Posters & Learning Supplies

[Former Teacher]

I love the pictures! Can I steal that idea??? That is adorable!

I want to steal it too! Only I have 1 little boy and his baby sister ::

[Janet]

That's OK!!!!

I want to steal it too! Only I have 1 little boy and his baby sister ::

Just keep painting their feet and hands all sorts of colors and put them to work, !

[momma2girls]

I just received a new catalog from Oriental trading, and it was full of teaching things, posters, calendars, etc. etc... I ordered some items- like a flip date, month and weather things for the table. I have always ordered ind. crafts, and stuff thru there. I love their stuff!!! They have really good sales on line as well!!!

[Former Teacher]

Just keep painting their feet and hands all sorts of colors and put them to work, !

You know what? DUH! Why didn't I think of that ::::::::::

Thanks!

[Lianne]

I love the pictures! Can I steal that idea??? That is adorable!

Absolutely. And, I forgot to mention that I included my own handprints (I'm red) which the kids thought was great. I didn't realize, until it was done, how much the kids liked having me included in the project.

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

I got a ton of nice learning/kids posters at the Dollar Tree...my favorite one is "Are you listening?" LOL....I was happy to find them there because I like to make my dollars stretch and they are perfect for a daycare room.

[Abigail]

I started my unlicensed daycare over a year ago with just 2 kids (the legal amount allowed without a license), got my license a few months back and now have max amount of kids. I didn't expect to move as fast, nor be full so fast so I am still building up my supplies and materials. I have NOTHING on my walls ....I am looking for some nice learning posters to hang up at least in the playroom. I have age's 9months to 8...when school starts it will 10months to 4. Suggestions of specific posters or websites? This sounds a little OCD...but for the larger posters, do they send then in a tube or fold them? The crease's would bug me

Melissa

Me too!

[Abigail]

I have shimmery ribbons arranged on my ceiling in some pretty visually pleasing ways and I also have crayola model magic sculptures hanging from the ceiling with fishing line. I paint my daycare room windows with tempora paint, too.

Do you have a picture of what your ceiling and windows look like? The daycare center I fill in at has the standard school-like ceilings where you just push up a square and tie string around the frame to hang things, but most home-based care must have the usual "popcorn" or "cottage cheese" ceiling. LOL

[Abigail]

You should ask your local child care resource and referral or even call your licensure to ask this, but here we have a rent-an-item deal where you only pay like $1 to rent items like baby gates, swings, big outdoor toys for a month at a time, etc. Other smaller items like posters and bulletin board designs are free with exchange. They're lamenated and have a small hole in the top middle so you can just hang them on a nail instead of taping and moving them around all the time or using tacks that are easy to fall out of the wall. I personally would rather just use tape on the back for more permanent items than having a bunch of nails in the wall. It is a service almost free of charge, but can't remember what they call it exactly, it's like a lending library for licensed daycares here.

If you don't have a "Dollar Tree" dollar store, see if a friend in another town lives nearby and have that person buy you things and mail them or even take pictures of the items on their phone to send to you. I do that for my sister before I go visit her. Another good item the Dollar Tree sells over by the food/dishes section is "Wall Art" They have tons of cute boy and girl and baby items like counting sheep and they are only a dollar! You can get the same quality of an item at Target for $15-$20 except Target has 100+ pieces vs. Dollar Tree has about 12-20 pieces per page, but still a good deal! I have a quote on my livingroom wall. I should attempt a picture and post it.

Yay, my picture worked! I learned the hard way though when putting up actual words you can keep them straight just like they are on the page if you do this: Cut each WORD apart BEFORE peeling them. PEEL off the BOTTOM half of each word as they all line up easily. Press the bottom halves onto the wall when they're straight. (I worked alone, so I just eyed it, but didn't figure out the easy way until my last word if you look closely!) When the bottom half of the word is on the wall, peel off the backing from the top half of the word and press that firmly onto the wall. This way all your letters will be spaced evenly and it will look like a professional did it!

[QualiTcare]

You should ask your local child care resource and referral or even call your licensure to ask this, but here we have a rent-an-item deal where you only pay like $1 to rent items like baby gates, swings, big outdoor toys for a month at a time, etc. Other smaller items like posters and bulletin board designs are free with exchange. They're lamenated and have a small hole in the top middle so you can just hang them on a nail instead of taping and moving them around all the time or using tacks that are easy to fall out of the wall. I personally would rather just use tape on the back for more permanent items than having a bunch of nails in the wall. It is a service almost free of charge, but can't remember what they call it exactly, it's like a lending library for licensed daycares here.

If you don't have a "Dollar Tree" dollar store, see if a friend in another town lives nearby and have that person buy you things and mail them or even take pictures of the items on their phone to send to you. I do that for my sister before I go visit her. Another good item the Dollar Tree sells over by the food/dishes section is "Wall Art" They have tons of cute boy and girl and baby items like counting sheep and they are only a dollar! You can get the same quality of an item at Target for $15-$20 except Target has 100+ pieces vs. Dollar Tree has about 12-20 pieces per page, but still a good deal! I have a quote on my livingroom wall. I should attempt a picture and post it.

Yay, my picture worked! I learned the hard way though when putting up actual words you can keep them straight just like they are on the page if you do this: Cut each WORD apart BEFORE peeling them. PEEL off the BOTTOM half of each word as they all line up easily. Press the bottom halves onto the wall when they're straight. (I worked alone, so I just eyed it, but didn't figure out the easy way until my last word if you look closely!) When the bottom half of the word is on the wall, peel off the backing from the top half of the word and press that firmly onto the wall. This way all your letters will be spaced evenly and it will look like a professional did it!

your post just reminded me of something - u were talking about renting items.

the head start in my area has tote bins full of toys, puppets, etc - different themes. they are REALLY NICE items and they have a ton of them. anyone can "check them out" kinda like at the library. i learned this when i was in school and doing my field experience. nobody took advantage of it because nobody knew about it.

i'd reccomend to everyone to call the head start in your area and see if they do this. it's a good way to keep the centers new and interesting without spending a dime.

[kidkair]

I make my own posters with posterboard. I use clear packing tape to 'laminate' them. On the back I put velcro on so that I can just pull it off the wall and hang a new one without using tape. My walls don't take to nails very well and the velcro adds stability to the whole poster. I used velcro for my curriculum boards as well so that I can laminate our learning tools and the kids can easily take them down to look at and yet put them back up easily too. I get a kick out of it when one will take down all our learning material and 'teach' another kid the way I do every morning

[tomato]

First, I would like to congratulate you on your center's rapid growth. I have seen day care directors who weren't so lucky. (Or maybe it's not luck, but rather that you earned a good reputation?)

I say forget about commercially available posters and cover the wall space with children's artwork.
That will show how much you value the children.

Here is a post which I just wrote on another thread:

Are wall posters really that important?
I haven't read anything by this writer, but I understand that there is a writer named Sullivan who posted a picture of a snowman with its nose missing, just to see if the children would notice.
If any of the children noticed, they didn't comment.