Determine your message for the poster. Elementary students have a limited vocabulary, so use simple messages that they can easily follow. If you are giving information about an upcoming event, make sure you have included the who, what, when, where, why and how of the message. If you are creating a list, such as the class rules, stick to a list that only contains a few, easy-to-memorize pieces of information.
Design the poster and practice its design on a scrap sheet of paper first. Write your message and place a graphic on your scrap sheet of paper. You can write the message at the top with the graphic on the bottom, or place the graphic in the middle with text on both sides. If you angle the text, consider also angling the graphic to make it look cohesive.
Pay attention to your white space. White space is the area of the poster that does not have any letters or graphics on it. If you put too many words and pictures on your poster, your lack of white space will make the poster look cluttered. Clean posters often have ample amounts of white space so that the message is not too overwhelming.
Place the poster's letters on the paper before adding graphics. Elementary students can practice their math and ruler skills by helping you place the letters on the poster board. If you want to center the letters, determine the center of the poster board by determining how many inches long and wide it is. Determine the center of the message by counting its letters. For instance, if your message is, "Hang in there!" count the letters --- 11 --- and add the space between words and punctuation ---three --- to get a character count of 14. The halfway point of your message would be seven, so place the seventh character in the center of your poster board.
Laminate the poster before taping it to the classroom walls. Children are likely to touch the poster, and lamination can prevent normal wear and tear so you can use the poster for several school years.