During the school year so many things come home in the back pack/folder; so many pictures are made just for you. This means that you have to choose whether you want a huge box full of papers to stash OR you can condense and keep a neat collection of work that shows growth over the course of the year.
One great way to display work your little one creates is to place the work in a sheet protector before putting it on the fridge. I know this seems overzealous but here is my reasoning:
1) You can preserve their work.
2) When you are ready to put a new picture on the fridge, you can take the old one down and stick it right into a binder.
3) You show your little one that you really prize their hard work and display it proudly.
Here is how I decide what to display…. In the classroom, I encouraged little ones that the things that go on the “wall”:
1) Have meaning – they remind them of something.
2) Shows their best work – they put a careful, attentive amount of time into it.
3) May be unique – it is different in some way from other things saved in the binder.
4) Have added detail – has something extra special about it (a new word, a new attempt to draw something, etc.)
*Obviously, you don’t want to disqualify their work if it doesn’t meet the “criteria,” you just want to start talking to them about the work that is extra “fancy” and is unlike anything else they have ever done.
Last bit of advice:
Date it….you WILL forget and it makes it easier to organize when you have a timeline.
Discuss it….whatever your little one learned, bring it up again…reinforce that skill.
OR…. take a picture…. it lasts longer!
Here is an example of the sheet protector display that a classroom teacher and friend of mine, Taryn, uses for her precious little ones. I thought you may want to “borrow” this look (contruction paper-backed sheet protector) for your fridge or make a mini display board to hang across from your pantry:
Now it’s your turn…..for a “mommy share” question:
** How do you choose which artwork you display & how do you display it?**
If there is enough of a response and enough good ideas I am going to condense them and put them into a post for all mommy teachers to benefit from. And I’d love for you to share pictures on the mommy teacher facebook page.
