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 lol....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 lol

Melissa

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i love www.discountschoolsupply.com, for everything, not just posters.

i have found posters in alot of places, and even dollar tree, if you have one by you. they have a great teacher section!

anytime i have ordered posters, they are either rolled in a tube, or flat in flat cardboard, so no- no creases (i'm the same way...lol)


www.carsondellosa.com
www.teacherstorehouse.com
www.orientaltrading.com

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I am with Melskids, I bought my posters at Dollar Tree and at a teachers store, didn't pay over $3/4 for any of them.

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I've also found posters at Dollar Tree and then I'll just take them and get them laminated for an extra dollar or so. I also got these great posters at discount school supply and the kids love looking at them and talking about what the kids in the picture are doing or if they are sad, happy, crying, etc.

http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/...&Brand=&Price=

and you could get these for the "baby" area...
http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/...&Brand=&Price=

I really love that both sets of posters have a great collection of kids of different races. Adds so much to the collection and great for the kids to see kids that don't all look exactly alike.

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I have found some at the dollar store last year during back to school they had some great ones I bought a bunch of extras haven't been there this year to see what they have but for the price they were good

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LAkeshore learning - their toys are expensive but the posters are like $2.80 or something...I have a lot of them from ABC, Colors, Shapes, numbers, moods etc. I love that place !!

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Lakeshore and Dollar Tree. Clear contact them to make them last forever.

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I have a huge sheet of white butcher block type paper and I had all of my kids paint their feet with different colors and walk all over the paper. Their footprints are distinct so it doesn't look like a big old painty mess. I then used clear contact paper to protect it and I have it hanging on my wall. It's beautiful! Also, I hang all of my dcks artwork because I know that if I send it home, it will just get pitched. I worked at a daycare center before opening my daycare so I know exactly what happens to all of the kids hard work!

I have gotten good posters from Hobby Lobby in the area where the framing for posters and the canvases and oil paints, etc. are. I have those laminated and hung up as well. I also have some of my daughter's art projects hanging up. She's such a great artist. I think she passed my skill by the time she was in Kindergarten! I also like to hit garage sales for posters and pictures as well. Also, never underestimate the possibilities for your ceilings to add to your daycare's coolness (although I don't suggest hanging things from the ceiling with gluedots! When it comes time to take stuff down, one of to things happens. Either the gluedot stays on the ceiling or when you remove the gluedot, you take a chunk of the ceiling with it!) 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.

I like to have a lot of variety of posters and art work on the walls. I also like to have quotes that are meaningful to me posted all over the place. It's nice to read them throughout the day. I have lots of maps of the world laminated and hung up and I have a set of cards of cool places laminated and hung up on the wall. I have the same deck of cool places cards with our flash cards and we look at them and we match them to the ones on the walls. The cards are from Target, and they were only $1 a deck. They are natural landmarks of interest and manmade landmarks of interest (think Grand Canyon, Eiffel Tower, Cristo Redentor, Taj Mahal, etc...)

I have very busy walls, but the dcks love it. My daughter hates it because it looks like a daycare (well, duh! Silly girl!). It looks like a box of crayons puked all over the upstairs, lol!

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I love the idea of the feet poster. I think kids' art is so cool around the dc room and that what I do too but don't have a ton of wall space. Do you have any pictures of your walls? I love looking at other providers' setups...always gives me great ideas.

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I will have my daughter help me with posting some pictures later on today. I know that I always love seeing how other providers have their stuff set up, too. It'd be my pleasure

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I just love the footprint poster idea, how unique!

I love Lakeshore for posters and bulletin board art. I invest in laminating them so they last longer and that way I rotate them based on theme or season or interest.

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is making a collage from items found out in nature. You just get a huge sheet of clear contact paper and have the kids find items that are outdoors. The have the kids stick the items on the contact paper and then just stick it on the wall or on the window. Its really cute, but it does have some potential for weird items being put on it. One year we had an empty cigarette package from the side of the road (my dcb5 insisted on putting it on because it was found in nature!) and it also contained on of the flags that marks gas lines (in dcb5's defense, it was already on the ground). All in all, however, a very fun project to do!

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We did a handprint painting back in the spring during our Spring - Rain, Rainbows, Umbrellas theme. I took a large piece of butcher paper and assigned each child one colour of the rainbow. I started from my youngest to my oldest and each child did enough handprints to create one line of our rainbow. I absolutely loved how it turned out and it hung on our wall for awhile. I did take it down because the sun was starting to discolour it and it's something I want to save for a long time. I get my bulletin board sets (use them on my walls around the room) and posters from teacher supply stores.

I'm going to try to attach some photos of our rainbow.

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That's a great idea. Photos came out good.

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

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

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

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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!!!

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

Thanks!

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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.

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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.

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Me too!

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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

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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!

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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.

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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

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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.

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