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.

Kites, originally uploaded by LindaH.

Here’s a lovely classroom display idea for a windy March afternoon in Keystage 1:
The background was done onto sheets of A3 white paper with a technique called “bagging”. It’s messy

You need

Music - optional but fun

Instructions

Crumple up a carrier bag to make a ball, dip it in the dark blue paint, push it down on the flat bit of the paint tray (if you’ve used one) or onto some newspaper to remove some of the paint and then print onto the paper by dabbing it quickly. You want the bag fairly dry, not overloaded with paint.

I said it was messy!

When all done and dry select best ones for background. Lettering can either be cut from spare sheets or clouds can be cut to show background through.

The same technique can be used with shades of grey to make clouds.

Or even surf

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!

Spring Dreaming, originally uploaded by mrsgteach.

Here’s a charming Spring display for a library that could be easily adapted for use as a classroom display.

Materials:

blue butcher paper background

handcrafted tree -construction paper

rainbow border

ellison lettering and book

handcrafted bunny and easter objects by Tommy Kovac

Easter Duck purchased

Poem and April is Poetry Month on construction paper

‘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: