Guest Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 I'm looking to liven up my writing table. At the moment I do have a core group of children, including a lot of the boys, who love writing and mark making. The thing is it's been the same for ages and it's getting a bit tired looking and I'm actually not very happy with it's set up. Does anyone have any pictures of their writing area or ideas they could share for livening it up? Anything you have in there that the children particularly love? (I need to keep it neutral really, these are year one children and I know the head would not be at all impressed if I put anything in there that referred to popular culture like Ben 10 - it's just the way it is so I need neutral things.) I'm also looking for resources in which to store things in the writing area. I have a few children with learning difficulties which mean they really need labels (visual preferably) so I need containers/drawers/anything really on which I can stick labels to show what resources they contain. I'm having trouble visualising how to lay it all out though. Do you have shelves in your area? Can you recommend any small sets of drawers which I can stick labels on but which aren't too big? Are there any great ways to display resources so that they can be instantly seen rather than being in drawers?
emz321 Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 In my writing area i have this mobile thing (can use a hoop with string wrapped around like a dream catcher) and a magnetic board which i encourage the children to fasten their writing too which they really love (i clear it every half term). I have just revamped by writing area and made it less cluttered. I used a shelve with baskets and trays, labeled containing items. I did have a tray unit but found the children didn't go in half the trays! dn't have a picture sorry and not back to school until tuesday. I went to a conference about boys and this guy who was really good (see blog link below and search for writing and you will find ideas and pictures) he suggested you got a towel rail and a big roll of paper which the children just pull out along the floor and use it to draw on, my problem is space for it! he aslo suggested ikea rails with metal pots which hang off them containing resources. What i did was observed the children in the writing area, removed reosurces they didn't use and added other things they asked for or i thought off. on the internet their is loads of blank postcards, stamps, different types of paper, lists, occasions cards (try www.twinkl.co.uk and www.tpet.co.uk). mine also like gel pens and coloured pens, stampers and shaped punchers. Alistair blog
Guest Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 Thanks for the ideas! Alistair does have some great ideas, I saw him at an outdoors conference and he was by far the best speaker there. I'd forgotten about those baskets from Ikea, I really like them although I'm not sure I'd be allowed to attach them to the wall. Where did you get your shelves with the baskets from? I know exactly what you mean about not going in the trays, although mine do open the trays at tidy up time to shove everything inside them hapazardly in order to make it look 'tidy' when it really isn't! I have to say shaped punchers are the bain of my life though, I have cleared them all out of my writing area as I couldn't stand all the bits being everywhere (I don't usually mind mess, but these really got on my nerves) and all the children did when they were available was punch holes and use up all the paper and notebooks, they didn't actually do any writing!
emz321 Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I had to use just a shelf i had already in the classroom, i think their are 3 shelves and i use medium and small baskets which i think came from ikea. We are a eco school so have to use as much basket and wood as possible. i used A4 plastic trays on the bottom shelf for bigger things like paper and whitboards. My problem is i have the wrting and workshop area next to each other and they bring the PVA glue (as not allowed prix stick) into the writing area and glue goes everywhere then the children's actually mark making complain. i have tried suggesting they do their picture then move to the workshop to add glue so they don't get in the way of others! Their is a government document called mark making matters p. 22-25 their is lists of things/ picture of mark making ideas and items you could have in your area. mark making matters document
Guest Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Thank you for the mark making doc - great to see visuals of storage.
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