I like this display from Clare in the Sparklebox Displays Gallery. The use of a black background with the red mounting and border emphasises the dramatic nature of the subject. I think the flame shaped ‘fast facts’ work well too. I’d like to have seen the children’s work mounted onto red too and perhaps even shaped like the facts. It might be petty of me but I’d also like the work to be either lined up straight or deliberately skewed - just off square grates on my visual senses

The Great Fire of London is an important topic for Year 2 history. The QCA guidelines give a good framework for dealing with what could be a difficult subject for Keystage 1 and seem to have the level about right.

With more TAs finding themselves teaching classes like History to cover PPA time I think we’ll see lessons sticking even closer to the QCA. It would be a shame though if they didn’t take the chance to explore some of the more interesting web based resources for the topic.

• The Museum of London has a Day by Day guide to the fire which is a bit like a blog.
• Samuel Pepys is an interesting site but it’s going to need a lot of interpreting for Year 2
• There are also some basic free downloads relating to the topic to use in displays available on the Sparklebox web site.

Learning Support, the UK magazine for teaching assistants, has a free download of the first part of a guide to making displays. The guide is pretty basic but useful for first-time TAs or education students. The magazine in general looks quite good, with interesting articles.

There are articles from previous issues to download for free about issues likely to be of interest to teaching assistants, or indeed anyone involved in schools.

The World Cancer Research Fund is organising Fruity Friday on 25th May 2007. The idea is a day of fundraising and awareness. It aims to promote the importance of a healthy 5-a-day diet and lifestyle. It emphasises the importance of diet in the fight against cancer.
There’s a free pack for schools, full of suggestions, ideas and lesson plans. If you are outside the UK some of them can be downloaded rather than having to send for the pack.
Via Year Six Teacher blog.

Library Checkout, originally uploaded by Girl Least Likely To.

Elizabeth says:

Here’s an easy way to keep track of the books your students are reading. It didn’t take much space: note the removable bulletin board.

I think this is a lovely idea. Quick to do, it provides an instant, visual check on readers. But the big plus is that the children can manage it themselves. With a bit of adjustment they could even individualise their pockets. I wonder if it could be adapted for use with reading schemes?