Classroom decor can be used for instruction, and in this post, I share decor ideas you might consider for your classroom. Working bulletin boards, anchor charts, and posters can be a great support to your students.
classroom decor-phoneme cards
The first item I’m going to share with you are the phoneme cards I created. They have been a huge help for getting my students to think for themselves about spelling. I have them displayed in a prominent location for the kids to use when writing. When they ask me to spell a word for them, I refer them to the wall over and over again. What I encourage them to do is write their words on a dry erase board in all the possible ways they think it could be spelled and think about how they normally see it in books. Many words are spelled correctly using these strategies. Here’s a glimpse of how I have displayed the phoneme cards.
Another use of these cards is during word study introduction. They work well as anchor charts that you could display on a focus board or wall during the week. Here’s the focus wall I have made to use for this year using an oil drip pan I purchased from Walmart for $12.00. I used it during camp, and I am so excited about how it will help me with guided reading groups this year.
The phoneme posters work well for both decoding skills and for writing. My students refer to them often for spelling patterns and for sounds. The keywords and pictures provide exemplars for them. Sounds include:
- short vowels
- long vowels with final e
- vowel digraphs
- consonant digraphs
- diphthongs, and
- r controlled vowels
26 posters in all.
classroom decor-testing vocabulary
Finally, I LOVED this last item, and it is a reading vocabulary word wall. I used clothes pins to mark words we were focusing on during our lessons. Here’s a glimpse of it on my board. I believe this really helped my students because they were able to read the words and understand the tasks better when it came time for testing.
I referred to the words often to ensure my students were familiar with what they mean. It takes 15 exposures for a vocabulary word to become known, and yet, test makers often throw these types of words into the question stems used for standardized testing. If students have not been taught what the words mean, it makes it impossible to answer questions knowledgeably about a topic.
classroom decor from my shop:
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Testing Vocabulary Word Wall Set for Reading$4.00 -
Testing Vocabulary Cards Word Wall for Reading$4.00
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Product on saleTest Prep Toolkit for Comprehension, Test Taking, Study Skills, State TestingOriginal price was: $10.49.$5.00Current price is: $5.00.
Other back to school posts you might like:
- BACK TO SCHOOL LITERACY RESOURCES YOU CAN HAVE FOR FREE
- 10+ BOOKS FOR BACK TO SCHOOL THAT BUILD POSITIVE TRAITS
- SIX TIME SAVING CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION IDEAS FOR BACK TO SCHOOL
- MRS. SPITZER’S GARDEN, ONE BOOK THAT WARMS THE TEACHER’S SOUL
Thanks for dropping by, readers. I hope you find these two decor items as helpful as I have.
