Working Walls

[Guest]

hi -just wondering what people's experiences are of using 'working walls' in the foundation stage - does anybody have any good ways/ideas of introducing them - or any pictures they would be willing to post ??

thanks

[Guest Wolfie]

Can you give us a bit of an explanation about what a working wall is? I've never heard of them!

[Guest]

My understanding is (but don't quote me!!) : It's an intearctive display that builds a picture of the learnign that is taking place for the week - it would include - the theme/focus / key questions the chidlren want to find out about the focus / key vocab they will be using / what they already know about the focus etc - it is also a place where chdn can put any examples of 'work' they create related to the focus - & a place where adults can record chidlren's key responses to questions / comments they make as they investigate the focus onto post it's & add to the 'working wall' It may also include pictures as a stimulus for discussion relating to the focus.

As i said - thats my understanding - but i would be interested to haer others views & experiences on using this approach.

Hope that expalins it okay :

[Susan]

I dont have enough wall space!!

 

Thats my understanding too---goes along with success criteria etc?

[Guest Wolfie]

Thank you for that Fluffy - I like the sound of that! I haven't got any words of wisdom to add but will be very interested in other people's experiences!

[Guest]

I'd like to see an example of that - sounds good!

[Guest]

Count me in too! Sounds good!

[Guest Wolfie]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that hasn't come across working walls before! I hope someone comes along soon to help Fluffy - there are lots of replies but no help yet!

[Guest]

Well - we introduced our working wall today in nursery - by the end of the session - there was hardly a space left - chdn had put so many things onto it - they really engaged in the ethos of it - it sparked a great deal of language & discussion too!!! - at the end of the week i will take a photo & attempt to post it (emphasis on 'attempt' there!!!!!)

Would still be intereested to hear from others who use this as part of their daily practice.

[Guest]

Sounds good Fluffy. How did you introduce it?

 

Please please please post a photo for us!

[Guest]

Following this with interest - this type of display seems to link really well with child-initiated planning.

 

I have found I have done less display work since moving away from pre-planned topics as we always pre-planned displays and the art etc work that was going to be done for them.

[Guest]

I will take a pic of my working wall tomorrow and try to remember to post it. We had staff meeting time set aside (round about this time last year) for an inset by one of the LAs consultants on working walls. We all had to then create a working wall dedicated to Literacy in each of our classrooms. Fluffy descibes working walls perfectly; being in FS my working wall is not soely dedicated to Lit work due to the holistic way in which we work but is a quick reference point for all of the work we are doing that week/fortnight - and it changes on a daily basis.

[Guest]

Sounds great but I agree it would need to be a big wall! I also agree with nsunshine it would be brilliant with child initiated learning. It reminded me a bit of some of the Reggio stuff we have seen. There was also something like it on the EYFS programme on Teachers TV last week, but rather than being a class/nursery approach it was an individual journey. I suppose it would work as a keyworker group journey............ hmmm, now my mind is whirring. Please post a photo!

[Guest]

We are an Intensifying Support School and the idea of working walls came from our training in this area.

All classes in our school have a working wall. The idea of our working walls is that all ideas, guided writing, notes, vocabulary etc from the current week/s theme are put on this wall. These bits of flip chart paper are used as a reference for the teacher for teaching later in the unit - 'Do you remember when we did this...' and for the children, etc when they are looking for wow words, when they need a visual reminder of how we laid out a certain sentence etc.

In reception we actually don't have a working wall anymore as it couldn't be accessed by all the children in the room when working, my classroom goes round a corner and if you are working around the corner you cant see it. Also lots of bits we did on flip charts are now done on the Interactive white board and so can't be pinned up. Working walls are supposed to be messy and 'working' they are not mounted etc.

 

Our working walls are used in this way and not really as a record of childrens work. Sometimes if the wall is too busy we find it loses the impact as children find it harder to find what they are looking for as a point of reference.

When my children want to put their work on display we have a different area for this.

 

Anyway that's how we use our working walls here, it sounds like different setting use them in different ways.

[Guest]

The way you describe the working wall sounds very similar to the theory & practise behind the way they are used throughout the rest of our school, however through discussions between nursery & reception staff we have adapted the principles behind it to suit our practice in the foundation stage. This week we intorduced it through our focused taeching session on Monday - we expalined to teh chdn how the working wall was going to be used, we refered to the 'thought showers' we had created in the previous weeks session, introduced the new focus of our topic (mini beasts which creep & crawl) - after giving teh chdn time we asked them to give suggestions of mini beasst & as they did - we added pictures of the minibeasts we were focusing on that week. We then put the vocab we would be using onto the wall & modelled some of the independant activities that chnd could access - explaning that if/when they had done these during child initiated time they could addd them to the wall too. At the end of the session we spent a hort time revisiting the wall - looking at & talking about the work the chdn had done. We also read through some of the incidental obs that the adults had put on the walll (when they had heard the chdn using some of teh key vocab etc. As the week has progressedwe built on this & it has worked really well - as i said in an earlier post i will attempt to add pics at the weekend!!!!!!

[Guest]

hi Fluffy did you manage to take the pics of your working wall?I would really love to see what you have been doing

Carmad

[Guest]

Kate 29/05/07

We have working walls in all of our classrooms part of the ISP training we are receiving. Personally I find them just to be wallpaper. The purpose behind them is that children's targets of must, should and could are displayed on them and children can relate to them at all times. Usually a display is involved one which the children can interact with again our children don't seem to bother with it. The walls should show genre, words of the week, number language etc. Personally I would much rather the walls be given over to childrn's work but hey the powers that be say this is what is wanted who are we to argue.

 

hi -just wondering what people's experiences are of using 'working walls' in the foundation stage - does anybody have any good ways/ideas of introducing them - or any pictures they would be willing to post ??

thanks

[Guest]

I agree with you kathrynkatrina. Sweeping generalisation here but many ISP consultants do not understand the nature of the Foundation Stage curriculum, I am sick of arguing that it IS NOT WATERED DOWN KS1 also that all my walls are 'working walls' as they are interactive, child-friendly, based on the work we do an aid to learning - but no, I have to do the 'wallpaper' thing to, it's a waste of time and energy grrrrr!

Maybe it's the 'jobsworh' ISP consultant that I have to deal with, and the cynic in me, but I just cannot get excited about a silly working wall :wacko: :rolleyes: :unsure: