Walk into any classroom and you will find an array of colour: spinning planets hang from ceilings, circuits making clown's noses light up, observational drawings of the inside of fruit, creative stories, coloured mathematical symbols on walls, topic-based pictures, key words and all manner of creative corners.
As well as being very nice to look at, displays support children’s learning and provide evidence of achievement. They can include:
- a working wall to see children’s learning grow. A nice example is a tree with leaves of one colour for questions, another colour to show the answers the children found out during the topic on plants
- an activity to investigate informally and find things out. This can be a hands-on activity or a question which promotes thinking. As part of a life-cycles display we had caterpillars in pots munching away, children were asked to measure them and observe their development over time
- images and text highlighting knowledge, concepts or skills for a particular topic
- photographs of learning, with speech bubbles highlighting what the children have said during a group discussion
- examples of children’s work, something that each child can be proud of and show their parents on open evenings
Creating a classroom of displays can be a full-time job, so ideas from colleagues, websites and display books are invaluable. One of my favourite displays was of a Tudor village, which linked in with our History topic. Children designed their houses, then drew the nets for the 3D shapes to assemble the cubes, cuboids and triangular prisms for their designs. This reinforced learning in mathematics and allowed them to learn from the design and make process in design and technology. The resulting Tudor town looked great on the wall of my classroom and proved useful throughout the term.
Have you got a display that you are proud of? Please share a picture with us to provide others with inspiration. You will automatically be entered into a competition to win £200 of vouchers of your choice. See here for further details and how to share your displays: