But how you end the year matters.

Creating space for reflection, connection, and celebration helps students process their experiences, recognize their growth, and leave your classroom with a sense of closure.

A Simple Way to End the Day—and the Year—on a Positive Note

A closing circle is a simple, structured way to bring calm and purpose to the end of the day. In just five to ten minutes, students gather to reflect, share, or participate in a brief activity before dismissal.

At the end of the school year, these moments become even more powerful.

They give students a chance to:

• Reflect on what they’ve learned and experienced
• Celebrate accomplishments, big and small
• Strengthen their sense of belonging
• Transition out of the classroom with confidence and care

Even a short closing circle can shift the tone from rushed and scattered to calm and connected.

Why Closing Circles Matter Most at the End of the Year

Throughout the year, it’s easy to move quickly from one activity to the next without pausing to reflect. As the year comes to a close, that reflection becomes essential.

Closing circles help ensure that:

• Students recognize their growth over time
• Positive moments are acknowledged and celebrated
• The classroom community ends on a strong, supportive note

Rather than focusing on unfinished tasks or end-of-year logistics, closing circles create a space where students can leave feeling successful, valued, and ready for what’s next.

Try It: Good-bye Cadence

Looking for a simple way to bring energy and closure to your final days together?

Good-bye Cadence is a quick, call-and-response chant that helps students reflect on their day and celebrate their shared experience.

Students repeat each line after a leader, building rhythm and connection as they go:

Students repeat each line after a leader, building rhythm and connection as they go:

• “I don’t know but I’ve been told…”
• “This school day is about to fold…”
• “We worked and played our best all day…”
• “But now it’s time for us to say…”

Finish together with:
“Good-bye, school friends… Bye, bye!”

This short activity brings the group together, reinforces a sense of community, and sends students off on a positive, memorable note.

Tip for Success

Post the words of the chant so students can refer to them if needed.

Variation

Instead of “school friends” insert any two syllable name for the group, such as “first grade,” “classmates,” or “readers.” Or ask your students for suggestions!

More Activity Ideas

For more activities you can use during closing circle, check out:

• Closing Circles: 50 Activities for Ending the Day in a Positive Way
• Energizers! 88 Quick Movement Activities That Refresh and Refocus 
• 50 More Energizers! Purposeful Play That Leads to Learning

Dana Januszka is the coauthor of Closing Circles: 50 Activities for Ending the Day in a Positive Way.

As a teacher of English as a Second Language (grades K–6) and as a kindergarten teacher, music has always played an important role in my classrooms. As a consulting teacher working with Center for Responsive Schools, I’ve seen many teachers using music effectively in their teaching. While music education enhances brain development, physical coordination, language, memory, and visual and aural skills, perhaps the most important reason for filling our classrooms with music is that the ability to appreciate and enjoy music simply enhances life.

Despite the current pressure on teachers and students to accomplish more earlier, and to do it faster, there is strong rationale for the busy classroom teacher to find time for music. Here are a few ways for teachers (even those with little or no musical training) to integrate music into the daily life of their classrooms and schools:

Music During Morning Meeting and Responsive Advisory Meeting

Singing songs is a great Morning Meeting activity. Keep a list of favorite songs posted near your meeting area. Singing together builds community and enhances a sense of group competence. Choose songs that are enjoyable and comfortable for you and the children to sing. A few terrific songbook resources for lower and upper elementary grades are listed at the end of this article.

Some teachers offer students an opportunity to share the music they love at Morning Meeting. Children take turns bringing in a recording/sound file for the class to hear. Various musical styles can be explored in this way. This activity allows children to practice courteous listening and calls for respecting diverse preferences. In some middle school classrooms this is integrated more informally into the Responsive Advisory Meeting period and takes the form of casual entry music. Teachers do need to be mindful of appropriate content and discuss any concerns with children. Many controversial CDs carry a content advisory on the label, but now that music usually comes to us via streaming services as a sound file, teachers will find it wise to review selections prior to sharing.

