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!

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.

Before and after: New school, new job, new classroom!

This year I have the pleasure of moving to a new school! I have been promoted to Year 5 and 6 Phase Leader as well as Literacy Leader for the whole school. I am now teaching Year 5 again, an age group I love!

Someone recently asked me on my blog how my classroom looked at the beginning of the year. I was asked if I put up displays or left them blank.

Here are some photos of my classroom when I arrived!

BEFORE:

Well here is my answer!

AFTER:

I back all of my display boards and designate them to particular subjects. I fill the display boards with a variety of things - key information, key vocabulary and expectations of the children's work. I also have a couple of display boards filled with the children's work that they completed with me on 'going up day.' This is nice for the children to see their work on the wall in their new year group in September. Some display boards are deliberately left blank for working walls and usually Art displays which will be filled with the children's work early on in the term.

I think it is really important for the learning environment to be stimulating and inviting at the beginning of term to welcome the children back to school. It also needs to be organised! Here is a photo of how I organise the children's resources on their tables. I show them this picture at the beginning of the term to show them my expectations of keeping their table pots tidy and organised!

A tribute to Van Gogh!

We were very lucky this term to have an artist in residence working with our phase. One day when she was working with my class she decided to create a large scale 2D piece of art work which every child in the class contributed to. 

We talked about introducing a style of art to the children which was different to what they were used to and which could be built up in different layers over time.

Throughout the day the artist worked with small groups of children to create this wonderful recreation of Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and love having the finished piece up in the classroom. It has wowed many other teachers in school! 

Don't be afraid to create large whole class pieces of work as the final product is amazing!