St. George's Dragon

I found this neat idea on Activity Village for St. George's Day - this could very easily be turned into a mobile and give you a classroom of swooping dragons! If you use the clear nylon thread with this it really will seem as if they are flying.

This wooden spoon dragon is incredibly effective and much simpler to make than it looks! It will keep older kids busy for a while and give them a craft to be proud of, too.

You will need:

A wooden spoon
Green paint
Green craft foam
Scraps of red, yellow and orange craft foam
Green glitter glue
PVA glue
Wiggle eyes
Black permanent pen

Instructions:

Paint the spoon with green paint and leave to dry.

Fold the green foam in half. Draw a wing shape with the bottom along the fold. Cut around the wing shape. Unfold and decorate the wings with the glitter glue.

Draw around the bowl of the spoon onto green foam. Cut out and glue to the spoon at the base of the handle (this is the lower part of the jaw).

Glue the eyes to the back of the spoon, and draw on the nose with black pen.

Cover the middle of the wing piece with the glue and wrap it round the spoon (you may need to tape in place with low mask tape to hold it while the glue dries)

Now cut an arrow-shaped tail from green foam, decorate with glitter glue and glue to the end of the spoon.

Finally cut a flame shape from yellow foam, a slightly smaller one from orange foam and an even smaller one from yellow foam. Glue them together in a pile and stick to the bottom of the dragon’s mouth.

Leap Into Spring!

If you're planning a Lifecycles or Rainforest theme then these frogs will surely want to hop into your display!
FROG 1:
1) Take a paper plate and fold it in half.
2) Using a red crayon colour the inside red.
3) Using green paint cover the outside in green.
4) Cut 4 green card rectangles 1" x 7". Concertina the card in inch squares to make bouncy legs.
5) Cut a red card arch for the tongue and glue it slightly off-centre on the inside of the mouth so the tongue sticks out.
6) Cut 2 1" white circles and 2 1cm black circles for the eyes and glue on.
7) Glue / staple the legs 2 on the left and 2 on the right.

Voila! One bouncy frog that can hang from a ceiling / tree bough or be attached to a wall.

FROG 2:
1) Paint the outside of a burger box green.
2) Follow same steps as above for legs and eyes.
3) For a bit of fun give the lady frogs red lips. Poke short pieces of black pipe-cleaners through the box and curl at the end for eye-lashes.
4) Gentlemen frogs can add a bow tie to the box to jazz them up.

Hope you have a 'hopping' good time making these!

Pretend Stained Glass Mobiles

These mobiles are ideal gifts for Mothers / Fathers Day, simple to make and beautiful to look at. Follow the link to see how to make them at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Stainedglass.shtml.

You will need:

• wax paper
• crayons
• crayon sharper (or a knife- to make crayon shavings)
• scissors
• any flat objects (like glitter, dried leaves, stickers, paper scraps, pictures from magazines, etc.)
• an iron. You'll encase the flat objects and crayon shavings in waxed paper, iron it, and then hang your masterpiece from a window!

Education Show Seminar

On Friday 27th March I gave a talk at the Education Show about the different aspects of display. I had a great time doing it and it really reinforced for me how much I love this subject because once I got talking about display any nerves that I had vanished! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everybody who came to the seminar and as promised have put the notes on my blog as a downloadable PDF for people to use. It was lovely to be able to help some people with ideas and suggest resources - I am always happy for people to email me if they need some help with display ideas for a project or a starting point for their display.

5Th Wall Display Notes

Spaced Out !

Are you thinking of exploring space with your children? Need some new ideas? Then look no further, check out these ideas below:

1) Attach fairy lights to your ceiling and cover them over with black backing paper, pushing them through to create the night sky. If you are able try to push them through in patterns to create some of the simpler constellations for the children to learn.
2) Make rockets from kitchen roll tubes and insert an electrical circuit to make them light up. If you use orange / red / yellow cellophane for the flames the light will make it glow beautifully.
3) Wish upon a star - draw a large star and tail for the children to decorate. Get them to write what they would wish for and why and hang it underneath.
4) Follow this link http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/astronomy/solarsystemmodel/to see how to make a solar system mobile.
5) Use kitchen foil and cocktail sticks to make astronauts that can float in space or be pinned to your wall display. Scrunch the foil to mould into the various body parts and secure together using the cocktail sticks and sellotape, but try to have as few separate pieces as possible.