Songs as Ritual

Many teachers use songs as a ritual with which to begin or end each day. Songs can also be used for birthdays, special events, holidays, and as part of year-end and graduation/moving up ceremonies. Years ago, the Greenfield Center School, as a K–8 laboratory school, learned a variety of birthday songs. At weekly all-school meetings, the children with birthdays that week would choose one of the songs from the school repertoire to be sung to them. A favorite was the upbeat chorus from Birthday Cake, and old folk song written by John McClutcheon:

It makes me think of the good old days,
Happy birthday to you! (clap, clap)
You sure grew out of your baby ways,
Happy birthday to you! (clap, clap)
(7th) birthday, wish you many more.
Health and wealth and friends by the score.
So cut the cake and let’s eat some more.
Happy Birthday to you!

Songs to Reinforce Content

We all remember the famous alphabet song. There are many other songs which facilitate and reinforce memorization. I know a second grade teacher who uses a song to help her students remember the continents and an upper-grade teacher who uses the old song, “Multiplication Rock,” to help students learn their times tables. Many of the ESL students I taught acquired a repertoire of American folk songs while at the same time improving their pronunciation.

Music for Transitions

Music smooths transitions and soothes tempers, especially in the early elementary grades. There is a long tradition of early childhood educators using songs to support transitions and clean-up times. Whether you’re cleaning up or lining up, it’s easier with a song! A song can also be used as a signal. A kindergarten teacher I know gathers the children’s attention by singing out, “Hello, students!” using a simple melody limited to notes within the range of five-year-olds. The children stop whatever they are doing and respond, “Hello, teacher!” The power of music to support smooth transitions and other class activities is not restricted to young children. I watched a middle school teacher who routinely uses songs to support transitions, and to signal specific times of the class. His students supplied the songs, and were heard to proudly exclaim, “That’s mine! I gave him that one!”

Music Exploration

Music in schools should not be limited to children singing songs that they have learned from teachers. Children benefit greatly from opportunities to explore melody, lyrics, and rhythms in highly individual ways. They enjoy experimenting with sound, discovering ways to create, control, and vary it. Just as children are given opportunities to explore with art materials, they need regular opportunities to explore with sound.

A Music Center in the Primary Grades

A great way to give primary-grade students opportunities to play with sounds is to create a music center in the classroom. My kindergarten classroom always had a theater arts center in which music figured prominently. Some early childhood teachers have a separate music center, where instruments, composition supplies, and tape recorders are made available. In these areas, I suggest providing a junk box full of objects which can be made into musical instruments, along with a good set of rhythm instruments. A variety of recorded music should also be accessible. Songbooks and sheet music can be available to introduce children to the musical symbol system. Dancing supplies, such as scarves, jingle bracelets, and ribbon sticks, are always popular.

Music Exploration with Older Elementary Students

Musical exploration is important for older children, too. They benefit from opportunities to share the music they enjoy, to write lyrics and compose, and to sing together as a group. Some of my colleagues report that once children get into third grade and beyond, they become more reluctant to participate in class singing, particularly if they perceive the songs to be childish or in some way “uncool.” While this is certainly not true in all classrooms, it happens often enough to highlight the need for alternative activities for some older children.

Older students often appreciate background music. I know one middle school teacher who has a collection of standard selections she uses as “writing music” for her students. They enjoy listening to it during class composition time. I once observed two boys in this classroom glancing at each other, shaking heads and giggling when the teacher started the music, but within a few minutes they were writing with focus, feet tapping along with the music. High school teachers have found this to work as well. Many high schools offer very successful lip-sync contests. Lip-sync practice can be one way to help older students begin to overcome their discomfort with musical participation. While they are not actually singing, they are engaging with the music.

Although these musical alternatives can be useful, there is no substitute for a group singing together, at any age. I encourage my colleagues to help children understand music as a participatory experience for everyone, rather than as performance for the gifted few.

