Our Word Wall

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I wanted to share a picture of how I’ve updated our Family & Friends “wall.” At first (when Jonas was about 18 months old), I had very simple scrapbook style pages in 8.5×11 page protectors on our fridge, showing photos of Jonas with various family members and a few friends. Since we live so far away from everyone, it was a great way for him to see their faces and stay familiar with their names.

Now that he’s starting to read, I decided to change to an “environmental print” style of display. I cut the existing photos or printed out new ones to 1″ square headshots. Then I typed each name (or, as in the case of the grandparents, the names as Jonas knows them 😉 ) in a large, traditional font. I mounted them on cardstock — and since I’m a dork, I color coded them with navy blue for family members and forest green for friends — and “laminated” them with clear packing tape. Then I used adhesive magnet strips to make them stick to the fridge.

We use them each week when we do a new letter of the week – we check to see if anyone we know has a name that starts with that letter/sound, or if it’s inside of the name. Jonas also has fun rearranging them into family groups (ie, he will put Uncle Jason, Aunt Sharon, and Dylan together… Misty and Axel together… Mrs. Kim, Grace, Natalie, and Enoch together…) or into a fairly close approximation of alphabetical order.

This fall when we start our PK4 curriculum, I’ll be introducing Jonas to the pre-primer and primerDolch sight words, and I will probably use a similar print/laminate/magnetic display for those as he adds them to his vocabulary. I can’t wait!