£150 to jazz up writing corner - what to buy?

[cymruambyth]

My head has told me that I can spend £150, possibly a little more, on my writing corner. At the moment it is very basic.
Im an NQT so please excuse my nievety.
Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved.

[clappyhands]

what age?

i would go for a white board / magnetic board as one of the things

just picked up a great one on amazon for about £30

i'm sure someone else will be along with better ideas :)

[cymruambyth]

Doh, i must be tired!
The children are aged between 6 and 8 (mixed year 2/3 class).

Thanks for the reply

[dycey]

What's a writing corner? (am primary teache but onlyseen reading ones!)

[CardyMow]

If you get whiteboards, then please get WASHABLE whiteboard markers.

[MiaWallace]

mini notepads, post it notes, blank postcards, envelopes, Christmas/birthday cards. You can make a post box for them to send their letters and cards to other members of the class (hand them out at the end of the day).

Glitter pens, gel pens, metallic pens.

[sarahfreck]

www.specialdirect.com//Product.aspx?cref=TTSPR1365522&rid=172&cid=17

These would eat into your budget rather but are great for making sure children have correct letter formation. They are fun to use too, so children would probably enjoy having them in a writing corner.

Most children love writing on whiteboards so I'd say these are a must!

[Cybbo]

£150 ! You lucky bugger

I would invest in some funky pens that flash, with feathers on the ends etc

Clipboards so they can make their writing mobile.
Examples of good writing and letter formation

But TBH I've only seen this done in FS classrooms, with writing being incorporated into role play in year 1/2

[HauntyMython]

Ooh that's exciting :) I'm not a teacher I'm just shamelessly marking place so I can find out what you buy!

How about detective/spy stuff like invisible ink pens, code books?

[HauntyMython]

Story cubes? I think they're made by Learning Resources and have different plot suggestions or something and you roll them as a dice?

[HauntyMython]

If they've done anything about history lately, what about some heiroglyph resources, or a quill pen they can dip in ink?

[Cybbo]

Yes you can get big cubes with clear pockets on each side so you can add your own pictures/words/characters

'Talking tins' (available for SEN catalogues) are good, the children can record their ideas then write them down. Good for children with EAL, or problems holding sentences before they write them down

[cymruambyth]

thanks for the ideas!
I may go for the story cubes as we are looking at narrative writing and i can see they would support what we are doing well.

I've decided whiteboards are a must and i really like the cursive handwriting idea as children in my class will be learning cursive handwriting this year!

Decisions decisions! I will update when i finally make a decision

[HauntyMython]

I liked the look of those cursive writing widgets - so pricey though! My DD's school teaches cursive from reception, although they aren't expected to master it that young of course.

Hope you get some good stuff OP - don't know if there are rules about where you source items, but I see a lot of branded new learning products on eBay and amazon, so it's worth looking around :)

[EcoLady]

These story cubes are great too -

www.amazon.co.uk/Creativity-Hub-Rorys-Story-Cubes/dp/B003NFJMBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322220844&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

www.amazon.co.uk/Creativity-Hub-Rorys-Story-Cubes/dp/B003Q9Z1U6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322220844&sr=8-2&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[PontyMython]

Wow those sets are fab, I want them even though I'm not a teacher and DD isn't old enough to write stories :o

I do like to get gifts for the school at end of year though (last year I got DD's nursery a set of puppets and they were over the moon) - maybe this sort of thing would be good for that too?

[cymruambyth]

PontyMython thats such a lovely thing to do for your DD's school.