3 Steps to Help You Decide What Should be on Your Walls

Day Two of #classroomsetup2014 is underway. Today I am going to answer the question, “What is on the Walls?”

When it comes to putting things on the walls in the classroom there are a few things I think about:
1. Is it something that my kids can use as a resource?
2. Is it displayed in a way that allows the brain to organize and easily retrieve the information?
3. If it is just there for the sake of being there…take it down! The brain needs some white space to rest!

Three commonly displayed items are shapes, colors and numerals. And we have them, too!
Here are a few thing we think about:
*We frame our wall displays with bulletin board boarder. This gives the brain a “frame” for the information instead of one part of the wall running into another part of the wall.
*We do mini lessons on how to use each wall display during our Writer’s Workshop, during centers, or at other times during the day.
*Simply hanging items on the wall will not ensure that your kids use that resource. It must be taught explicitly.

This slide shows the parts of our wall that “grow” throughout the year.
The top two pictures in this collage show how we display our anchor charts. We divide the white board into two sections—one for literacy and one for math.
Here’s why:
*We need enough area to display 2-3 anchor charts for reading and 2-3 for math.
*We only keep up the charts that we have just completed and are still actively teaching from.
*Once the board is full, we take down the oldest charts to make room for the newest ones.
*By having a specific place in the room where the charts are stored, children are able to find the information.
*Also, the brain learns to associate that part of the wall with the anchor charts. So even when the charts are taken down the children have a photograph of that chart in their brains!
*To see a board with actual charts on it look (here).
The bottom left photo is where we will be hanging our word family anchor charts. Each week we introduce a new word family. After working with the chart that week, we add it to the wall. To see what the charts look like, look (here) and (here).
The bottom right photo is where we hang our academic vocabulary words.
Here’s how we do that:
*Each week we pick the 2-3 math academic vocabulary words and the 2-3 literacy academic vocabulary words that will be used in our instruction. These are hung on the doors.
*These are the new words we are learning.
*For our in depth study, we pick one word a week. This word is one that has been hanging on the wall for a while, not one that we just put up. It is a core word. One that they must know before going to the next grade.
*For our in depth study, we form linguistic and non linguistic representation of that word. To see more about how we do that you can look (here) and (here).

The top picture in this collage is our word wall.

Word Wall Thoughts:

*We add 2-5 words a week to the wall.
*All words start off on a “parking lot” that is in the front of the room by the circle time area. This allows you to work with these words all week before moving them to the word wall on Friday. There is a parking lot freebee in my fan freebee folder on the kindergals facebook page.
*We post our “go to” pictures with the letter that the words will be organized under. These are the pictures that our children have learned to associate with that letter.
The empty white frame with purple boarder will hold the schedule…once we get it!
The empty board in the bottom right is where we will display a picture of each child that Megan took last night at Open House. We will put their names beside their pictures.
There are a few other things on the wall: center management system, behavior system, and calendar. Each of these will be coming in another post.

OH MY GOSH! SHE FINALLY DID IT!!!! LAST MINUTE UPDATE HERE...

Megan has finally bundled her adorable jungle classroom décor into a packet!

This adorable classroom décor pack is just what you need if you want to use a jungle theme in your classroom.  It has all of the following items:
2D geometric shapes (animal heads)
Jungle Animal Color Words
Jungle Animals 0-10 with tens frames
Jungle Table/Station Signs (5)
Jungle Themed Clip Chart (Behavior)
Jungle Themed Class Rules
Jungle Tags for Bags of Books, Community Supplies, "Have to" Bucket Signs, Writing Bucket Signs
Jungle Themed Standard Display (Standards are not included)
Literacy Center Chart
Anchor Chart Wall Title (Literacy and Math)
Parking Lot for Words of the Week

You can get it here http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-Decor-Jungle-Theme-by-Megan-Merrell-1367053