Bumble Bee Mobile

Here's an idea I found on www.craftsfor kids.com - follow the link to go and see more.
Take a buzz through the garden with a honey bee mobile. Did you know that bees can fly 22 miles per hour and their wings beat 180 beats per second? You'll really need to be "buzzing" to keep up with them. Bees unwittingly carry pollen on their back legs from flower to flower so that the plant can produce seeds for the next crop.
You will need:

• 4 Styrofoam 2" eggs
• 3" Styrofoam egg
• 24 Yellow 6mm chenille stems
• 18 Black 6mm chenille stems
• Wiggle eyes
• Black craft wire
• Jute
• 16 large wood teardrops
• 2 Small wood rectangles
• White acrylic paint
• Paint brush
• Glue
• Nylon thread
• 18 gauge Wire stem
• Wire snips

Instructions:

1. Wrap each 2" styrofoam egg with yellow chenille stems. Starting at the widest part of the egg, push one end of a stem into the styrofoam then wrap the chenille between the yellow for stripes. To cover each end, form black chennile stem into a circle. Bend the ends outward then attach one circle to each end of the egg by pushing the ends into the body. Secure with glue.
2. Cut one chenille stem into 6 pieces. Push ends into the body then bend to make legs.
3. Paint the wood teardrops white. Let dry then push the pointed ends of four teardrops into each bee. To make antennae, cut 6" piece of craft wire. Fold in half then twist together. Curl each end around a paintbrush handle. Fold in half then push head. Glue wiggle eyes in place.
4. Unbend four paperclips. Push one into the top of each bee for a hanger.
5. Unbend a paperclip then push into the pointed end of the large styrofoam egg. Tie end of jute to the clip. Cover part of the egg with glue, then wrap the egg completely with jute keeping strands close together. Paint the rectangles white. Let dry then write "HOME SWEET HOME" on one side with the black marker.
6. To assemble, cut the wire stem in half then tie the two pieces together at the center to make a cross. Curl each end to make a hook. Tie invisible thread to each bee then tie the opposite ends to the ends of the wire. Tie the beehive to the center of the crossed wires. Glue the rectangles together on either side of the thread with the lettering to the outside.

Woven Fish Mobiles

Use this fish as part of a sea / underwater theme, as a fun recycling project or incorporate it into a rainforest project.

Promote recycling with fun activities that use the humble plastic bag!

Woven fish mobiles

You will need: a selection of different coloured plastic bags; sticky tape; scissors; card; glue; thread and drawing materials.

What to do:

1. Each child will need four bags in a variety of colours. Remove the handles and cutting down the sides to make oblongs around 70×30cms. To save time, ask your TA to cut these lengthways into long strips roughly 5–6cms wide. Each child will need around 20 strips.

2. Decide on an appropriate colour sequence and place half the plastic strips horizontally in close rows on a large flat surface. Secure the loose short ends to the surface with sticky tape.

3. At right angles, lie the remaining strips vertically on top of the horizontal ones in preparation for weaving. Ensure that a few inches of loose ends remain on all four sides. Attach the top of the vertical strips to a long piece of card.

4. Thread the top strips over and under the bottom ones in alternate rows. Keep the weaving flat – not pulling too tight – and ensure that the ends are long enough on each side so as to not come undone.

5. When completed, remove the sticky tape securing the short ends to the work surface. Lift the card and gently fold the weaving in half (top to bottom). Remove the card and tie pairs of ends together along the bottom edge.

6. Carefully gather the loose strips emerging from one end (left or right) and secure these together with a big knot – leaving the ends to dangle. Secure the other ends neatly with sticky tape. The weaving should now resemble a fish, with dorsal fins composed of individual ties and a streamer-like tail made up of separate strips gathered together by one knot.

7. Ask the children to make a fish head out of card and glue it in place. Use thread to dangle the fishes around the classroom.

Butterfly Mobiles

These butterfly mobiles are so quick and easy to make and look really effective fluttering in the breeze as they hang from your ceiling.

1) Buy some wooden clothes pegs and get the children to colour them with brown felt tips.
2) Choose 2 colours of tissue paper and draw 2 largish hearts opposite each other that join together at the point.
3) Ask the children to cut them out and lay them one on top of the other.
4) Twist them together at the centre - this creates your wings.
5) Open your coatpeg and push the wings in, then fluff them out to look more realistic.
6) Either use brown/black coloured pipe cleaners or colour white ones appropriately. Curl one end and glue the straight ends to the straight end of the clothes peg to make your feelers.
7) Use the clear nylon thread to suspend them from your ceiling / tree branches.

These work really well with a summer / minibeasts / lifecycles /rainforest project.

Sssssnakes !

