Snow Dudes January 11, 2007
Posted by lmhartley in : literacy, winter , 1 comment so far 
Snow Dudes, originally uploaded by CharmingMilo.
I like this jolly selection of Snow Dudes. They are just the thing to cheer up a dull January day. Debbie writes:
We read a book in my classroom called “SnowDude” by Daniel Kirk. In the story, the kids make a “snow dude” who comes to life and runs away. He snowboards and acts wild. I had my students make their own snow dudes with mini books to match. This is the bulletin board outside my classroom.
Update:
And for anyone else who would like to make them: I used two patterns- one for the pants and one for the snow dude head/body. This way he looked more like the character from the story, with a big belly that hangs over his pants. The kids were allowed to choose whatever color paper they wanted for the pants.
The story of Snow Dude is also similar to The Gingerbread Man, so it makes for a great comparison lesson!
Futher Update:
I am getting ready to take the Snow Dudes bulletin board down to make room for the Valentine decorations and February projects. But I thought I’d snap a picture of my favorite little dude before I did so. The mini book with him says his snow dude likes to “belly slide down skiing hill and leave the other people running behind.
The Iron Man November 7, 2006
Posted by lmhartley in : literacy , add a comment 
IronMan, originally uploaded by LindaH.
Rules of course are there to be ignored :-). This post shows that art work can benefit from a more imaginative approach.This was a wonderful display done as a way of bringing the Ted Hughes classic book to life for a group of reluctant readers. Making the Iron Man himself took ages but the boys were very proud of their handy work. Details were checked with descriptions in the book. It was great for making sure they read and understood the text, could retrieve information, and just generally associated reading the book with having a great time being creative with a favourite teaching assistant. (Now sadly gone to train as an art therapist).
Buy The Iron Man from the bookshop
A New Bookstore for the Blog August 31, 2006
Posted by lmhartley in : Uncategorized , add a commentI took about an hour this morning to set up a new Classroom Displays Blog Bookstore and I’m very pleased and impressed with the results. I’ve had a link with Amazon on the blog’s bookshop page for a while now and it have sold some books through it. The new store is a much more sophisticated matter and I think works really well. Finding good display books can be really tricky and the bookstore should make it easier for people.
It was easy to add a few key words which brought up some really good books about displays. I then added another couple of categories one about teaching in primary and the other for children’s picture books. The site was easily customised to fit in with the blog. All those lovely books… mmm. It’s quite inspiring but I have far too many already!!
If you do buy anything please come back and review it on the Book Review page on the wiki.
