Word Wall

Being a homeschooler stuck in a dining room for a classroom, I totally envy those adorable elementary school classrooms with their walls full of colorful posters and artwork. ***turning a little green here*** But I realize that I can't have it all (although I'm still hoping!). However, there are a few visuals that I consider pretty important, and a Word Wall -- a permanent display of sight words -- is one of them. But this is usually pretty big, and I couldn't quite think up how to make it work.

Until I stumbled on the idea of using a semi-permanent display that MM could look at during our school hours, but that could disappear when the frozen pizza... erm, homemade lasagna... hit the table.

I used a foam display board (the kind that can stand up against something and not bend) and spread out the letters (the rest are on the back, and I combined X-Y-Z). Under each letter I put a strip of Velcro. I found a great list of Dolch sight words from Have Fun Teaching and laminated the sheets, then cut the words apart and decided which ones MM already knew. These I put on the Wall. Each week I choose three more for her to learn, and on the Word Wall they go! As she learns certain easy words more fluently I'll take them off to make room for more.

Another benefit to having Velcro-ed the words is that I can take them off and have her alphabetize them, which she thinks is great fun... not. I wouldn't say that MM is as thrilled as I am to see the Word Wall come out every morning!