Collaborative Poster Activity
Wow – so I just found collaborative poster activity creations! A sweet friend has been creating them for her 4th grade classroom, and she graciously showed our group how to make them. You can check out her blog, store, and FB group below. She teaches 4th grade at a private school, and has a ton of great resources! If you have a 4th grade friend who is looking for great things, you might want to send them Annie’s way!
GET A FREE COLLABORATIVE POSTER WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!
Collaborative Posters in the Classroom
So what is a collaborative poster and how can it be used the classroom? Well… it’s one big picture broken up into a lot of smaller pics. Each student colors a section of the poster, and then when you put the sections together, it makes one big beautiful poster.
You can use these many different ways! You can have each student work independent of everyone else, and then see what the creation looks like in the end. Or you can have students work in groups, so that each section of the poster is similar. Or you can give students certain colors (all different shades) and explain that these are the colors they will use.
My preference – I like the idea of having students work independently. They color their section however they want. Then when the poster is put together, it shows so many different color combinations. You can see how the letters (together) in the poster to the right shows different colors used per square. You can still read the wording, but it’s unique.
Collaborative Poster Template
The teacher will have the main template showing what the final picture will look like. The students will also have an image of the final picture on their page that they are coloring. It will show the final picture, along with a light-grey box over their section so that they can see exactly what they are coloring.
This works great if you want them to collaborate with colors, they can find friends who are coloring the pictures next to theirs to make sure shades are the same.
How to create a collaborative poster
Once students have colored and cut out their piece to the collaborative poster, you will then begin to build it to make the final picture. We have students write their section on the back to make it easier to create the final poster.
I’ve found the easiest way to create is to lay out the pieces onto the ground (or table) first, then starting in the middle, tape each side as you go (lining up letters and pictures). Our lines are a bit thicker since these are for elementary students, so the cutting of the squares should be fairly straight… but at the beginning of the year, you might want to use your cutting board to cut – then as your first graders become better “cutters”, release some of the control.
Once you have pieces taped, you can then staple to a bulletin board, laminate, or hang on a wall. Flipping it over and taping the back for added durability also helps.
IDEAS OF WHEN, how, why TO USE COLLABORATIVE POSTERS from a few people in my mastermind group:
- hallway displays
- early finishers
- entry task
- sub plans
- door decor
- ways to introduce topics
- end of unit activities
- brain breaks
- stress reduction
- team building activity
I love all of these ideas!! If you use for something else, I’d love to hear about it!
my collaborative posters
Here are a few of the ones I’ve created so far. If you click on the picture, you can see it in my TPT store. Or you can click HERE to see all of them.
WAIT WHAT????
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COLLABORATIVE POSTERS INCLUDED!!
Would you like something special?
Let me know if there’s something special you would like – these are super fun to make, so I might be able to create your idea.
Until next time!
Shanon
Thank you for sharing the collaborative posters.
You’re welcome, Liz! I hope you and your class are having fun creating them! 🙂
Can you make one about inclusivity and different cultures? It’s our schools theme this year- accepting and including different cultures.
Hi there! I sure can… but I might need a bit more info from you. What would you like it to say and what images would you like? You can email me at [email protected] with that info – that’s an easier way to communicate. 🙂
Do you have a template available for people to make their own? I love doing them to introduce an author but struggle finding any for the authors we use! It worked great with one I found (from someone else) for our Poe unit and I’d love to do more!
Hi Jill – I emailed you back, but figured I would respond here as well. I don’t have a template… I use several different paid sites to create these, so I don’t have a way to create a template without the creator using the paid resources. Sorry!
Shanon Juneau