How To Create a Space-saving Sound Wall When You Are Short On Space

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You've read about sound walls and you're ready to get started but where will you find the space?  Using a sound wall instead of a word wall can take up almost double the space of a traditional word wall. 

Most teachers are already short on wall space or maybe you're a resource teacher with a very small classroom.  Wrapping your head around how to find the space to incorporate a sound wall can be tricky.  The best solution I've come up with is creating a portable sound wall.

How to create a space-saving sound wall for your classroom.  Make the shift from word wall to sound wall and help students to become better writers with a sound wall in their writing folders.
 

Before I get too far about creating a portable sound wall, if you want to learn more about making the switch from a traditional word wall to sound wall, you can read about implementing sound walls here. 

 

Why do I need a portable sound wall?

Creating a portable (or personal) sound wall is great for a few reasons.  If you teach different levels of students, creating small, portable sound walls are a great option for differentiation.  For example, a learning support teacher might teach students in each grade K-3, but those sound walls may look very different.  You can create smaller, portable sound walls for each grade level to make it a more viable tool for students to use.

How to create a space-saving sound wall for your classroom.  Make the shift from word wall to sound wall and help students to become better writers with a sound wall in their writing folders.

How can I make a portable sound wall?

To create a portable sound wall, you can create a writing folder.  You can do this with file folders.  You can use half the folder for consonants and half for vowels.  This way you keep some organization.  The file folder can be easily stored in a desk or somewhere out of the way in a classroom.  The best part of using a file folder as a sound wall is that it can double as a privacy shield for writing assignments.

How to create a space-saving sound wall for your classroom.  Make the shift from word wall to sound wall and help students to become better writers with a sound wall in their writing folders.

 

Other Space-saving Options

You could opt to add sound wall pages to your writing journal in a binder using page protectors.  Or however you make your traditional word wall portable, you could recreate using phonemes instead of bringing letters.  You could also print out poster size sound walls instead of using entire walls in your classroom.  There are lots of possibilities!

 

 

How to create a space-saving sound wall for your classroom.  Make the shift from word wall to sound wall and help students to become better writers with a sound wall in their writing folders.

If you need some templates, I've got you covered!  This portable sound wall pack has pages that allow you to add your own words.  If you want to fit more than one slide per page, just print at a smaller percentage (I did 60% and got 2 pages to fit on one side of a file folder).  There are printing directions included in the resource.  You can also enlarge it to be a poster size if your classroom is better suited for that!  If you want the complete sound wall bundle, you'll find it here! 

Need more information about implementing sound walls in kindergarten?  Check out the Successful Sound Walls Mini Course to learn more and get all the printables you need to get started.

create a space-saving sound wall for your student's writing folders

Amy

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