Early Years Display: Hundreds of ideas for displays which actively involve children

By Alystair Bryse-Clegg

I would highly recommend this book for EYFS and Year 1 teachers and support staff. It is a really practical book with lots of instructions and pictures to aid effective classroom display. The title suggests that the focus will be wall displays; however, whilst this is addressed, I found the most useful element of the book to be the guidance on organising and setting up of continuous provision.  There are some great tips for creating child led learning areas which incorporate children’s own ideas and interests. They are straight forward and easy to set up and can help to develop ‘dead space’ in the classroom.

The ideas for wall displays are also useful with a clear focus on a non-cluttered, child led, learning celebration. This section of the book has helped me to question the purpose for each wall display I put up. It has also been really useful to share the photographs in the book with support staff as a starting point for our own displays.

For me, the most interesting aspect of the book was the idea of deconstructed continuous provision. This explores the idea that some of the resources we provide for the children limit the language and experience they will have in the classroom. Deconstructed provision aims to have non-specific display and play areas so that children bring their own experiences and imagination to their learning.

A great book for EYFS and lower KS1 teachers to develop their learning environments.