Looking for an interactive display that’s simple, quick and easy to prepare, encourages patron engagement and can be carried on for over two years?
Welcome to Word Wonders!
I feel a bit silly devoting an entire post to this display, since it’s ridiculously simple, but I’ve been amazed by how effective it’s been.
Each month I use Canva to create a poster (I print mine on 11×17 paper, but obviously you can change things up depending on your space) asking patrons to come up with as many words as they can starting with a certain letter. Then I put out sticky notes and pencils and let the words fly!
I tape mine up at the end of a free-standing shelving unit, and made a little pencil holder by sticking magnetic tape to the back of a pencil holder. It’s not the most elegant solution, but it works! If you have colorful sticky notes, it’s even more fun, as it creates an eye-catching, colorful display.
I do recommend taking a look through the sticky notes now and then, in case you have any jokesters who think it’s funny to write naughty or unpleasant words and stick them on the wall. To the credit of my patrons I actually haven’t found any yet (yes, one kid wrote “butt”, but it is a word starting with the letter B, so I’ll let that one go, ha ha).
If you change up the letter once a month, you can keep this display going for over two years, which is pretty cool! I’m pretty curious to see what folks come up with when we get towards the end of the alphabet!
If you ever try this out in your space, I’d love to hear about it! I’m always excited to share tips and ideas with fellow library staff and educators, we’re all in this wild world together.