A Musical Collaboration

I am always amazed by what is possible when teachers work in collaboration. One year when I was teaching ESL, the music teacher planned a concert featuring musical selections from around the globe. I supplied the music teacher with a recording of the Southeast Asian children in my classroom singing a traditional Laotian folk song. She transcribed it and supplied the children with notation for the Orff instruments (xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels).

The song was performed at the concert, complete with singers, instrumentalists, and traditional dancers in beautiful costumes. It was nothing short of magical, and I will never forget what it felt like to be there. While it took a creative and energetic music specialist to design this authentic and inventive musical event, it also required collaboration with a classroom teacher. Musical events like this can happen when classroom teachers and music specialists find the time to come together and explore possibilities.

A Musical World

We live in a musical world. From bird songs to the rhythm of ocean waves, we are naturally surrounded by music. Some children discover and develop musical awareness early, perhaps in homes where music is important. Some children, born musicians, find inexplicably in themselves a special passion for music and the ability to share it with others. In our classrooms and schools, all children can be given the opportunity to discover and develop an appreciation of music and how it brings people together. The children who have this opportunity every day in their schools receive a wonderful gift, and blessed are the teachers who give it. For their students, the music plays on.

Further Resources

The resources that follow offer practical ways to explore and incorporate music into daily classroom life.

Birthday Songs

• The traditional Happy Birthday song with a twist
• A familiar tune, with birthday-related lyrics
• A lovely, different version of a birthday song
• “Cut the Cake (Birthday Song)” by John McCutcheon
• A shorter version of “Cut the Cake”

The World of Music

The World of Music, a video series created by the talented Brothers Bourque, offer some innovative videos for older students to explore musical concepts. The brothers’ backgrounds in musical performance and neuroscience coupled with animation reminiscent of Monty Python makes for entertaining, sophisticated and quirky content.

The brothers are also working on games. In the works is an ear-training instrument-collecting platform adventure with challenges that teach the player how to hear, identify and play around with the fundamentals of music.

Calming Connections

Calming Connections is a channel dedicated to creating calm, relaxing music for classroom use, along with a range of visual timers for students. Developed by an elementary/primary school teacher and mother, this channel offers purposeful sound and music videos applicable to a variety of classroom settings and lessons.

Clean Classroom Playlist 2026

This curated playlist offers a selection of classroom-appropriate songs to support transitions, independent work time, and a positive classroom atmosphere.

Bonnie Baer-Simahk is a consulting teacher with the Center for Responsive Schools. She shared songs with children for many years in her ESL and kindergarten classrooms. Her own three children have grown up to become teachers, musicians, and musical theatre performers, sharing songs with people in their classrooms, on Broadway, and around the world!

Rather than moving recess earlier, you can adjust how Morning Meeting is paced and designed so it continues to set a positive tone while supporting students’ physical and self regulation needs. Effective teaching requires noticing how a group is responding and adjusting strategies accordingly. Some groups need time to build the stamina required to participate in all components of Morning Meeting. Shorten or adapt meetings temporarily while continuing to stretch students’ ability to focus, listen, and participate.

Here is how you can use each of the four components of Morning Meeting to support restless students:

Greeting

If it’s hard for children to go around the circle and do a handshake greeting or other quiet greeting without hesitating or dragging it out, try more active and participatory greetings most days. Some groups do much better with chants and gesture-filled songs, singing out each other’s names and acting out playful motions. Here are just two such greetings:

Hickety-Pickety Bumble Bee

The whole class repeats the following chant until each child in the circle gets a chance to say his/her name.

Hickety-Pickety Bumble Bee.
Won’t you say your name for me.
_______________ (Child being greeted says his/her name.)
Let’s all say it. (Group says the child’s name.)
Let’s clap it, too. (Group says name and claps out the syllables.)
Let’s whisper it. (Group whispers the name.)
Let’s turn off our voices and clap it. (Group claps out the syllables without speaking.)

One, Two, Three, Four

This greeting can be sung or chanted. When a child’s name is called, the child comes into the middle of the circle and does a movement of her/his own choosing—for example, a bow, curtsy, wave, dance, wiggle, etc. During the last line of the song, the child moves back to her/his place in the circle. Another child’s name is called, and so on around the circle.

