Ideas for Your Classroom Reading Corner Display

Reading CornersAndrew Hall
Ideas for Your Classroom Reading Corner Display
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In the days of Netflix, Xbox, and social media, children of all ages are bombarded with technology to keep them entertained. Getting kids to open a book isn’t always easy. But reading is one of the most valuable skills you can give a child. As teachers, we know there are myriad reasons to encourage children to spend more time reading, including the following to name a few.

  • Improved ability to conduct research and investigate independently.
  • A better understanding of the world around them and the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of others. 
  • Skills in patience, perseverance, and focus.
  • A better grasp of literary devices, language skills, vocabulary, phonics, and creative writing.
  • Preparation for later academic success.

Your classroom reading corner can be a source of inspiration, curiosity, learning, and development for your students. But it’s up to teachers to make this space as enticing as possible. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the cover certainly helps, so here’s how to put together a stellar reading corner display to get students excited at first sight. 

Books

One of the best ways to create a reading corner display is with the very books you want your students to pick up and read. Children’s book cover art can be a fantastic way to get kids’ imaginations flowing and show them what to expect in the story. 

Incorporating special front-facing book storage means you can also neatly tidy away books at the same time as showing off their covers. Two-in-one decor and storage for your reading corner! Here are some book racks that help you display book covers and keep your reading corner tidy.


This Horizontal Wall-Mounted Book Rack can be installed on a wall meaning there’s no risk of the unit tipping over if someone accidentally pulls it or knocks it. Keeping your book rack attached to the wall ensures your books are stored away, saving space with six shelves. 


A Face-on Display Shelf like this is a good addition to a smaller reading corner or one for younger children. The bars make it easy to show off book covers, but keep the books safe from falling off if they are knocked.


A Desktop Book Rack can be used to fill up small spaces on tables and other units,  incorporating a small book display into a reading corner. 


Use a Big Book Rack to display a book’s inside pages. You could use the rack to show the pages of a book being read by the whole class, or choose a book with a topic related to something the students are learning in other subjects. 

Selecting the right books for your book display is important so you’ll need to consider what you want to place at the front and how books should be grouped. Here are some ideas:

  1. Pick one theme and display books that are relevant to your theme. Have the children guess what the theme is by looking at the covers. Change the theme regularly (you could change it every term) and try to incorporate topics the children are learning, either in English, or other subjects like History or Geography. Examples of themes could be ‘jungles’, ‘electricity’, or ‘discoveries’.
  2. Ask the children to help you create a book display as a team. Have each child pick their favourite book and add it to the book rack. You could also ask the children to work together to select and add books in a certain order such as each title starting with the next letter of the alphabet if they are young. For older children, you could lead an activity where the book rack must tell a story, and each child must say a new line of the story using the book they choose to add as inspiration. 
  3. Organise a book reading challenge using your book rack. Arrange books on the different shelves of your book rack and challenge the students to reach the top shelf of the book rack. They can only choose a book on the next shelf up when they have completed a book from the shelf below. Be sure to help students of all reading speeds to feel included. There is no winner who reaches the top first, rather each child must complete the challenge individually.  

Go further than just your book display. Furnish your reading corner like a pro with our tips, ideas, and guides.

Decorations

The sky is the limit when it comes to decorating your reading corner and you can draw inspiration from anything you think will make your students want to spend time there getting into a good book. 

We think the most important aspects of reading corner decoration should incorporate comfort, privacy, and imagination. 

  1. Comfort: soft reading corner furniture and comfy spaces are important. After all, no one wants to stick around in an uncomfortable reading corner. Make sure the space offers chairs, cushions, and blankets that can make it a good place to stay for a reading session. 
  2. Privacy: okay, it’s important to be able to keep an eye on your students, but giving them a sense of privacy in the reading corner can really help children to feel like this is their own time. It also helps give them a sense of autonomy over the reading corner and promotes the responsibility to keep it in good condition. Finally, an element of privacy can help to maintain a calm atmosphere, conducive to reading or quiet time. 
  3. Imagination: decorating the reading corner in a way that lets kids’ imaginations run wild is the secret to making reading a magical experience. Try to create a reading corner that helps kids feel as though they’ve been transported to a whole new place.

