Back to School Welcome Board

A great way to for students, parents, and teachers to get to know a class is to have a photo board posted in the classroom.  Back in the day, when I worked as a substitute teacher, I always appreciated a classroom photo board and even found it more useful than desk tags (for those times when students aren't seated.) Also, the kids love seeing themselves and their classmates featured in a special way, it gives them a feeling of belonging. 

This particular welcome board was super simple and quick to put together.  I used my Cricut to cut the puzzle pieces, and printed the student's photos right off the computer.  Luckily I had use of a color printer, but having photos printed somewhere like Target would be fairly inexpensive as well.

I used cardstock in primary colors, which I purchased in a bulk package at a craft store.  I  have tried using construction paper for Cricut projects similar to this one, but I found that the paper curled and eventually faded.  I definitely recommend the cardstock! 

The puzzle pieces and font are from the Don Juan cartridge, which is the cartridge that comes free with the machine.  I set the Cricut to cut the puzzle pieces at 4 inches, and cut about 10 of each color.  I wanted to have plenty of extra pieces for new students!  For the wording I cut black puzzle pieces as a base and then made a blue overlay with the lettering cut out.  Using a glue stick, I glued the blue overlay on the black solid piece. 

Finally, I glued each student's picture to a puzzle piece and wrote their name with a black marker.  As I do with all bulletin board assembly, I started with a bit of tape on the back of each piece to make sure I liked the placement before stapling into the board.