One, two, three, four! Come on, ____________, hit the floor.
We’re so glad you’re here today.
Hurray, hurray, hurray!

Sharing

Sharing is a wonderful way for children to get to know each other, to show interest and to develop the vocabulary for noticing and conversation. But doing this well takes practice for both speakers and audience. Here are some ways to help enliven this part of the meeting and pace it to the needs of the group:

• Have fewer sharers, perhaps only two or three.
• Allow only three or four questions or comments from the audience. If more children want to say something, suggest that they speak with the sharer during recess or lunch.
• Choose focused topics for sharing that are relevant to what the group is interested in or working on at the moment.

Group Activity

Try to choose Morning Meeting activities based on the needs and day-to-day moods of the group. Activities that involve pantomime and motion can help harness and channel restless energy. Most students love fast-paced games that involve quick ups and downs and ins and outs, but also require them to pay attention. Here are two activities that fit this description:

My Bonny

Everyone sings the song “My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean.” Whenever students sing words beginning with a “b,” they alternate between sitting and standing. For example: “My Bonny (stand) lies over the ocean. My Bonny (sit) lies over the sea . . .”

The words to the song are:

My Bonny lies over the ocean.
” ” the sea.
” ” the ocean,
So bring back my Bonny to me.
Bring back, bring back,
Oh bring back my Bonny to me, to me.
Bring back, bring back,
Oh bring back my Bonny to me.

What Are You Doing?

One student begins the game by pantomiming some simple action in the center of the circle, such as brushing his/her hair. The next student in the circle approaches the hair-brusher and asks, “What are you doing?” The hair-brusher responds by saying something completely different, such as “I’m washing the floor.” The student who asked now pretends to wash the floor. The next student then comes to ask the floor-washer, “What are you doing?” This goes on until everyone in the circle has had a chance to pantomime an action.

Morning Message

Closing the meeting with the morning message gives students a way to settle and refocus. To be of real interest, the message has to change daily and be specific to the day and class. It also has to be read in a way that’s suitable for the age, attention span, and energy level of the particular group. After a rousing Morning Meeting activity, one class of first graders quickly returned to the chart when the teacher covered a single word and asked, “Who thinks they know what word I’m covering? I’ll give you a hint. It is about something we will do today.” Eyes became centered, hands went up, and the day was at hand.

Read More

You can read more about Morning Meeting, including tips and ideas, in our comprehensive library of free articles:

• Morning Meeting
• Activity ideas
• Message ideas

For a deeper dive into the practice, check out one of our books:

• The Morning Meeting Book, 4th Edition 
• 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades K-2
• 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3-6
• 99 Activities and Greetings Great for Morning Meeting… and other meetings, too!
• Doing Science in Morning Meeting
• Doing Language Arts in Morning Meeting
• Doing Social Studies in Morning Meeting

Ruth Sidney Charney is the author of Teaching Children to Care.

Blend Fun and Academic Practice

Activities that combine movement, collaboration, and enjoyment often increase student engagement and persistence, making them effective tools for reinforcing skills. One example of an academic focused group activity is Sparkle, which reinforces spelling and language skills.

How to Use Sparkle

1. Have students stand in a circle.
2. The caller names a spelling word.
3. The next student uses the word in a sentence.
4. Students take turns spelling the word aloud, one letter at a time, moving around the circle.
5. If the word is spelled correctly, the student who says the final letter says “sparkle,” and the next student sits down.
6. If a mistake is made, the error is noticed by the caller or another student, and the student who made the error sits down.

Sparkle can be extended to increase academic challenge. After the sentence is shared, students might identify the part of speech, suggest a synonym, or explain the word’s meaning. These variations allow the activity to adapt to different grade levels and learning goals while keeping the structure familiar.

Another example of a group activity that reinforces academic learning is Buzz, which supports number sense, multiplication, and factoring.

