Thanksgiving (Sunday School Bulletin Board)

Categories: Sunday School Bulletin Boards

This bulletin board of "gratitude" is for the month of November or anytime that celebrates bounty, fruitage or Thanksgiving. I chose to decorate the board with fruits and vegetables - foods that come from the ground, which can be very colorful and eye-catching. I chose to create a collage, but pictures with borders will work just as well. A collage requires a great number of pictures. I have been collecting pictures on this subject for many years from calendars, citrus or food catalogues, such as "Harry and David" and house and garden magazines. But if you're starting from scratch, I would suggest you take your camera and take close-ups at local outdoor markets or supermarkets, farms, or "Google" pictures off the internet. You can even enlist the help of artists of all ages to draw and color different fruits and vegetables using crayons, markers or paints. I prefer large fruits and vegetables.

This bulletin board of "gratitude" is for the month of November or anytime that celebrates bounty, fruitage or Thanksgiving. I chose to decorate the board with fruits and vegetables - foods that come from the ground, which can be very colorful and eye-catching. I chose to create a collage, but pictures with borders will work just as well. A collage requires a great number of pictures. I have been collecting pictures on this subject for many years from calendars, citrus or food catalogues, such as "Harry and David" and house and garden magazines. But if you're starting from scratch, I would suggest you take your camera and take close-ups at local outdoor markets or supermarkets, farms, or "Google" pictures off the internet. You can even enlist the help of artists of all ages to draw and color different fruits and vegetables using crayons, markers or paints. I prefer large fruits and vegetables.

I find that spraying the backs of the pictures with 3M spray glue and sticking them onto plain computer paper will not only take out all the wrinkles, but will give each picture enough stiffness for the project. Do this spraying out of doors or in a well-ventilated area. I like to line the bottom of a cardboard box with newspaper, spray the backs of each picture, then quickly shut the box for 30 seconds and this will prevent over-spray and will contain the odor. I replace the newspaper for each picture. At this point I cut along the outline of each particular vegetable or fruit with sharp scissors in order to allow the edges to overlap adjacent pictures. An important aspect of this collage for me is to contain the grouping into a circle or oval shape and not to cover the entire board.

Instead of attaching my pictures directly to the board, I like to buy a roll of white paper, the kind they use to cover restaurant tables. I find these rolls at our local restaurant supply store. I place a strip of this paper on my floor at home and arrange the pictures on it in a circle or an oval with none of the white paper showing until I'm satisfied with the look. It doesn't matter if the fruits and vegetables are mixed together or if the vegetables are on one side of the design and the fruits on the other.

I then stick them on the paper using a swipe or two of rubber cement. (Follow the directions on the bottle.) When it's time to retire the fruits and vegetables at the end of the month, they can be fulled off the paper, stuck into in a file and saved. Rubber cement leaves a glue residue that remains sticky and can be used on a future project.

When all the fruits and vegetables have been stuck onto the paper, I take scissors and cut away the white paper around the edges of the grouping. The idea is for the individual vegetables and fruits to stick out delightfully around the outer edges.

The project can then be picked up as a whole and transported to the bulletin board. Do not fold it. It should be tacked up firmly, since it is probably heavy. I use tacks that have an extra long pin. I place the project in the middle of the bulletin board. I tack the title - an appropriate Bible passage - at the top. I printed the title on golden paper glued it onto a strip of black poster board. The title this month is: "I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:6 However, to be more inclusive, I changed the first word to [We] instead of "I" and the last word to [us] instead of "me".

This board will be interactive. I have left plenty of room around the edges of the fruits and vegetables or next to the bulletin board for people of all ages to fill out available colorful 3x5 cards with their own statement of what they are grateful for. People can even take this assignment home to think about it. To explain the process I place instructions on the board, send flyers to the classes, or announce it in newsletters or at meetings. Everyone enjoys this colorful board of gratitude. They like the way it attracts the attention and the way it brings everyone together.

Olene Carroll