Sir Kit and Dragon Island, originally uploaded by LindaH.

This is the Year 3 Literacy Intervention which has replaced ALS. The materials are available to download from the DFES site . You’ll also find some clip art here on the Lancs NGFL site.

The Quest group really fires the kids’ imaginations. They love Sir Kit and I found they drink it all in. They like all the trappings too, that’s why I found a magic bottle (ex-bubble bath) to put on the display with their letters. The more you can do of that sort of thing the better the kids like it.

The map was aged with brown paint and pva (dash of paint in a 1part glue to 3 parts water solution) then crumpled when dry.
The volcano roleplay session in block B of Module 1 is really good fun.

This display was made to evolve through the 16 week intervention, with new targets and work being put up every two weeks.
One thing to watch out for though is the sharks module. Last year I found the page references were wrong for the edition of the book we’d bought & some of the info they needed was missing. I managed to find a book in the library & photocopied the information. It’s worth checking in advance.

It’s also worth re-emphasising that the intervention is aimed at 2c children & is too hard for the lower group. They’d enjoy the story but the work will quickly overwhelm them. It ramps up quite quickly too with Module 3 being quite challenging for below average achievers in Year 3.

There are a couple of interesting conversations about it over on the TA Chat forum

The Year 3 DT and Science topics link together nicely this half term. In DT the children are exploring and making healthy sandwiches and in Science we are looking at teeth, food groups and the benefits of exercise. This is one of those displays that will develop as the topic goes on. The silver backing allows for easy use of blu tack and means that the display can evolve and change as the topic progresses. Dividing it up into discreet areas helps too.

On a personal note this will probably be my last display at my current school. As of next week I’m moving on. I’ll miss friends and colleagues of course but things must change to improve. I’ve been promised a regular supply of display photos though so there are no worries there!

I like this numeracy display. It can be hard to get numeracy displays that engage the children. Too often maths displays are made ‘fun’ by using cartoon characters or they are totally made from bought resources. I’m sure the children enjoyed making this one. Once it was on the wall it must have provided a strong visual reminder not just of the multiplication facts but also of the underlying concept.

By the way this image came from an unidentified visiter to a new site from Mark at Teaching Ideas called DisplayPhotos . Rather like a small scale Classroom Displays Flickr Group the site allows people to register and upload their own images, tag them and add descriptions and comments. I joined and had a look round and there are some interesting ideas and images there. The site is fairly easy to navigate and could prove useful, especially if you can’t access Flickr from school.

The Learning Environment Blog is a new blog based in 4 Primary Schools in York. They are looking at using displays to promote children’s awareness of their targets.

Classroom Curricular Target Displays

This target display from Y2 at Tang Hall Primary provides a constant reminder for the class.

The school’s curricular targets are differentiated for each yeargroup so that all children are working to achieve appropriate, age-related expectations.
Targets are clearly displayed in each classroom, so that children are aware of what they are working towards.

I find this particularly interesting as one of the critisisms of my school in the recent OFSTED report was exactly that! When questioned outside the classroom context none of the children asked had a clue what their targets were. Can displays make the difference? It seems unlikely as every classroom in my school has targets prominantly displayed both on walls and in children’s books.

Can a teacher (or more likely TA!) produced display like this actually involve the children enough to make sure they take ownership of their own learning and targets ? I’m unconvinced.

learning styles, originally uploaded by LindaH.

This display caused a long and thoughtful discussion about learning styles in the Classroom Displays Group on Flickr.
I’ve got mixed feelings about the validity of the tests especially for young children. I’d love to know what other people think about them.

n

n