How to Use Buzz

1. Choose a number, such as 2.
2. Have students count aloud around the circle.
3. When a student reaches a multiple of the chosen number, the student says “Buzz” instead of the number.

To increase challenge, educators can introduce Bizz Buzz:

1. Choose two numbers, such as 2 and 3.
2. Students say “Bizz” for multiples of the first number.
3. Students say “Buzz” for multiples of the second number.
4. Students say “Bizz Buzz” for numbers that are multiples of both.

Buzz and its variations encourage students to think flexibly about numbers, notice patterns, and explain their reasoning. Questions that arise during play, such as how to treat zero, offer natural opportunities for math discussion.

When selecting or designing a group activity, make sure that students are already familiar with the academic content. The purpose of the activity is to reinforce learning through practice in a supportive, engaging format. With thoughtful planning, a group activity can strengthen academic skills while preserving the sense of fun and community that makes Morning Meeting a strong start to the day.

Reuse Purposeful Group Activity Structures

To help students understand that a group activity is more than a game, educators should regularly review the goals of a group activity and use that language consistently. Naming the purpose clarifies expectations and reinforces that a group activity supports learning as well as community building.

Educators can reinforce academic content without creating many new activities by becoming comfortable with a small number of flexible group activity structures. These structures can be applied across subject areas, allowing students to focus on practicing skills rather than learning new rules.

One adaptable group activity is Guess the Word, which can be used to reinforce vocabulary, science concepts, or social studies facts.

How to Use Guess the Word

1. Write a familiar word or fact on an index card.
2. Tape the card to a student’s back so the student cannot see it.
3. Invite the rest of the class to give three clues that describe the word or fact.
4. After hearing the clues, the student guesses the word or fact.
5. If the student guesses correctly, another student takes a turn.
6. If the student guesses incorrectly, offer three additional clues and allow another guess.

To keep the activity supportive, educators should choose content students already know. Posting a visible list of words or facts allows students to refer to it while thinking of clues, reinforcing accuracy and confidence.

For younger students or those who benefit from additional support, Guess the Word can be adapted into a partner based version.

Partner variation:

1. Two students draw a word or fact from a container.
2. The pair gives three clues to the class.
3. Classmates work together to guess the word or fact.

Another versatile group activity is Match Up, which supports sequencing skills across academic areas.

How to Use Match Up

1. Select content that can be sequenced, such as a poem, song, life cycle, or historical timeline.
2. Print the content and cut it into strips, with one line or element per strip.
3. Shuffle the strips and give one to each student.
4. Invite students to read their strips aloud.
5. Students with matching strips find one another and form small groups.
6. Each group reads their strips aloud in the correct order.

Match Up encourages close reading, collaboration, and attention to structure. The same format can be reused with different content, making it an efficient and effective group activity.

Finally, educators can expand their group activity repertoire by collaborating with colleagues. Working together to brainstorm ways to apply familiar activity structures to new academic content strengthens planning and promotes shared learning across classrooms.

Integrate Arts Based Group Activities

When planning a group activity, educators should aim for a balance between game based activities and arts based activities. Poetry, literature, drama, music, and dance offer rich opportunities to integrate academic learning with expression, movement, and collaboration. These approaches support both social development and academic skill practice.

Poetry is especially effective for reinforcing literacy skills through repetition and oral language. A group activity can be used over several days to help students memorize a poem while deepening comprehension and fluency.

How to Use Poetry in a Group Activity

1. Select a poem appropriate for the grade level.
2. Read the poem aloud together.
3. Practice reciting the poem in varied ways, such as whispering, changing inflection, using different emotional tones, or chanting in sections.
4. Invite students to experiment with pace, volume, and expression.
5. Revisit the poem over multiple days to support memorization and confidence.

This approach strengthens fluency, supports comprehension, and builds appreciation for language. Choral recitation can also be applied to social studies content, such as historical speeches or primary source texts, allowing students to practice reading while engaging with meaningful content.

Drama is another effective way to reinforce academic understanding through a group activity. Acting out content helps students process ideas, visualize events, and prepare for deeper discussion.

