Focus walls

I've been wanting to share these pictures of my focus walls for a while. In my room I have this great big wall (which was already painted blue when I moved in..score). This wall has always been my main calendar area but last spring my teaching partner and I were inspired by a faculty meeting on focus walls and we decided to make one of our own...Kindergarten style :) It started last year with the spring wall, and throughout the year this year I changed it around to match the season. My kids LOVE THIS. Their favorite thing to do during free time or if they finish early is to grab a pointer and go back and forth on the wall. They spout off sight words, sing the songs, and chant the combinations for the different numbers. The other day I actually heard them quizzing each other "Close your eyes and tell me what 2 numbers I have to make 14" HA! It also adds a great visual to the room :)

Here's some pics I have snapped over the course of the year. There is usually a calendar, a song or poem for the month, and months of the year and days of the week to go through calendar time (this time has had to be VERY short this year due to scheduling issues)...

The first one I did this year was my fall wall. The kids were SO SAD when I took the scarecrow down! The pumpkins in the pumpkin patch had all the different representations of #'s 1-5, the scarecrow had sentence strips with simple sentences like "I see a brown hat" "I see a yellow shirt", and sight words on the corn (almost cut off in the right side of the picture). Nothing on the leaves of the tree but I have plans for that next year ;)

The only reason I didn't have mutiny on my hands when I took down the scarecrow is because I put up this snowman :) I snapped the picture before the color word buttons went up. The penguins all had numbers on their ice burgs and the snowflakes around the snowman had the sight words.

The spring wall might be my favorite...it's just so colorful and fun :) The butterflies have color words on the bodies that match their wings, the giant flower (ala "The Tiny Seed") has combinations to make teen numbers, and the rest of the flowers have my calendar and sight words on them. (The songs and months had not made it up when this pic was snapped)

I usually try to have the kids "help" construct them each time we put a new one up. They tell me where to put the ten frames or dot cards. I try not to think about the day that I am in a different room and won't have this awesome space to play with, but for now my kids are absolutely loving our focus walls.