Creating a “Take What You Need Wall” recognizes that many students and staff are coming to school feeling depleted in one or more areas of their lives. To combat this, your club can take over a bulletin board or empty wall space in your school and fill the space with words of encouragement. You never know who may really need a boost in that moment and who may benefit from knowing someone cares.
Supplies
8 envelopes
Take What You Need header banner
Markers to write on envelopes
Tape/Stapler
Any other bulletin board decorating supplies
Paper for messages
Instructions
- Identify a bulletin board or empty wall space that gets a lot of traffic so that people will see and interact with your display. Decide if the wall will be up for a week, a month, a semester, etc.
- Your Materials Kit contains eight envelopes. As a club, brainstorm eight different positive qualities you think the people in your school might need to help them get through the day. Write one quality on each envelope. Some possibilities include:
- Patience. Courage. Love. Support. Laughter. Friendship. Connection. Hope Strength. Comfort. Inspiration. Motivation. Confidence.
- Start thinking of messages that correspond to each quality. You can write your own messages or you can gather quotes that relate to each quality. You can handwrite the messages, type them on slips of paper, or use a program like Canva to design them. Your Material Kit includes some samples you can use in your display. Cut your messages up and fill each envelope with its corresponding messages.
- Build your display as a club. Your Material Kit includes a small header banner that you can use to identify your display. Make sure that the envelopes are placed so that students can easily reach them to take out a message.
- Consider getting the word out about your display with an announcement to the student body. Encourage them to interact with the Take What You Need Wall.
- Make sure your club checks on the wall in case any of the envelopes are empty. Replenish your quotes as needed.
