seaside display, originally uploaded by LindaH.

This seaside display was made by a family learning class with help from the learning mentor. The children were all under four and attend the school nursery.
I am sure that displays like this are helpful in several ways:

• Making the display provides a shape and purpose for the family learning sessions
• The work gives lots of opportunities for speaking and listening skills to be practised
• Encourages a sense of pride and achievement.
• It promotes a sense of ownership in both the parents and the children

There are more, I’m sure. Seeing this I couldn’t help but think how much better it was than having the sort of Disney cartoon murals you sometimes see in nurseries and creches.

Practical Tips

To re-create this display
The starfish - breakfast cereal or pasta

The crab - folded paper plate, card and googly eyes

The hot air balloon- assorted collage items glued onto card then covered with cellophane, probably stapled.

Matisse, originally uploaded by LindaH.

Displays don’t have to be just for the classroom. This one is on a notice board at the entrance to a London Overground train station next to the school.

This display is from a year 3 class who have been studying Matisse collages. There are some very good resources about Matisse’s work The Snail online. My favourites include:

the Tate Modern’s animation of the making of The Snail

the Textease resources on the Lancashire ngfl site. This one is traditionally used for the year 5 graphical modelling ICT unit but could easily be adapted for other years.

The display at the entrance to the station changes very regularly showcasing the work of different classes in the school. I think it connects the school with the surrounding community in a very powerful way and must provide the children with a real sense of authentic audience.

IMG_1967, originally uploaded by LMH_.

This hall display was made to represent the diverse nature of the school population.

The background was divided up with masking tape and painted with fabric paint. The hands were made by children drawing round their own hands, cutting them out of felt, and sticking them on. It was made with the help of one of our school’s learning mentors, Julie Lawrence. It’s meant to symbolise the circle of friendship in our school.

I think it looks very effective with the light coming through and it carries an important message. Many of the children who worked on this were troubled in some way and the learning mentors used the making of the display as part of an informal friendship building programme.

This is an interesting numeracy display which a 4th grade (Year 3) class have done. It’s obviously been the result of a whole class activity and I think using the children’s own hand prints makes quite a strong impact.

I do think it could have been more clearly labelled though. It’s not always obvious what operation has been performed and that could have been used to advantage. Had it been a classroom display a bit more interactivity could have been added with questions and cards on string to turn over to see if you were right.

Although I like the idea of the display I think it’s a bit messy. The layout spills over the edge of the board in a slightly random way which I don’t think works. I would have preferred to see it within a frame and with more even spacing. But then I’m a bit fussy like that Actually, classroom displays that aren’t mounted absolutely straight and evenly spaced drive me nuts!

‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’, originally uploaded by norirelibjk.

It can be very hard to photograph classroom displays in corridors. This lovely work is based on that old favourite “The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark.” norirelibjk is an NQT who is also the library manger. She says:

As a class we read this book together and our literacy lessons were based on it over a week. We wrote book reviews using an assortment of templates. Also included were some blurbs and alternative chapter endings.
This display was put up along our year 4 corridor, outside the Library, (opposite my classroom), which meant the whole school passed it.
I put it up in time for our first Parent/Carer evening. it had lots of interest and not just from my class’s parents. (year 4 age 8/9)

I just love the owl. He was made in an interesting way:

‘Plop’ was made by the class drawing around their hands; colouring them brown, grey or leaving them white and then cutting them out. A girl drew ‘Plop’ and then I layered and stuck on the hands to give the effect of feathers.
‘Plop’ is now in our book corner as display just been changed.

Here’s a close up of him in his new position:

Corridors are great places for the class to share their learning with the rest of the school and others, even if they are hard places to photograph!
The book is a real classic and paperback read alone copies can be found in most schools. Still, my favourite version for using with classes is this heavily illustrated one:

The audio book, read by Maureen Lipman, is great too: