Teacher Hack! - Turn an old chalkboard into a bulletin board!

When they remodeled my classroom this summer, they actually expanded my room into a less used room next door.  That room had an old, and quite disgusting, chalkboard in it.  Well, half of that board ended up in my room. (Why they didn't take it down I have no idea.)  Besides the fact that I cannot stand blackboards, this one wasn't even useable.  It had something rough that looked a bit like rust all over it.  Nasty.

Look! A message from ghosts of days gone by!

Anyway, I decided to cover it, but I really did not want to spend too much.  Well, my mom and I came across an idea in the Dollar Tree that worked fantastic!

I had wanted to cover the board with cork, but the rolls are super thin and crack, and the tiles would have cost a fortune.  I had seen a video a few years ago where the teacher covered the board with construction foam board (around here we call it styrofoam insulation board), and it worked well, but again, I would have to find a way to get the huge sheets in my Honda CRV with my daughter in the backseat.  Not gonna happen.  At dollar tree we found poster board that is a foam board about 1/4 inch thick in small sheets (I think they were about 18" x 30").  I bought 12 of them, but only needed 7, so $7.

I put the pieces up with double stick tabs I had from Lakeshore.  I have no idea how long I've had them, but I love them, and I am sure they still sell them.  I put one in each corner, a few down each edge, and a couple in the center.  I started at the top, and worked my way across and down.

When I finished with the larger space, I had to cut a few pieces to fill the rest of the board.  I wouldn't have been hard, except that I had forgotten my carpet knife/box cutter, and had use a razor blade that is a scraper.  Yeah.  Always a plan B.

Look at me, measuring and everything...

No eye-balling and praying here today, friends.

After I got the rest of the areas pieced together, I covered the whole thing by stapling a plastic table cloth and some boarder around the sides.  I.  Love.  This.

Now, I am fully aware that the table cloth is a little wrinkled.  Although this project only took about 2 hours, I had been working in my room nonstop for two days.  I think my brain told me it looked fine because it wanted me to take it and the rest of my exhausted body home.  It will be a quick fix to tighten it up when I go in on Monday, so I'm not worried.

I liked this project so much, that I covered another small, and less disgusting, blackboard area, as well.  I had a few pieces of foam board left, and let's be real here - there was no way I was driving all the way to the dollar tree to wait in line for half an hour to return 5 extra pieces of board.  I WILL always force myself to find a use for something to avoid heading back to that store.

Back to school for me tomorrow!  Have a good one, everyone!

~L