The Walls

It's a personal choice of mine, not to have pre-made, pre-cut scholastic like displays in my classroom. I like to think of the classroom as a second home. Would I want to live in a home where every inch of space was covered with cartoon characters, words and bright vibrant colours? Nope.

Just for the sake of comparison. Here are two photos of my classroom (2013-2014).

Here are photos from my very first kindergarten classroom (before I began to learn from others and seek out new ways of teaching).

It doesn't mean that there is nothing on my walls on the first day of school. It just looks different from what other kindergarten rooms might look like. 

There are photographs of last years JKs on our classroom door at student height. To welcome back everyone, and as a way to visually show the new students and parents some of what we did the previous year. 

As soon as the children begin to draw and write. If they don't want to take it home, it goes up on the wall on the first day. They immediately have ownership of their space.

We have a classroom schedule displayed near the meeting area. We use a combination of visuals and words (it's made with a program called Board Maker) that are common throughout the entire school.

I might have one or two songs/poems written out on chart paper. I hang my charts low so the students can use them during the day. I use these clothes hangers from IKEA to hold the charts. I usually stick a 3M hooks on the wall or cabinets.

Stephanie.