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!

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?

Targets Display - Reading, Writing and Maths

All schools and classes have particular targets to work towards. As a teacher there is a lot of pressure to ensure the children in your class know their personal targets and how they can achieve them. I came up with a 'rocket' themed target display/concept to help the children remember their target. Lower ability children were on 'Ready' targets, middle ability children were on 'Steady' targets, higher ability children were on 'Go' targets and gifted and talented children were on 'Blast off!' targets. The children could remember which stage of the rocket taking off they were and as their targets for Reading, Writing and Maths were displayed around the target rocket, the children could find their target easily. A simple concept which worked really well.