I've been working on putting the pieces back in place in my room, and I've made many improvements.
This is my new word wall. I made it smaller (it used to take up two walls) and lower on the wall to help the children see it better. I decided this would be more of a reference word wall, and I would have a pocket chart on the board that contains just the 5 or so words we're really working on. I put only the first 20 words up + 2 that come up a lot (can and so) as to not overwhelm them.
As I've mentioned before, the pictures with the letters are sound cards. They are not pictures of things that begin with that letter. For example, A has two pictures. The short a is a picture of a boy pulling off a band-aid - he says "ah", and the long a is a picture of a boy shouting down the street to his friend - he says "aye." "B" is the sound the drummer makes. "K" is the sound the remote controls makes when the girl changes the channel... Each sound also has a motion that goes along with the action, like drumming.
The word wall shown first is on the wall to left of this area. This of course is my small group teaching table. It's still a bit unorganized.
This is the wall above my math center. The numbers are interesting to me, because of how they are done. I used a peeled crayon on its side to draw the letters. The colors change as the directions in the number rhymes change. Here are the rhymes:
Around you go to make zero. (red)
Down from sun makes one. (red)
A candy cane (red) and a shoe (blue) makes two.
Around a tree (red) and around a tree (blue) makes three.
Down (red) and a across (blue) and down some more (green) makes four.
Down (red) and around (blue) and put a hat on (green) and see what you have found - it's fat old five.
Down to a loop and six rolls a hoop. (red)
Across the sky (red) and down from heaven (blue) makes seven.
Make an S (red) but do not wait, go back and close the gate (blue) - eight.
A circle (red) and a line (blue) make nine.
It can go on to say a 1 a 0 makes 10...
Then I put sticker dots on the numbers to help the students with Touch Math. I don't have the dots exactly right, because I was not as familiar with Touch Math when I made these.
Then I have the shapes the students have to learn. They each have poems too. (Cindy Circle, Sammy Square...)