How to Use Drama in a Group Activity

1. Identify content that benefits from physical representation, such as a story chapter, historical event, scientific process, or math word problem.
2. Assign roles or actions to students.
3. Guide students to act out the content while narrating or reciting key information.
4. Discuss the activity afterward to reinforce understanding and clarify misconceptions.

Drama can be paired with poetry by having some students act while others recite, supporting multiple modes of engagement.

Songs, chants, and dances also provide effective ways to reinforce literacy and math skills through rhythm and movement.

How to Use Songs and Movement in a Group Activity

1. Display song lyrics or chants on chart paper.
2. Sing or chant together, drawing attention to word patterns and rhythm.
3. Invite students to write new lyrics to a familiar tune using academic content.
4. Use structured dances to practice counting, patterns, and sequencing.

Movement based activities support memory, focus, and engagement while reinforcing foundational skills across subject areas. When arts based strategies are intentionally planned, a group activity becomes a powerful tool for integrating academic learning with creativity and joy.

Eric Henry, Susan Titterton, and Marlynn Clayton contributed to this article.

In taking on responsibility for displays, students have an opportunity to learn and practice important social and academic skills. When children choose work for displays, they learn to reflect on their work. By creating displays that recognize effort rather than perfection, children better understand that learning is a process of growth, not just a process of mastery. Creating displays can also affirm children’s growing sense of competency and give them practice in individual and group decision-making. It provides an opportunity to learn from each other and to appreciate the work of others, nurturing empathy, respect, and a strong sense of classroom community.

Setting up a display allows children to develop their creativity and to practice skills of measuring, cutting, using tools, and writing. Maintaining displays gives an opportunity for children to develop organizational and decision making skills. All aspects of creating and maintaining displays allow children to take responsibility for an important part of the classroom life.

Teaching Students How to Choose Work for Display

In order for children to feel comfortable choosing work for display, it’s important to teach them how to assess their work and how to make choices.

Create criteria for choosing work to display.

Begin by asking, “Why do we display work in our classroom?” Answers might include: “So we can see what each other is doing.” “So we can show work that we’re proud of.” “To learn more about a topic.” “So that we have interesting things on the walls.” The teacher might add that displays also help students reflect on their work, learn from each other’s work, and make the classroom beautiful.

Together, develop criteria for choosing work to display. These criteria might include:

• The work shows our best efforts, not just perfect work.
• The work shows growth or improvement. (This may include displaying early drafts with later drafts.)
• We feel proud of the work.
• The work is important to us.

Practice choosing work for display.

Throughout the year, give children opportunities to use different criteria for choosing work that might be displayed. For example, as they look through their portfolio of writing that they’ve done so far this year, have them choose a piece of work that shows growth, a piece that shows hard work, a piece that shows teamwork, etc.

Share work for display.

The first time students select a piece of their own work for actual display, ask them to share it with the class before putting it up. Students can point out one aspect of the piece that they would like the class to notice.

Teaching Students How to Create Effective Displays

Effective displays celebrate each piece of work and radiate with a sense of student pride. They highlight the individual pieces of work rather than the surrounding decoration. Here are some ways you can help children learn to create effective displays:

Remind children of why we display work in the classroom.

With a clear understanding of these purposes, children will be able to make clear, thoughtful decisions about what to display and how to display it.

Examine existing displays.

Take children to visit displays in the hallways and classrooms of the school. Consider also visiting “real world” displays such as those in museums, storefronts, or libraries. Invite children to examine the effectiveness of these displays.

Create a list of qualities that make a display effective.

Using information that the children have gathered from visiting various displays and the list of purposes of displays, create general guidelines for creating an effective display. For example:

• Displays should be simple.
• Displays should show what is most important in the work.
• Decorations should fit with the piece of work and show it off.
• Displays should include a label with the name of the student, the title of the work, and perhaps something about the work.
• Displays should be neat.

Post the guidelines near the art supplies used for making displays.

Make sure that children always have easy access to the tools necessary for creating displays: a variety of art and writing materials, push pins, a stapler, and a staple remover. Include a supply of index cards and writing tools for creating labels.

