I will be heading back to get my own classroom ready later this week, but where to start?
There are so many displays for the infant classroom!
In Maths, the Ready Set Go training recommends one maths number line on each wall. I tried to link one of them to my Aistear topic when I could. I always had number lines with pictures, figures and words on the other walls. As they will be on the wall for the duration of the year it might be worth investing in a durable one such as this one from Crafty Art (based in Galway) Alternatively you can download and print number friezes from twinkl or Sparklebox.
In English it is important to have an alphabet frieze and a phonics frieze depending on the programme you are using. An alphabet frieze will help the children to identify letters in alphabetical order. Check out this one from Crafty Art. While the alphabet frieze may be a long term display your phonics frieze or phonics wall will be a working display, you may add or change it as the year progresses. If you have multi classes up to 2nd class you might be interested in these phoneme friezes too. These can become part of your working display that the children can add words to.
If you intend to use Aistear in your class you will need a playtime schedule/timetable. I photograph the areas in my own classroom and use them for the schedule. The children are grouped into fruits/colours etc and those pictures rotate each day so the children know which area they are in.
Other classroom displays could be Birthday display or months of the year display. These displays are also readily available to print and download from Twinkl or Sparklebox and can add some colour to your classroom.
Finally don’t forget to have a display for classroom management or classroom rules. Sometimes pictures help to remind the children of expected behaviours. Alternatively a colour coded system such as traffic lights can be a visual reinforcement too.
If you have any questions on this post please send me an email or a PM.
A.M.
Aistear Múinteoir 