Hot Air Balloons in the Classroom

With just a few weeks left of school, most of us aren't going to be redecorating the classroom. If you took everything down for testing, though, you might want a quick end of the year theme for a bulletin board just so you don't have to put it all back up again.

How about hot air balloons?

This is one of the happiest themes, but it can also be one of the most frustrating, because there are very few ready-made resources for it.

Here's one: Eureka's "The Sky is Your Limit" banner.

CTP has done cutouts with this theme. Since they use the popular Stick Kids, they give Stick Kids fans a chance to refresh their whole room with one change.

Put the banner along the side of your bulletin board and fill the rest with the cutouts, adding a student name to each one. Have each student write a goal for the rest of the year, a plan for the summer, or hopes for the next school year on a word card and attach the cards to the baskets for an uplifting bulletin board.

If you like this idea but prefer to do it without the banner, here are some bulletin board sayings you could use:

• Rising to New Heights
• Here We Soar
• Flying High
• Soaring Above the Crowd
• Up, Up, and Away

Here's some more hot air balloon fun:

• Read basic facts on balloon flight.
• Make a Hot air balloon piñata.
• Use a balloon-themed worksheet for preschool shapes practice.
• Try an ESL lesson using this theme.
• Check out a simple yet exciting science experiment. This is a video showing an experiment with a tea bag and matches
• Make your own hot air balloon. Really!