Teach specific techniques for framing and hanging work.

After establishing the guidelines for effective displays, students are ready to learn techniques to make displays beautiful and attention getting. For example, students can make a simple frame by placing the work on top of another piece of paper that is slightly larger and of a contrasting or complementary color. Or, for a quick and economical frame, students can draw a straight line around the outside of the piece. Once the work is framed, encourage students to consider the many possibilities for hanging the work. They may want to hang pieces at different angles, in staggered steps, or in other interesting patterns. Or they might want to display the work against a backdrop, which can draw the viewer’s eye to the piece. One kind of backdrop is made from paper or fabric of a contrasting or complementary color, cut to a different size and shape and hung at an angle behind the displayed work.

Students can use labels to enhance the display.

Labels can be used to identify the theme of a display, identify the creators of the work, or capture the viewer’s attention. In addition to simple hand printed labels, students can use computer generated labels, photographs of the work’s creator, or labels that look like comic book bubbles.

Teaching Students to be Curators of Displays

Once children have learned how to choose work for displays and to display work effectively, they may be ready to take over the management of some of the display areas. By creating the role of a “student curator,” a teacher can move the responsibility for ongoing management of the displays to the students.

The curator can be an individual, a pair of students, or even a small group of children. Curators might have the responsibility for a week, a month, or for the duration of a particular display.

Following are some possible student curator responsibilities:

Keep the area neat and beautiful.

The curator is responsible for making sure that nothing falls down, that corners are pinned flat, and that the display looks good in general.

Collect interactive work related to the display.

For example, a display might invite students to ask questions about the work displayed. Students would put their questions in an envelope in the display area, and the curator would collect the questions daily. Children might later work in small groups to discuss and answer the questions.

Oversee the creation of a display.

The curator makes sure that everyone responsible for setting up a display does her/his job. In upper grade classrooms the curator might be in charge of creating a “blueprint” for the display area based on the number of children displaying and the kinds of work to be displayed. The curator might also decide how many pieces of work an area can hold.

Decide on a theme.

The curator chooses a particular theme for a display and manages the display area. Any student may then choose to participate in the theme display.

Organize a formal opening of the display.

Once a display is complete, the curator may hold an organized sharing time. During this sharing, the children displaying work would talk about their pieces and take questions and comments. The “audience” would be invited to visit the display during the day, then talk with the displayers about their work at the end of the day. The curator structures and manages this “grand opening.”

Collaborative displays that celebrate students’ efforts and connect to the daily life of the classroom are one of the most powerful—and overlooked—tools for teaching. Working with children to build and maintain displays can generate excitement about the curriculum, increase children’s investment in learning, help children to appreciate their own work and the work of others, and foster individual and group ownership of the classroom.

Four Tips About Displays

Displays should have a meaningful connection to the curriculum. 

They should be effective tools for teaching and learning. This is particularly important as the holiday season approaches. Although there’s nothing wrong with seasonal displays, the material on display should go beyond simply marking the holiday. Instead the information should connect with, emerge from, and expand students’ knowledge about topics being studied.

Create displays that honor effort and not just perfectly mastered work. 

Displays should make every child feel valued regardless of his or her academic or artistic abilities. Whenever possible, avoid using grades, stickers, or marks on children’s work, especially work that will be displayed.

Make sure there is always one display that reflects the efforts of everyone in the class. 

These displays affirm each child’s sense of belonging and have a powerful effect on creating community. For example, many classrooms have a permanent display of students’ “hopes and dreams” for the year.

Keep displays fresh, useful, and uncluttered. 

Make sure that the children’s work is changed often enough to keep the displays relevant to the curriculum and keep them from getting “stale.” With limited space it is better to regularly rotate the children’s work than to crowd and clutter the area.

Marlynn K. Clayton is a cofounder of Center for Responsive Schools. She has helped countless teachers implement the Responsive Classroom approach by giving workshops, providing coaching, and writing books and articles.