Charlotte's Web!

Here is another take on a display dedicated to the book Charlotte's Web. You will notice I like to use the same books in class (as they are classics!) which means I have many different displays on the same theme / book.

This display is a combination of the book and the theme of farming which we studied in geography lessons alongside the book. At my school they are keen on having books on shelves and resources displayed on display tables which match the display (to make displays tactile and interactive) so you will see a row of non-fiction books on the windowsill complementing my display. The children love to look and browse through these books to find out facts about what's being studied.

Take a look at this Charlotte's Web display and let me know your thoughts...

The farming section of the display filled with key vocabulary and facts.

The webs!

A close up of an early stage of making Charlotte's web. Above, on the hanging twigs, we extended the spider's web to include 'baby' spiders which the children enjoyed trying to spot when they first saw the display! Using materials like this cotton wool (I picked it up from the Poundshop I think as a Halloween decoration) makes the display tactile and draws the children into touching it and exploring / reading everything else on display. It also looks good to!

Genre Map ~ Key features of text types

One way to help children understand the key features of a text type is to pick texts apart and find them themselves.

As part of shared reading sessions and literacy lessons, at the beginning of studying a new genre, we read lots of good quality examples of that text type and investigate it asking the question 'What makes this a ...?' We do this for both fiction and non-fiction text types.

Once we find out what those key features are, we display them on a genre map on our literacy display. The types of features we are looking for are: content, language, organisation/ layout and the purpose and audience. Of course as teachers, all these key features are in our planning before hand so we know exactly what we want the children to find. You could make it a challenge whereby all the key features are already on cards and they have to find all the answers on the cards by the end of the lesson/week.

I also like to display highlighted and annotated copies of texts on the display that we've explored so the children/ myself can refer back to them when learning/ teaching. The children like to magpie ideas from these too.

Here is my genre map display in the making...

As you can see the display is flexible and handwritten as the key features can be found and added at any time - another look at a literacy working wall really!

Another blast from the past...this is a photo of work produced from a PSHE lesson I did with my Year 3/4s last year. It is called 'Rainbow of feelings.'

The children had to think of happy and sad times in their lives. They painted a rainbow using one colour and different shades - starting with light in the middle and getting gradually darker towards the outside of the rainbow. When dry they wrote the happy times on the lighter parts of the rainbow and then the sadder times on the darker parts of the rainbow, with the saddest time on the darkest part. This was a really useful activity to do with the children to compare their experiences in their lives so far. Very insightful into their lives and how they deal with different situations and how the different situations make them feel. 

Marvellous Maths!

Here is a photo of my most recent Maths display centred around Place Value and Measure. I have included some things on my display which I will keep on there all year round as they are useful essentials which I will be referring to regularly in my teaching. Others will be taken down and replaced with other things relating to new maths units covered. 

The middle of my display was left blank deliberately to be used as a working space where current tips and steps to success could be displayed clearly. You don't have to cover all of your displays - leave some spaces blank for success tips to be displayed each lesson. I have also pinned up some of the children's extra homework they have sent in as good examples of maths homework! 

Year 5 Expectations!

It is great to start the year off with a display of your expectations of the children for the year. My display is a combination of behaviour expectations and the expectation of the presentation of their work. I have included tips and hints for both as well as including some quality examples of Year 5 work from last year to show the children what they aspire to achieve by the end of the year. Around the edge of the display I displayed some of the children's wishes about their year ahead. This serves as a little reminder about what they said at the beginning of the year they would like to achieve by the end!

You will notice on this display (and some of my others) I am starting to label things and write things up onto the display in my own handwriting. Presentation and joined up handwriting is a whole school focus for improvement and what better way for the children to learn how to write joined up than for the teacher to be modelling this every day as well as on the displays. I definitely think there is a place for typed up text and handwritten text on your displays! 

The Romans Enquiry Display

An old display from my previous school. As a class we studied the Romans. Here is a display themed around the Romans. Again you will see a KWLH grid was used to elicit the children's prior knowledge, find out what they want to know, record what they learnt and record how they did this. A useful tool to use to make your teaching and learning child centred.

Variety of Literacy displays over the years...

Here are a few photos of different Literacy displays from my classrooms over the years! All themed differently and reflecting different topics! Some a celebration of the children's work and some working walls! Please leave a comment to tell me what you think!

Descriptive Writing Display

Themed around describing the haunted house and grave yard!

Adventure Stories Display

Showing the key features of adventure stories as well as examples of adventure stories.

Literacy Working Wall

Fairy Tales and their key features + VCOP.

Magic Box Poems

Creative poems inspired by the Kit Wright poem - The Magic Box.

Diary and Letter Writing

A variety of genres of writing inspired by the book 'Friend or Foe' by Michael Morpurgo.

Spelling washing line

Hanging spelling rules on a washing line to remind children of the rules we are currently learning. Easily accessible and easily referred to in lessons.

Art through Literacy

Children explore the setting in 'Flat Stanley in Space' by creating their own art work of Planet Tyrra.

Behaviour System

I love my new school's behaviour system. We follow a warning, yellow card, red card system where the children have a verbal warning, then if their bad behaviour continues they get a yellow card, if it happens again they get a second yellow card which means time out in another classroom. If on their return their behaviour doesn't improve or for one off severe events where they break the school rules they will be given a red card. This means an extended period of time out in another class room or with a member of the senior leadership team.

I have a visual representation of this at the front of my classroom which is easily accessible and a visual reminder for the children. Each child starts the day on 'golden' as they are all golden and sparkle! They each have a name tag on golden which can then be moved down the behaviour system if needed. The children can also move back up to golden if they improve their behaviour. I love this system as the children respond really well to it, they respect it and try their hardest to move back up to golden if they have slipped down the system.

Children that finish the day on golden can be in with a chance of being awarded with a 'star of the day ticket'. These are collectable in my classroom and there is a competition to see who has won the most tickets at the end of the term/year. (I made these using a free business card provider) I have a star of the day chart where the children take a ticket for the day won and then I place a picture of them on the chart so everyone can see that week who has won a ticket! The children love this and this is a really successful positive reinforcement of behaviour you want to see in your classroom!

Progress Display

Progress and attainment - always tricky to get the children to connect with and understand it. This year I have created a 'progress' display where I will be able to visually record the children's progress in Reading, Writing and Maths in relation to 'sub-levels'. I have included 3 jumps on my display to reflect aspirational progress of 3 sub-levels progress over the year (E.g. moving from a 3b to 4b).

I have included three jumps for each subject and for each subject the children have their own name label with their starting level on at the bottom. They will be able to see their progress on the display as well as be able to tell me and other adults what their target levels are by using the progress ladder at the top. 

The children will have a greater awareness of their starting levels and their responsibility to make progress over the year. Later on in the year I will post other photos showing how the display changes over time. I intend to update the children's journey on the progress path at key assessment points throughout the year. Who will leave the year having made the most progress?

Winter Wonderland Reading Corner.

In my new school they have a reading corner competition. Each class has to design and make their own reading corner centred on their chosen theme. My class chose a Winter Wonderland theme to link to the class novel we were reading (Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe). We made snowflake bunting on with our theme title, the children painted twigs and branches white and covered them in glitter, they made snowmen and snow flakes to decorate the corner and I added inspirational reading quotes from famous authors and celebrities. On the window I put tips on how to be a good reader.

WE WON THE COMPETITION! The children were very proud with their creation!

How will you theme your reading corner?