I may be boring, but I like plain, simple word walls in the classroom. I feel like too much going on around the word wall is distracting. I thing students need to be able to glance at the word wall quickly and find the word they are looking for. I saw that some of my classmates posted examples with visual aids on the and I love that idea!!
The graffiti wall I found is being used for math, but it could easily be used for words too. This could be used for students to write down words they don't know or are having trouble spelling.
There are SO many options and ideas for word walls! I think it depends on your individual students and what they need to effectively learn. I can't wait to get in my own classroom and have my own word wall:)
Several of the classrooms that I have subbed in just use the simple white cards that come with the unit. They have them on a bulletin board with a black background and a cute boarder around the bulletin board. The alphabet letters are printed on squares, like your first picture. The boarders around the letters alternate colors. The kindergarten teacher also had another word wall with what I think was the frequently used sight words.
ReplyDeleteI don't see anything wrong with a simple word wall. It would certainly be easier to keep organized, which I'm sure we all like. My last FE class had a word wall that was a lot like the first picture you posted but the words were either yellow or white. Yellow if they should know them from K and white if they learned them this year.
ReplyDeleteI can see something like the graffiti wall being useful for many things. Could list multiples like in your example or for younger kids things like words with a long e. A number of possibilities!
The grafitti wall is really cool. I think I may use something like that in my classroom. But I can relate to you Parker. I went to a montessori school when I was young and I really had fond memories of the wood and the "wooden-colored" decor. Everything was very simple and there were few distractions and so many possibilities. I still remember handling the wooden puzzles and blocks, even their smell. So because of this I don't like when there's so much stuff on the walls that it's hard to really appreciate one single thing. I don't think it's necessarily like a sensory overload. It just looks like too much is going on and it needs to be simplified. So I do appreciate when things are simple, plain, practical, functional to the point and clever (and creative).
ReplyDeleteI tend to keep things simple as well, I agree you do not want your wall to be a distraction. I like the graffiti wall too, it really allows for the students to take ownership of it and I think that is an important aspect. I am also feeling very anxious to have my own classroom!
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