This is a lovely history classroom wall display for a key stage 1 class. The Then and Now topic is interesting but can be tricky for Year 1. They have so little concept of the past at this age. Last year seems an age ago to some of them
It’s a great opportunity for embedding ICT though. It’s worth remembering that ICT in Key Stage 1 isn’t all about computers. I’ve seen it taught very effectively using the following resources:

Magic Grandad Seaside Holiday (Magic Grandad) used on the IWB

Story Starters, originally uploaded by Glazgow.

You can’t have too many ideas for story starter classroom displays. Here’s another gem and this time the phrases have come from the class:

The children did a “Walkabout, Talkabout” and came up with all the ideas for Where, When, Who and What could happen in a story.

They now use the display to help them chose characters, setting etc for their story writing.

I like the use of colour in this display. The colours actually add meaning helping the children to classify the phrases. It’s also not too busy.

Using the class to generate the scenarios and phrases is much more powerful than just providing them.They will feel more ownership of the display if they know it is based on their ideas. It is just vitally important that the staff resist the temptation to just pop up the same words next year, as they’ve got them already laminated This sort of recycling happens too often and when it does engaging classroom displays lose much of their impact.

IMG_1791, originally uploaded by LMH_.

This is a good example of a classroom display that was really interactive. The word wall was used by children in a multi-age Speech and Language Unit to help them with their story writing.
It’s really important for this kind of display that it was placed at a child friendly height and that children had free access to it in independent time as well as during the literacy hour. They could use it to tell oral stories to talk partners first before they did any writing.
The folders you can see at the bottom of the display contained cards more with words or pictures. The children could then use those to help them structure their story.
They could choose a ‘Who’ card from the wall, perhaps a spaceman. Write one sentence or more, depending on the age and ability of the child, about the spaceman. Then go to the ‘Where’ folder and choose a setting and so on.
Those less able might just sequence the cards whilst the more able used them to tell quite complex stories.

It’s a good technique in the mainstream classroom too and an interesting way to use a classroom display area.

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

Classroom dragon, originally uploaded by hale_popoki.

This was the first ever display on the Classroom Displays blog and I thought I’d revive it as it remains one of the best I’ve seen for Chinese New Year.
Tina said this display was:

used in our multicultural performance today.
(After school I removed the grip sticks and hung the dragon up in the classroom.)
The body is made of paper plates all strung together….one plate for each student (and one for me) Each plate has a self-portrait drawing on it

She also adds some important advice:

If you do try it, I’d suggest NOT using tissue paper for the dragon scales. It wrinkles too easily, especially if little ones are handling it.
Our school colors are red and gold, and the quickest way for me to get the red and gold paper on short notice was to go to the gift wrap section of the local Walgreen’s! However, gold was only available in gift wrap tissue. On the plus side, I used the school die-cutter to cut out the dragon scales, and that was done quickly using the thin tissue paper.
I think this school year I will try to shop around for inexpensive red and gold wrapping paper around Christmas time. =)
It took me a lot longer than I thought to string all those plates together (and I crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t fall apart as the students paraded across the stage with it! It didn’t……phew!)

I’d love to have seen it in action! If you do decide to copy it please let me know here. I’d like to see other people’s interpretations of the dragon.