Add some colourful snakes to your rainforest boughs! These are ssssoo easy to make and look bright and decorative too:

1) Use a brightly coloured pair of tights (striped or patterned are good) and stuff with newspaper or soft recyclable material.
2) Glue some 'googly' eyes on the snake's head. *
3) Cut out and attach a red felt forked tongue.

*As a twist on this one year I made small electrical circuits and put these in for the snake's eyes so that they literally glowed!

1) A CDT option is to cut kitchen rolls into circles 1" wide and paint about 12 of them for 1 snake. 2) For the head use a polystyrene / ping pong ball and paint it.
3) Stand card circles in a line and thread string through.
4) Space card circles slightly apart and sellotape string to top inside card and to snake head.
5) This makes a flexible snake that can also be turned into a puppet by adding 2 sticks at either end.

Rainforest Trees

The Rainforest is a great eco project and can be done across the age range. One of my favourite displays is to make a large tree and the canopy. To do this you will need:

Rolls of brown paper (either packing paper or backing paper)
Rolls of green backing paper
2 shades green crepe paper
Camouflage netting.

1) Line your ceiling with green backing paper.
2) Choose an area of your classroom for the trunk of the tree to start. Crush the paper to give a slightly 3D effect and make the trunk up to the ceiling.
3) Twist large sections of the paper to make tree boughs and link from the start of the tree to the ceiling and then 'branch' out.
4) Pin camo netting to ceiling to create a mottled leaf effect.
5) Cut strips of crepe to make vines/creepers and drape over boughs randomly. These will look effective and help to create movement in the classroom with any breezes.

Classroom Banners

Banners can make a great visual impact on your classroom display and will really stand out against your chosen background. They can simply be printed out from your computer and stuck together or laminated for greater durability and either hung from the ceiling or mounted on a wall.
Here are some basic instructions. Publisher can be set up to print continuously on several sheets of paper. As ever with software things vary with the edition you have, have a play and see what you can come up with. Just watch out that images and some WordArt will distort if used in very large banners.

1. Open Publisher through the “Start” menu or double click the icon on the Desktop. Click “File” and “New” from the top menus after the program has opened. Give it a relevant title and save.
2. Choose Blank Publications. From the drop down list select “Banner”. An example will appear on the right hand side of the window.
3. Select a size larger than 8.5-by-11 inches in Page Setup . You can choose up to 240″ in Publisher 2007. This will spread your banner over several pages.
4. Select a design from the examples on the right hand side. Publisher has several templates but most won’t be suitable for school. Choose “Blank” to start from scratch. (To use a template just double click it and it will appear in your banner.)
5. Left click the “Insert” and “Picture” to add a design, photo or a clip art.
6. Choose “Insert” then “Text Box” to add your text. Click the mouse where you want the box to start in the banner. Have a good play with fonts, sizes colours etc at this stage. Make sure it looks clear.
7. Select “File,” “Print,” then “Properties” to use the Landscape option to rotate your paper.
8. Choose “File” and “Print Preview” at any point during the design process to make sure everything is as you want it.
9. Only when you are really happy with the banner, print it out. You will have to stick the A4 pages together to make the banner.

Happy printing!

Using Ribbons In Your Display

Florists ribbon and curling ribbon are two great mediums for adding interest to your display. The thin curling ribbon is good for :
1) Hanging written work from the ceiling, so much nicer than wool or string.
2) Adding a finishing touch to your artwork.

The wide florists ribbon can be used for:
1) Creating great effects such as hanging vines, seaweed, kite tails, hair etc.
2) Making bows and loops to add a 3D touch to your wall display.
3) Adding the feeling of movement to any mobiles that you hang up.

Most florists are happy to let you order ribbon through them and are often cheaper than if you order through art companies / catalogues - some florists will also donate ribbon to schools so it's always worth asking if they have anything that they can give the school ( and equally important to take a photo in to show them where their ribbon went when you use it in a project).

Recycled Fish Mobiles

No, it's not quite as smelly as it sounds! Make great fish mobiles using old CD's by:
1) Cut out a red card heart 5cms high.
2) Cut out 2 triangles, one with a 15cm base and one with an 8cm base in coloured card of your choice.
3) Take one CD and on the side of the writing glue the short triangle so that the base fits along the top of the CD with the point sticking up. Then take the large triangle and glue the pointed tip (about 1cm in) on the left hand side of the CD.
4) Take your heart and glue it on the right hand side of the CD so that just the curved part protrudes. (This makes your fish's lips).
5) Take your other CD and glue it writing side down to the other CD. (You should have no writing visible on either side of your CD.
6) Glue a large googly eye on each side of the CD and hang

Try to place these near sunlight as it will really make them sparkle.

