Please Help, Before I Completly Crack Up

[Guest]

Hi,

 

it been a long time since I have been here - glad to see you have been growing!

 

I have started at a new school, mixed yr r /1 and finding it all very, very stressful. I have to do a hall display based on the theme of harvest/autumn. The school is very hot on displays and i am scared stiff that i am going to do it wrong!

 

I have decided to do Harvest round the world. A large world map in the middle with the children painting different flags and collaging paper plates with food form the countries. However the problem is that i cant think of food from different countries that the children will a)know and draw. I have though of some e.g. lemons/oranges from spain, fish from iceland. Any more ideas or thought would be fantastic.

 

I ahe to put it up on fridau evening and i have not even started!! aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

thanks in advance

kate

[Guest halfwaybridge]

How about some tropical dishes including pineapple and coconut?

 

Curry and rice from India?

 

Chilli? Tacos from South America?

 

Hamburgers from USA?

 

I know these are a bit stereotyped but it's a start!

 

Best Wishes

[Steve]

Hi Katielou -

Thought you 'd been a bit quiet lately - good to have you back!

 

And nice to see you've still got your sense of humour - (at least I hope it's humour...)

 

The American Thanksgiving is a celebration of Harvest - Turkeys featuring prominently - pumpkins, corn etc?

 

There's a page I found that might offer you some ideas: here

 

Don't get too ambitious would be my advice if you've got to plan and deliver it all by Friday!

 

Don't be a stranger!

 

Steve

[Steve]

Whoops sorry halfwaybridge -

Crossed over with you there!

[Susan]

HI

Don't know what to suggest here, except Good luck!

What are the displays like in your school?

Adult or child art?

Have you been given any other pointers than just a theme. Shouldn't you have a coordinator/ year group leader to help you?

 

My own experience of asking Reception to draw food is that its pretty indistinguishable but if you are drawing and they are painting or collaging it might be recognisable! You'd need to be a better artist than me. though!

You could get pictures of food and let them cut and stick but that might not be easy in such a short time either.

 

Are the flags really relevant although I can see where you're coming from?

How big is your display to be, don't overcrowd it.

 

I think I'd be tempted to keep it really simple-plates of food, on a giant sunshine & cloud or with raindrops perhaps.

 

I use a very simple "grace" with my class 'Thank you for my food', could you incorporate that as a caption perhaps.

 

I think you're in for a creative few days. Have fun & lets us know how you get on.

 

Susan

[mundia]

You've given yourself a task there, so as Susan says, keep it simple. I think Id have gone for the autumn theme as collecting stuff is so easy at this time of year!!

You could get pics off internet or clip art to go with their drawings so that they aremore identifiable, along with captions of things the children have said. I wouldnt try to cover evry region of the world- stick to what is familiar to them eg any children from parts of Asiaor Africa, where have they been on holidays etc.... You could even collect packaging from food that says ...'product of.....' (eg stickers off the bananas. Where at all possible, link it to whatever you are already doing in class. Im pretty hopeless at displays as well, they are my worst nightmare in teaching. Do let us know how it all goes, Im sure it will be fine...

[Guest]

Hi, some ideas for you...

 

pasta from Italy - stick on dry pasta shapes or use wool/string for spaghetti

 

long baguettes from France

 

sausages from Germany

 

cheese from Switzerland

 

vodka from Russia....well maybe not, but you might need some by Friday night...only kidding.

 

Hope it goes okay, some good books for future are 'Themes on display for early years' published by Scholastic. I have several of them and they have fantastic ideas.

[Steve]

Hi Cheryl -

Welcome (again ) to the forum and thanks for this first post!

 

If you have any titles for the display books I'll put them up in the book recommendations page. We've had quite a few agonised queries about displays!

 

Regards, Steve.

[Guest]

Hi,

 

The books I can recommend are from a series called:

 

'Themes on display for early years' published by Scholastic.

 

I have 4 :

 

All about me displays - Jean Evans ISBN 0-439-01638-X

 

Our world displays - Victoria Farrow ISBN 0-439-01738-6

 

Science displays - Geaorgie Beasley & Ann Moberley ISBN 0-439-01637-1

 

Story and rhyme displays - Sheila Dempsey ISBN 0-439-01813-7

 

There are also other books in the series,

 

Festival displays, Language displays, Maths displays, Seasonal displays, so plenty of ideas for everyone!

 

Hope this is useful.

 

Cheryl

[Guest]

My two most recent books have sections in them about display, with some practical ideas that might be useful to you in future. I don't offer prototypes of 'good' displays, but more a consideration of the theory behind displaying children's work, some principles for providing good, interactive display, and some practical suggestions of good themes.

 

I know that some libraries now have copies of The Thinking Child, and Steve tells me that he's seen a copy of The Thinking Child Resources Book at a bookstand, although I haven't seen a finished copy yet. Maybe you could ask your Headteacher to invest in copies for the school, but if not, let me know and I could cut and paste some sections that might be useful to you (but don't tell anyone that I said that. )

 

I hope that you didn't crack up under the pressure! I'm sorry that I didnt get to see your post earlier, but I've not been on the boards for a while due to my own 'cracking up' over doing my three week stint as leader at my daughter's co-op preschool.