Saint Feast Day Boards- Growing collection for you to display!

At the start of the last school year, our classrooms received new smartboards. They are incredible and have really enhanced the ways I use technology in my classroom! On either side of the smart board is a 4x4' metal "chalk" board. Intended to extend the panel of the smart board and offer other writing/display opportunities, those boards came with "liquid ink" markers (aka chalk markers). My coworkers and I discovered that we loved the vibrancy of the chalk markers, but that they are a little more finicky to write with, take more time to use, and are much harder to erase than the typical dry erase boards we are used to. 

I decided to think outside the box of regular notes and the ways I used my dry erase boards during lessons. Instead, I decided to use these black chalk panels for more semi-permanent displays. I have long had a goal of better sharing feast days and celebrations without necessarily using instructional time. Creating a display on these boards was an awesome way for all six of my classes to get a little data dump on the saint of the day or special feasts. I also was able to utilize my collection of saint art and holy cards (that I have never utilized to its fullest before) as well as pull books from my library. 

These feast day boards were a source of joy for me during the school year and something that I enjoyed creating! I started taking photos and posting them on Instagram (you can see the highlight here) and decided to somehow make them sharable for you! 

Below you'll find all of the most common questions I was asked as I shared these, as well as a folder of all of the photos and a slideshow with the whole collection. Whether you pull these up on your smartboard in your classroom or use them as inspiration for your own chalk art, I'm happy to share them with you!

Here some answers to the most common questions I've received when I post these on Instagram:

• The boards are magnetic blackboards attached on either side of the smartboard in my classroom. They are about 4'x4'. At the beginning of the year, we discovered that writing on them with the liquid ink chalk markers wasn't super practical for normal classroom notes- they are are more challenging to write on than a dry erase board & marker. They also have to be erased with liquid (I've learned that a squirt bottle of water and microfiber cloths are the best combo).
• Because they don't erase easily, I decided to use them for a display that would apply to all of my classes and could be left up for a few days. It made the extra work worth it, and also was nice that they would stay looking fresh since they don't erase easily. Making displays to celebrate Saints and feast days just made sense!
• The chalk markers that I used were a combo of the markers that came with the board and a generic brand. They worked the exact same way as any other liquid chalk marker that I've ever used. I planning on ordering these and these to use for the new school year. (affiliate links)
• The artwork on display is from things I've been collecting for year and years- prints I've purchased, holy cards I've saved, things I've cut out of calendars, etc. I finally got all of them organized by month in this accordion folder and am so happy that they are actually being displayed now! While I have work from tons of artists on rotation, I have a lot of work from Catholic Paper Goods, Catholic Family Crate, Providential Co., Jordan Avery Art, and Saints Alive. I also print public domain images and photos as needed to feature certain Saints.
• One of my favorite things about the boards is using them to feature books for the Saints feast days. I've tried to do this in different ways over the years, but never consistently. This year turned that into a habit and it was a great opportunity to get my students to pick up more books about the Saints! You can find my lists of books organized by feast days each month on this page.
• I displayed the books on two 17" magnetic shelves. Those things were strong! I could load them with books and they didn't move an inch! You can find the shelves that I used here. (affiliate link)

You can click here to access the whole folder. As of right now, there are over 50 photos, but I will continue to add new boards here as long as I make them!

I've also added all of the images to this set of Google Slides- perfect for pulling up on your smart board for display! The slides contain all of the boards I made during the 2023-2024 school year. (I'll probably go back and add new boards, but likely not until the end of the school year ;) )