Throwback Thursday ~ Back to School Word Wall set up

Hi everyone!  I am linking up with the girls at Freebielicious again.  Today is throwback Thursday, so I am showing some ideas from two years ago.  I had needed to re-do my word wall for the new school year.  You can see the full post here: Word Wall.  It also includes my calendar set up from back then as well. 

This is what my classroom typically looks like when I am getting it set up.  There is always a huge mess everywhere and somehow magically it gets cleaned, organized, and ready for the first day.

I wish I had a before picture of the old word wall to show you.  But, honestly I would probably be too embarrassed to put it here on public display.  It was long over due for a re-model.

I must say I still love this little title poster on top.  It is holding up pretty well.  I will be going into my third year using this now.  I can't get into my classroom until about two weeks before school this year, so it is going to have to get me through one more year. 

These are the cards I used for the words.  They came from my Super Sight Words Set.  You can get that in TpT in my store.

This is what the word wall looks like when all the words are up.

OK, this is the best part.  Because my word wall is on a divider, it is at student height and the words are attached using Velcro.  So, it is interactive and when a student wants to look at the word up close, she can just take it off the wall, use it in writing, and then go put it back.  Even though I also have little word wall charts at the writing table, some students really prefer to go grab it off the wall.

 Hope this little idea is helpful to you.  If you are setting up your classroom right now, my heart goes out to you!  Best of luck!

Go check out the other great blogs on Freebielicious.  There are some great ideas and freebies to be had.  Just click on the button below to find them.

Thanks for stopping by.
Happy teaching!

Word Wall

 This post is really about my word wall, but most of my classroom still looks like this:

 Does your classroom have a huge explosion each year before you start and then it gets put back together?  Seems like that happens a lot to me.  This year it especially needed to happen.  I have the luxury of working in a classroom that is not used during the summer, so I can leave my bulletin boards up each year.  Boy, I feel so lucky about that.  But is was sure time for a re-model!

I am pretty happy with how my new word wall came out.   It is on a small standing divider next to the table where sight word instruction, word wall games,  and most writing happens in the classroom. 

I cut and glued these at home one night while watching one of my guilty pleasure shows, What Not to Wear.  I have to say I am so sad that this is the last season.

This is for a kindergarten classroom, so there are not as many words as for a first grade class.  Thankfully it all works in my room like this.    Ii doesn't quite have enough space, but it still works.  Oh well!  I like the colors and the black background.

This is the part I like best about my word wall.  It is at student height and the words are attached using velcro, so it is interactive for the kiddos. If a child needs to go get a word off the wall when writing, he/she can grab it and bring it back to his/her seat.  I also have printed versions of the word wall at the table for students to use when writing.  That is a super helpful tool!

Where did I get my sight word cards?  I made a big comprehensive sight word set filled with two sets of cards and lots of fun games and activities for word work.  This set really helps my students with sight word fluency.  You can check it out in my TpT shop right here: Sight Word Super Set #1  You can also click on the image below.

I managed to get a few other things done last week as well.  This is my daily calendar set up and a peek at my new alphabet.  I am in love with the Boho Birds borders and other coordinating items I got for my room this year.  Too cute, right?  Birds for Mrs. Byrd's class:)  My calendar  is very simple, but I often add little mini lessons in math to go along with it, like the equations of the day.  You can see that on this post: Mrs Byrd's Learning Tree: Math Fluency  I really like how the numbers also have a transparent color and shape pattern each month that I can design with a variety of choices.

OK, I am off to get a few more things done.
Happy teaching!