Using different kinds of fabric is a super easy, quick, and cost-effective way to create a base for your reading corner display. Fabrics can be hung from the ceiling, used to create walls, canopies, and partitions, stapled to the walls, draped over tables, used to make dens and tents, and so much more. 

Stapling or pinning up a fabric sheet means it stays intact until you take it down, and can be recycled for craft projects afterwards. Take a look at our den-making fabric packs. Each pack comes with four or five contrasting fabrics in a theme. Choose from Autumn, Spring-Summer, Fantasy, and Rainbow. 









 

Incorporating themed decor into your reading corner also helps you and your students celebrate different annual and cultural holidays. Consider blanketing the reading corner in Fluffy Snow for Christmas, or have each student decorate their own Halloween Pumpkin for Halloween. 

Banners, Posters, and Wall Art

Wall space around your reading corner can be put to good use. Here are some ideas for what to do with wall space around your class reading corner. 

  1. Signposts

Consider putting up a banner or sign to designate that part of the classroom as the reading corner. You could even give the class a bit of ownership by titling it ‘Class 2B’s Reading Corner’ for example. 

Create a reading corner banner of your own with basic craft supplies. Paint or draw your reading corner’s name directly onto poster paper on the wall or use pre-cut letters to make life a bit easier. We also love the idea of using these letters to spell out a special reading corner quote. 



 

Including a signpost in your reading corner is a fun way to direct children to different areas of the space or the classroom as a whole. A signpost like the North Pole Classroom Sign that we stock can be customised and decorated any what you want. Consider adding destinations like ‘Stationery Cupboard’ and ‘Mrs __’s Desk’, or you could choose some funny signs to add like ‘Comfiest Seat’.



 

  1. Create a Reading Corner Tree

It’s incredibly easy to create a tree in your reading corner that will transform the space into a natural, forest wonderland. Use brown paper to create the knobbly trunk and branches of the tree by sticking sheets to the wall. Create 3D puffs of leaves using scrunched up green tissue paper. 

Positioning your tree trunk in the corner of the room with the branches spreading out onto each wall will enhance the 3D effect of your tree. Students will love to come and sit under the bows of the tree to read a book. 

Pair your reading corner tree with some themed seating like our Tree Stump Stools. 



 

  1. Create a Question Posing Poster

Help to get your student’s critical thinking on a roll with a reading corner display of questions. Having these questions in front of them will help children to process what they are reading and think more deeply about it. 

Consider covering one portion of the wall in the reading corner with poster paper and filling it with mental prompts. Just having these in your student's lines of sight will help them to subconsciously think about what they read in other ways. 

Consider including questions like:

  • Which characters would you like to meet in real life?
  • Would this book make a good film?
  • What would you have done differently?
  • Why did you choose this book?
  • Who would you recommend this book to?
  • How do you think it will end?

If you’re looking for further ideas and inspiration for decorating your reading corner, take a look at our other articles and guides.

Interactive Displays

Getting children involved is a fantastic way to keep them engaged with the reading corner so finding ways to offer interactive tasks is always a plus. Consider how children might want to be involved in their reading corner and what they find important about it. Here are some ideas you could try out:

  • Voting box: install a voting box in the reading corner for students to give their opinions on certain things. You might hold a regular vote for which book is the least favourite and needs to be replaced or which book should be read out during storytime. A voting box gives students a beneficial sense of ownership over what happens in their reading corner. 
  • Reading chart poster and reports: create a poster to record everyone’s reading progress and their input on the different books available in the reading corner. The children could fill in boxes when they finish certain books. Print out a basic book report template that can be filled in when they finish a book covering what they liked the most and what they would change. The book reports can be put up on the wall for everyone else to see and take recommendations from. 

Use a basic chart like our A3 Classroom Chart to track the students’ progress, or alternatively, use the tracker to see which books have been read how many times rather than keeping track of the number of books read by each student.



Tags: Reading corners

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