Word Wall Before and After

3rd grade is growing on me....one of the things that takes up a huge amount of space on the wall but doesn't seem to be very interactive or a tool for the students it was created for.  Here is a picture of my old Word Wall.

I loved the colors.  I loved the student done words.  I did not love that once the word was up, it was never referred to.  Then I stumbled across Mrs. 3rd Grade's Blog and found some inspiration.

Each letter on the word wall is portable.  SO clever!  We can add words I purposefully choose.  We can add words students frequently use and need to refer to.  We can add words we find as we read.  My next step was figuring out where I would put such a thing.  All the walls I had left were low and in frequently traffic-ed places where they probably wouldn't last too long.  I do have lots of giant windows and spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to make them work.  I love the 3M hooks, but didn't want the back of the window to look messy with 26 little hooks showing through the other side.   Then my aha came!

A bucket with paper for adding more words the the rings.

After moving this summer, I had a leftover curtain rod and hooks.  I grabbed a couple of the bigger 3M hooks for the ends of the of the curtain rod.  Attached to each clip is a loose leaf ring.  Then I made a cover letter for each stack of blank paper and throughout the year we will add to it!  I can't wait to see this in action!

Happy Tuesday,