66/365 - 9/26/2008, originally uploaded by snelly23.

I couldn’t resist this great quick display for Autumn! The maker says:

I was looking for real fall leaves to photograph on Monday, the first day of fall, and I failed. Our class used “glue paint” over and under tissue squares on construction paper to make these shiny fall leaves.

I love the tree with its ‘glue paint’ leaves and it’s wonderful affirmative messages. I’d love to add some photos of class members caught doing and being all of these great things, and to add some affirmations of their own, perhaps on more leaves building up at the base of the display, over this term.
People are always looking for 3d tree displays and I think this is a simple but excellent example.

, originally uploaded by hello megan.

A vibrant window display is just the thing to cheer up a ’spring’ classroom. I love the effect Megan has achieved with this one.
As you can see in this detail it’s collaged from magazines

Megan says:

Before class, I cut the rainbow shape out of a roll of white paper and marked the 7 color divisions. I had my class (2nd) mark which colors went where and gave them magazines to cut out any great examples of each color. Each table was assigned a color, and put their cutouts into a bowl. From there any class that had a free minute of two dug into those bowls and glued the pics on in their spot.

So you can see it’s pretty straight-forward. It really does count as a quick and easy classroom display!
I’ve done rainbows on windows before particularly with Key Stage 1 groups. The groups each did a colour. We painted the window with the following mixture:

Washable Window Paint

Tempera Paints (powdered or premixed)
Clear washing-up liquid (lemon ones work ok, green ones can make colours a bit off)

Mix powdered paint with the liquid till it is about as thick as house paint. With premixed paints just mix in a smallamount of washing-up liquid. Do not make it too runny or it will drip!

Mark out your colour areas with a dry wipe marker pen.

Let each colour dry before adding the next one.

Use masking tape to protect the window frame and be sure to spread newspaper around to protect the area.

To remove paint or touch up mistakes just wipe it off with a dry paper towel. Do not try using a wet towel or it will be a real mess!!

I think I like Megan’s way better anyway!

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