)  Then, put their occupations on the other side of the board either with
a picture symbolizing the occupation or the name of the occupation.
4.)  Your title could be something like:  "Can you match these heroes to
their occupations?"  You could provide paper and pencil for them to guess
the answers and even make it into a contest.

How about interviewing the teachers and staff about their personal heroes
and posting the teachers's picture (or name only) and a few sentences about
why that particular person is their hero  (or heroine).  You could use a
brief questionaire to gather the info.

What about  "What is a Hero?"  Use an appropriate border from your local
teacher store.  Make copies of book covers that are biographies of  "heroes"
I do this at Kinkos so that they will be in color, but you can use a scanner
too and print them on a color printer, the quality is a little muddier.
Scatter jackets over bulletin board with the title What is a Hero in the
center.  Choose heroes that are not the usual, include some women and
various ethnic groups.  Then type up and print labels on your computer with
the reasons why the person is a hero and put these on the bulletin board
with each book jacket.  For example, Jonas Salk's might say "Inventented
vaccine that keeps us from having polio".  You might extent the idea with a
writing contest with forms available on the bulletin board in a pocket.  The
contest might be something along the line of the student choosing someone
that they think is a hero and telling why in 25 words or less.  Or students
could design a trading card for their hero.  Hope this helps.  I have two
bulletin boards in my library and change each one every month.

I just found something in The Mailbox (Intermediate) June/July 1997.  It is
a unit on Heroes,I think it would be helpful to you.

How about using Curious George:  "Curious about heroes?  Come on in!"

You guys got the wheels turning.  I am using some of these ideas and passed
others to the teachers in my building.  We'll have some good learning fun
using your ideas.

Thanks

Jan Cole
Horace Mann Elementary School
Duncan, OK
hmann@texhoma.net (school)
rccole@texhoma.net (home--for one more week!)

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