Word Walls Teaching Resources
Are word walls a part of your strategy for boosting literacy skills in the classroom? Or maybe you're looking for word wall ideas and printables to add to your teacher toolkit?
The Teach Starter teacher team has carefully created and curated this collection of word walls for primary teachers to cover your needs — whether you're helping your kindergarten class stay on track with sight words or introducing new social studies vocabulary to your year 3 class!
New to this concept? Our expert English teachers have got you covered with a few quick tips to help you determine if a word wall is right for your classroom!
What Is a Word Wall?
A word wall is pretty much what the name implies — a classroom wall display with words in large print that can be read by students from across the room.
What goes on a word wall? Oh, the possibilities!
- Sight words
- Unit vocabulary
- Parts of speech
- Prepositions
- Content area words
- High-frequency words
- Word families
- Spelling words
- And more!
Used as an interactive tool, word walls tend to start out small and grow as you progress through a lesson or unit and students learn new sight words or vocabulary to be added to their word wall.
One idea for a word wall is to add words throughout the school year as students learn new vocabulary.
How to Make a Classroom Word Wall
If this all sounds good so far, let's talk about how to actually create a word wall. There are plenty of ideas out there, from using pictures alongside the words to printing your words on fun shapes, but here are some important tips our teacher team stands by:
- Make sure your words are printed in large text that can be easily read even by students seated across the room.
- Keep contrast in mind to ensure readability — you might want to use a dark background with lighter text.
- The organisation is key! Many word walls are set up in alphabetical order to make it easier for students to find the words they are looking for right when they need them, but you may want to organise unit vocabulary terms by how they connect to one another or group word families together.
- Choose a spot on your classroom wall that has space for additional words to be added.
- Keep your students' usage in mind when you mount words to the wall. Using sticky tack or similar mounting putty will make it easier for students to remove a word and take it back to their desks when necessary. You can also set up a word wall with wall hooks and place words on book rings (or looseleaf rings) so students can take them down to flip through!
Easy Word Wall Ideas
Looking for easy-peasy word wall ideas? Our team has got those for you, too, with word lists developed by teachers for teachers! Explore this collection of printable word walls that cover a variety of subjects and grade levels to save your precious planning time.
- Print and display the vocabulary cards that are provided.
- Use the customise option to add content words of your own.
- Use the blank cards at the end of the resource to add any specific words that your class finds during their learning experiences.
- Free Plan
Geometric Maths Terms - Word Wall
Print and use a word wall to review geometric maths terms.
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Original Inhabitants of Australia Word Wall
A vocabulary word wall to display and use in the classroom when learning about the original inhabitants of Australia.
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Cactus - Word Wall Template
A set of cactus-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Owls Pattern - Word Wall Template
A set of owls patterned vocabulary word wall cards.
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Squiggles Pattern - Word Wall Template
A set of squiggles patterned vocabulary word wall cards.
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Emoji - Word Wall Template
A set of emoji themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Superheroes - Word Wall Template
A set of superhero themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Surf's Up - Word Wall Template
A set of surfing-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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History of Flight Word Wall
A set of aviation history related vocabulary word wall cards.
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Retro - Word Wall Template
A set of retro themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Dinosaurs - Word Wall Template
A set of dinosaur themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Lush Leaves Blue - Word Wall Template
A set of lush tropical leaves themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Tablet Workstation Word Wall
A set of labels for a tablet workstation.
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Plain Teal - Word Wall Template
A set of plain teal-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Landform Word Wall Vocabulary
Show your students examples of different landforms with a set of printable Landform word and picture cards.
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Plain Red - Word Wall Template
A set of plain red-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Laptop Workstation Word Wall
A set of labels for a laptop workstation.
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Woodland Tales - Word Wall Template
A set of woodland tales themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Wetland Word Wall Vocabulary
A set of wetland related vocabulary word wall cards.
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Lush Leaves Pink - Word Wall Template
A set of lush tropical leaves themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Monster Pattern - Word Wall Template
A set of monster pattern themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Terrific Tigers - Word Wall Template
A set of terrific tiger themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Greece - Word Wall Template
A set of Greece-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Plain Blue - Word Wall Template
A set of plain blue-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Rugby Theme - Word Wall Template
A set of rugby-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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Pirate Word Wall Vocabulary - White Flag
57 pirate related vocabulary cards for a word wall.
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Pirate Word Wall Vocabulary - Black Flag
57 pirate related vocabulary cards for a word wall.
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Circus - Word Wall Template
A set of circus-themed vocabulary word wall cards.
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How Are People and Places Connected? - Geography Word Wall Vocabulary
51 people and places vocabulary word wall cards.
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What's the Story of My Place? - Geography Word Wall Vocabulary
36 What's the Story of My Place vocabulary cards.
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Lights, Camera, Action - Theatre Word Wall Vocabulary
Lights, camera, action word wall vocabulary cards to expand your students' theatre vocabulary.
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Microorganism Vocabulary Word Wall
Thirty-six microorganism vocabulary cards for a word wall.