April is an exciting month for kids and teachers alike. It is a time to celebrate rebirth and the natural world because spring begins and earth day falls during the month. April is also a great time to celebrate children's literature, being the birth month of author Hans Christian Anderson. In many religious schools, April is popular for another reason: both the Jewish and Christian faiths celebrate major holidays during the month of April. Whatever your class is celebrating this April, use it to inspire a door decoration that captures the season.
Spring Poster
In April, the winter is ending, spring is beginning and everywhere, the world is coming alive again. Celebrate April with a spring-themed class door decoration. Write "Spring is Here!" in the middle of a poster board. Collect leaves, feathers, twigs and other signs of spring on a nature walk and paste them up as a border around the poster. Alternately, decorate the poster with pictures of birds, growing plants, fluffy clouds and other images that evoke springtime.
Earth Day Poster
Earth Day is April 22, which makes April an excellent time to educate your class about take care of the earth. Write down ideas for conserving resources such as "recycle more," "compost," "turn off the lights when you leave a room" and "turn down the heat." Write "Earth Day!" in the middle and have the kids write down the best ideas around the page. Decorate it with drawings of earth-friendly activities such as recycling, installing energy efficient light bulbs and composting.
Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen was born April 2,1805. He wrote a number of fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid. Celebrate your favorite fairy tales in April with a fairy tale class door poster. Have the class call out names of fairy tale characters and then vote to pick their three or four favorites. Put those characters on a poster to greet your class as they come in.
Religious Holidays
April is the month of Easter, the holiest day in the Christian calendar. If you are a Christian homeschooler or a teacher at a Christian private school, decorate the door with Easter decorations. Draw a picture of an empty cross to celebrate the resurrection as well as pictures of bunnies and eggs to celebrate the spring holiday for children. If you are a Jewish homeschooler or teach in a Jewish private school, decorate your poster with symbols of the Passover holiday. Have your class draw a Seder plate. Draw in the bitter herbs, a vegetable such as parsley and a bitter vegetable such as lettuce, the charoset, the shank bone and the egg right where they would normally go.
