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.

Everything you always wanted to know about making classroom displays?

Everything about classroom displays?

That’s a huge claim isn’t it? I think we can start to build something like it though if we all put our heads together. This blog has a large readership and I’m convinced that between us we could answer most questions people can come up with so that’s what this post is all about.

It’s a funny time of year for classroom displays. Most people in the UK are either just back, or just about to go back to school. Boards are empty and if you are very organised you’ve backed them and got up something to welcome the new class.

Filling Your Empty Classroom Displays Boards

Lots of you will have spent time, usually in the ’so-called’ holidays getting your classroom just the way you want it and now you have a blank canvas.

• How can we help you fill it up?
• What do you want to know about?
• Are you stuck for design ideas?
• Do you need practical tips?
• Are there some subjects that you just can’t think of an interesting way to display?

What to do next and where

Ask your questions in the comments of this post and let’s see if we can come up with some great classroom displays solutions.

While you’re there, if you see a question about classroom displays that you know how to solve please feel free to add your own answers.

These wonderful language displays are courtesy of Joe Debono and his school Newbury Primary in Ilford, Redbridge in London.

There are over 40 languages spoken in the school and Language of the Month was introduced to help the children to learn a little about and share each other’s languages.

As well as displays the initiative includes online audio visual resources and specially designed simple games.

I think the initiative is fantastic and it will give a real sense of validation and respect to children and their families for whom English is not their first language.

Online Resources and Downloads

The school hasn’t stopped there though. They’ve made all these resources freely available via their web site. You can hear children speaking simple words in their own languages, download the activity booklet which has suggestions for over a 100 games and other pdf files to help you put up your own language of the month displays.

I’m going to use it myself to try to master a few simple words from languages I might encounter amongst my students next year. How about you?

On safari through the jungle - in the classroom, originally uploaded by LindaH.

Transformational classroom displays are particularly popular in early years and key stage 1 settings. This reading area has become a jungle, complete with an elephant,lion and tiger. Most of the animals have been made and painted by the children, with some adult assistance. The result is a high interest area with lots to talk about.

Making displays like this can be a huge stimulus for speaking and listening but once the display is up staff often need to make an effort to remember to keep referring to elements in the display. Adding labels and other text can re-vitalise a display. A favourite addition is laminated speech bubbles so that asking questions like “How does the elephant feel today?” can give the children even more opportunity for expression and contribute to a text rich environment.

Once children and staff get used to the display and it looses its “wow” factor it has to go. There’s a great temptation with displays like this to forget their purpose and treat them like pretty wallpaper.

Displays like this need to be treated with a little caution. Whilst it can be great fun to transform a whole classroom too much stimulation can be very challenging for some children. Keeping some areas visually quiet and uncluttered is also a consideration.

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.

Our word wall, originally uploaded by Glazgow.

Several people have asked for phonics classroom displays. I’m not surprised as they are hard to do well. One approach, that produces a really interactive display, is to go for a word wall.
Glazgow did this one with a Primary 3 (7 year olds) class in Scotland. He says

Our word wall (window actually). Has all the phonemes, the alphabet, common words (tricky words) and punctuation. It also has 6 lines which can be used to make sentences when working with the children.

This is a great working display that can be brought out year after year. It can be used by individuals, groups or for whole class teaching. All that needs to be done is to laminate everything and use lots of sticky putty.
It’s important that it is placed at child height so that it can be used easily.
I’m in two minds about using window space this way. There are good arguments both for and against. What do you think?

Properties of Materials Yr3, originally uploaded by LindaH.

This properties of materials classroom display was done as a small group sorting and vocabulary activity for an able group with lots of discussion.
The property labels are printed off and laminated. The group are split and each half are given a box of identical items, a different assortment of labels and are asked to use the labels to sort them.
The two groups then come together and have to agree which labels are most descriptive of the properties of the materials each item is made from. There’s lots of discussion and an experienced TA can help them make sure they back up their arguments.
Once labels are agreed the items are put on the display with their labels. Just don’t ask how I reached up!
You must use lots of sticky putty or even better velcro sticky pads or they’ll fall off! I have also put stuff in plastic envelopes and pinned them up with drawing pins which I think worked slightly better.

I’ve blogged this display in response to a request in the Skribit box in the sidebar of the blog. Look out for more displays suggested by readers over the next few weeks and don’t forget to add own suggestions or vote for the ones you’d like to see.

aaar!, originally uploaded by Sunflower Lily.

Pirates are a great theme for classroom displays and this ship is a particularly lively one. Lots of super vocabulary words and phrases, dastardly pirates and a rather good sea really make this an excellent learning and reference resource.
I think this may be a Year 2 class, as they are working on speech bubbles. Year 3 and 4 are also ideal for pirate topics. It fits very well with the literacy target of writing a story in chapters and working with the adventure story genre. It’s much more fun though if you can bring in some cross curricular elements.
Some of these ideas have been adapted from the Belair display books, which are a great source of inspiration. You’ll find a range of them in the book store

Captain Capacity

Pirate Role Play Area

See Also:

Pirate Pop-Ups - moving toys in Year 3

originally uploaded by fredondopa

These wonderful classroom displays are from the latest member of the Classroom Displays group . It looks like this project produced lots of wonderful displays and what looks like some very high quality learning. Just take a look at this slideshow to see what I mean:

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Updated Post

The slideshow and the related blog El sistema solar are in Spanish Catalan. You might have to use google translate  find a Catalan dictionary but there are some wonderful resources on the blog including more slideshows, presentations, animations and more. Even if you don’t speak Spanish  Catalan there’s lots there to inspire you to explore the Solar System in your classroom