Wonder Walls
Fancy some eye-catching displays for your school? Look no further!
A couple of years ago I was told that I could send my displays to a printing firm and get them blown up into mammoth bits of plastic. So began three weeks of frenetic design, creating displays such as the one below, created with free flashcards from various websites such as ISL Collective and MES English.
For the display below, I took some of MES English's 'School Items' flashcards and inserted them into two horizontal sheets of A4 (the join is where the pencil border breaks).
You can get local printers to print off huge versions of these products on a waterproof plastic material. Each cost between HKD500-HKD1,300 to produce, depending on size, and took approximately a month to deliver. You may need to ask someone at school or ask around for contacts though. In my case, my colleague arranged it all after I supplied the images and measurements needed. The printers wanted everything in millimetres rather than centimetres or metres.
To save your brain, here are some calculated dimensions that will fit nicely on a school wall:
1. One horizontal or vertical A4 image - multiply by 5.5 to get 1630mm x 1155mm
2., Two horizontal or vertical A4 images - multiply by 5.5 to get 3260mm x 1155mm (like the one in the image above is based on two A4 sheets)
And so on. Whatever size your work is on a sheet of A4, always multiply by 5.5 to get your dimensions. For instance, 'My Body' in the photo above didn't fill a full A4 page, but I still multiplied it by 5.5.
We got these posters two years ago and they still look in great condition. Our school uses some kind of super-velcro and double-sided sticky tape to stick them to the walls and even typhoons haven't blown them away!
Another free resource mentioned earlier is ISL Collective. I don't know what I would do without them to be frank - they've saved my bacon many a time with fabulous game PowerPoints and flashcards that can be turned into impressive posters like this similes one. My go-to teacher creative on ISL Collective is Herber - the guy is a machine and creates tons of fantastic PowerPoints.
I've uploaded quite a few resources from ISL Collective into the File Share section of this website as well as displays I've created myself. Here's one of my best creations - Star Wars fans seem to like it!
If you're engineering-minded, you can attach wheels to the Millennium Falcons so students can turn them and make new words using 'Magic E'. Download the design from here.
Happy designing!