17 Winter Bulletin Board Ideas to Warm Up the Classroom This Season (2024)

Whether or not you’re experiencing a winter wonderland in your neck of the woods, post-winter break is a time to refresh your classroom decor and set up a winter bulletin board. A fresh start for the new year is as invigorating as a breath of crisp winter air.

Winter bulletin boards don’t have to be full of snowflakes and snowmen, a new year symbolizes a new beginning and offers a perfect opportunity for you and your students to set achievable goals. The teacher team at Teach Starter created some beautiful winter bulletin board displays you can easily download and use, plus we have compiled some clever creations from teachers around the country for your inspiration.

Bulletin Board Ideas for Winter

How to Bulletin Board: Make a Snowflake

Photo courtesy of K-6 art teacher Ms. Scott

You can tell an art teacher created this informative bulletin board, can’t you? K-6 teacher Ms. Scott designed step-by-step instructions on folding and cutting a paper snowflake. The black construction paper background juxtaposed against the simple white instructions makes this a striking display that demands attention.

A bulletin board like this is sure to inspire some crafty rainy-day recess activities and extends the board from decor to teachable moment with an interactive component. After all, paper crafts are good practice for fine motor skills, and learning new art forms down the road such as origami. You can also set up a how-to-draw bulletin board, or use this sort of display for teaching students informative and procedural writing! Don’t forget to add a space for students to show off their creations!

Inspired to create a how-to winter bulletin board?Printfun origami instructions on how to make a penguin!

Goal Setting

Photo courtesy of teacher Ms. Jordyrai

There’s no better time than the new year to set some new goals in a bulletin board. Teacher Ms. Jordyrai used our Goal Setting Iceberg Template to create this colorful display in her room.

Her students wrote their primary goal on the tip of the iceberg with smaller tasks filling in the rest of the space that will help them achieve their overarching goal or resolution. Each student decorated the background of their sheet giving this classroom space a beautiful pop of blue! With or without an actual bulletin board, these worksheets all styled together still make a lovely wintery-themed board.

Looking for other New Year-inspired displays? Try these bulletin board ideas perfect for the return to school:

1. Use a similar idea with Our Hopes and Wishes bulletin board display kit. Each student can write their hopes and dreams for the year in their jar template.
2. Print a goal-setting banner, and have students fill out their own perspective on a “new year, new me.”
3. Create new year goal crafts to display on the classroom wall and review at the end of the month or end of the school year!

Want to expand on goal setting? Explore our Goals and Feedback collection for more ideas.

Warm Up With a Good Book

For many, winter is the perfect time to cuddle up with a good book! Inspire your students to get excited about winter reading with our Warm Up With A Good Book bulletin board set like teacher Erin of Maine. She had her students fill out each hot cocoa mug with their own book review (including the title, author, and why one should read it) to work onstudents’ reading comprehension and writing skills.

This activity is not only great for a winter bulletin board. Book reviews can also be perfect for your Morning Meeting discussions or short presentation practice for your students. Fast finishers can help you assemble your board and Dollar Tree accents such as snowflakes can be cute additions to pull everything together!

Smitten for Good Books

Photo courtesy of school librarian Kelly Martino

Speaking of reading, we’re looking at you librarians! School librarian Kelly Martino crafted a fun play on words with her “Smitten for Good Books” winter bulletin board display. She made each mitten with art from different book covers and connected them with a piece of ribbon.

Want to create this cute display? Use these wintry penguins letter set to save time on your title. Have your class help you choose each book title and either print out the cover art or encourage your class to draw the title of their favorite book.

Snowy Days

Photo courtesy of librarian and former FSL teacher Laura Zade

Librarian Laura Zade honored author Ezra Keats with a bulletin board tribute to the famous children’s book The Snowy Day. She used colored paper to mimic the image of the cover, and it turned out so sweet!

Books covers are great inspiration for bulletin boards to create a decorative space in the classroom, hallway, or library. It also helps students recognize specific books and instills curiosity to check them out. Here are some winter book titles you may like to recreate for your winter bulletin board:

• Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter by Kenard Pak
• Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft
• Little Owl’s Snow by Divya Srinivasan
• Pete the Cat Snow Daze by James Dean
• Do Frogs Drink Hot Chocolate? How Do Animals Keep Warm by Etta Kaner

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Bulletin Boards

January 16th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and this timelineof his life is perfect for a hallway display or bulletin board. Use this timeline to enhance your MLK or civil rights movement lessons or keep it up through Black History Month so your students can continue learning about this important civil rights leader.

Want to expand on the Martin Luther King Jr. theme? Try these bulletin board ideas:

1. Elements from this “I Have A Dream” Mobile are perfect for an inspirational display your students can help with. Direct each student to write what their dreams are for themselves, their school, their community, and their world. Assemble each cloud template as a mobile for the bulletin board or use colored paper as colorful backgrounds for each cloud.
2. Print MLK vocabulary cards to create a word wall that provides the words students need to understand to explore the various important concepts and ideas that this American hero introduced.
3. Develop a Nobel Peace Prize bulletin board that celebrates the accomplishments of Peace Prize winners like Dr. King and Malala Yousafzai. Encourage students to fill out this template that explores their own vision for creating a more peaceful world to post on the board.

Black History Month Bulletin Boards

Black History Month will be here before you know it, and the topics discussed in February are important to instill throughout the winter — and the entire school year. Set up a bulletin board that focuses on this aspect of American history, and keep it up all season long. Here are just a few ideas you can use:

1. Set up a timeline of some of the most important political moments in the history of Black Americans.
2. Ask students to create their own Instagram-style profiles of important Black leaders, and display them all on your bulletin board for students (and teachers) to read.

Chillin’ With My Snowmies

Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Pre-K teacher Ryley

Love a good snowy theme? Snowmen are always happy characters for a winter bulletin board. Pre-K teacher Ryley compiled her students’ paper snowmen creations into this adorable scene.

Want to create something similar? Use thisFunky Snowmen template to get a headstart while simultaneously giving your students an opportunity to design their own zentangle patterns. You’ll have your own winter wonderland in no time!

Oh Deer! Winter Is Here

If a pre-made design is your style, this deer-themed winter bulletin board kit is sure to bring smiles to your colleagues’ and students’ faces. This kit includes snowflakes, penguins, letters, and reindeer that are also appropriate for a delightful decorative board or classroomdoor display.

Winter Celebrations Around the World

Photo courtesy of Emily Poolof Colorado

We know we said these bulletin boards could be set up for winter after the holidays, but we love this creative bulletin board from Emily Pool outlining different winter celebrations around the world so much we had to include it. With a snowy background and descriptive tiles, this is a perfect blend of decor while also being educational.

Pool included winter holidays such as:

• Christmas
• Hannukah
• Kwanzaa
• Omisoka
• Winter Solstice
• Dong Zhi

This is a perfect example of a bulletin board for an inclusive classroom! Each holiday can serve as a new discussion starter during your Morning Meetings or you can have small groups of students present each holiday depending on the grade you teach.

Explore our New Year’s and Bulletin Board Displays collections for more ideas to beautify your classroom for the long winter months!