These can also be adapted into fat birds with waterproof materials to hang in the gardens over seeds and crops to scare birds away.

3D Wall Display

Make your walls 3D with shoe boxes and never have flat wall displays again. Collect several shoe boxes and cover them with paper inside and out. Staple gun them to your walls so that the inside is facing outwards. This gives you instant display surface for models / books / features that can all link with the display surrounding them and make your display look much more interesting too! Any shoe store is usually quite willing to donate some boxes if you don't have any.

Valentines Day

Combine science with art in a project that let your children's love truly glow! Make a simple electrical circuit with a small bulb / bulb holder. Cut a small card rectangle and glue foil on one side, then fold in half. Attach wires ,one to one half and one to the other with wires exposed on the foil side. This will make a simple switch for the children to turn the light on and off.
Next take a coleslaw tub and make a slot in the base to feed the wires and switch through. Attach the light bulb / holder to the base inside the tub.
To make the heart draw around the top of the tub on red card. Use a template to draw a larger heat around this circle and cut it out. Inside the circle draw as large a heart as possible and cut it out (You should now have 2 heart shapes on 1 piece of card. Glue red cellophane / tissue paper over cut out inner heart on the reverse side. Glue heart over top of the tub, press the switch and watch your heart glow!

Smiling faces!

Combine technology with art to produce a lovely mobile that will link perfectly with an 'All About Me' project. Take some close-up photos of your childrens' faces and print out large to stick on a paper plate. Your children can add hair , a hat and shirt top to decorate this further. Then ask the children to type sentences telling you a bit about themselves (i.e. My favourite food is pizza, I have a dog called Spot etc). The children can cut these out and stick them onto coloured card rectangles and glue to a strip of ribbon that will hang underneath the plate. It's sure to make you and parents smile when they walk in and see these happy faces each day!

Chinese Lanterns

Chinese New Year will soon be here and today my class and I made Chinese lanterns using paper plates. Very simply you will need:
4 x small paper plates
Gold curling ribbon
Red or yellow florists ribbon

On each face of the paper plates draw and colour something that is linked with China (we chose a dragon, fireworks, ying/yang sign and Chinese writing. The children can draw and colour these using a mix of watercolour paints, felt tips and crayons. (Pre-draw the images for younger children). Once decorated stand the plates on end and staple the sides together, forming a square. Punch a hole in the top of each plate to thread the gold ribbon through to hand the lantern and staple long strips of red / yellow ribbon to the bottom of each plate.
Hang near a doorway to ensure the draft moves the ribbons.

Your classroom will now look full of colour and movement.

Invisible Mobiles

Make your mobiles look as if they are suspended in mid-air by using clear nylon thread. This really helps to stop anything detracting from the overall appearance of the work you are hanging (which ribbon , coloured wool and twine can sometimes do). It is possible to buy this clear nylon thread from art suppliers/display specialists but my advice would be to visit your local fishing shop and buy their clear nylon fishing line. It comes in different strengths (which is useful if you know you have a heavy object to suspend rather than a tissue box for instance) and most importantly is often a lot cheaper too! I have successfully used this to suspend a 6ft long 3D killer whale and a 3D chinese dragon which looked really effective. It's one of my 'must haves' now when putting up displays and I'm sure you'll find it indispensible too.

Hope to meet you soon!

Take a deep breath, countdown............and launch into blogging! Welcome to my blog on classroom display and ideas. All teachers are passionate about their children and I believe that there is no greater way to show the world what your children have achieved than with a truly awe-inspiring display that both children and adults will want to come and look at. I love display and the creative challenge that it gives me both at the start of each term and during the term as my display is changed and added to. I will be running a seminar at the Education Show on Friday 27th March at 3.30pm - here is a taster of what will be covered:

Seminar Details
"The 5th wall is the ceiling - a often neglected area of display that can truly bring the classroom alive with mobiles displaying both written work and art work that link with projects and topics. This seminar will aim to give ideas not only for displaying work on the main 4 walls as well as the 5th wall and tools and ideas to take away and use within the classroom. Display skills will help teachers to "dress their windows" in a more interesting manner that will make parents, Heads and Govenors stop and take note of the work that is going on. Too often display can be flat and boring - this seminar will give ideas on how to turn a 2D display into a 3D display and give ideas , examples and solutions that the teachers who attend this course can take away with them and start using."

I will be starting to put ideas, tips and links to other useful sites on over the next few weeks and look forward to possibly meeting some of you at the show in March.