A great tool to have at your disposal as a teacher is a personal cutting machine (like a Cricut or a Silhouette!). It truly is amazing how many different applications these machines have; everything from classroom decor to center activities! Here's a lovely example of a Cricut-made back-to-school bulletin board originally featured by Robin over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog. While a cutting machine is convenient, the great news is you can still get a similar look using handmade and purchased bulletin board supplies. We think this design offers a great summery transition to the new school year and "ant"icipate that your kiddos will love the picnic theme!

We "Ant"icipate A Great Year!

• Background: Red and white checkered plastic picnic tablecloth or white bulletin board paper.
• Title: "We "Ant"icipate A Great Year!"
• Border: Grass or picnic themed trimmer.
• Decoration: 1) The Ants. If you don't want to mess with cutting out a bunch of small ant cutouts, you might consider using black craft paint to create fingerprint ants directly on the background paper. Simply dip your finger in the paint, create three prints side by side, and then when the paint dries, you can use a black permanent marker to add antennae and legs! With this method, you'll be able to create the line of ants in no time at all! And, of course, you'll be able to customize the shape of the line. Might we suggest first using a pencil to draw the line, then add the fingerprint ants... 2) The Food. While the original bulletin board only displays a bag of chips (how cool is it that they recycled an actual chip bag?!), we think it might be fun to recreate more of the picnic food and use the items to display various subjects or topics that you'll be covering in class throughout the school year. Fruit, sandwiches, fresh corn on the cob, cans of soda/bottled beverages, cookies, etc. Draw your own cutouts or find templates to help you create these accents out of construction paper - e.g. here's a watermelon template from All Kids Network. Simply arrange the pieces on the board/"picnic blanket" and add labels! [NOTE: You could also create a piece of food for each student in your class and print their names on the cutouts instead of subjects/topics!]