30 Interactive Word Wall Ideas for the Classroom

At my elementary school, our word walls have to meet very specific requirements because we follow a dual-language program called Gomez and Gomez. But guess what? These word wall ideas for the classroom will support any kid – not just English language learners.

The main thing is that a word wall should not be treated like wallpaper. Instead, they should be powerful tools that support language development throughout the year. Teachers should find an organizational system at the beginning of the year that works for their students to build a literacy-rich environment that supports learning. 

The word wall ideas presented below that come from my school will usually meet the following requirements: 

1. Interactive and Portable Word Walls – meaning that kids can easily access them and remove them from the wall. Therefore, they also need to be visible to the entire class. 

2. Age-Appropriate – the words chosen are intended for kids to actually use them in their writing. Therefore, we don’t use wall space on words that are far too difficult for the majority of the class or far too easy. You want them to be beneficial student vocabulary words at their current grade level.

3. Bankable – When kids master a word and space is needed, we have a place to store the old collections of words so that kids can still find them. 

4. In Context – The words are not randomly chosen, but rather requested by students during the writing process or added after new vocabulary is taught within the content areas.

5. Evolving – Our word walls are not intended to be static. Instead, we add 5 new words daily as students encounter words in context.

These word wall examples are a great way to build your students’ content knowledge, assist them in their writing, and help them master sight words. There are many different types of word walls, but most of ours fit a pretty similar framework as there are strict requirements for our classroom environment here. 

Also, our school building was built in the 1940s, and while the faces here are beautiful, the building is just NOT. I hope you can appreciate the effort that has gone into our spaces. We are working with what we’ve got!

1. Word Wall Ideas for the Classroom with Small Spaces

If you’re limited in the wall space you have available, here’s a different type of visual display that is portable and tidy. While writing, students simply come get the key ring they need to support their spelling. On each ring, there are high frequency words, tricky words, and content area words that students may need to include in their writing.

One downside to this type of word wall is that students HAVE to bring the rings back to their table to benefit from it. 

2. Math Word Wall

This class word wall is the type you can set up and then basically forget about it, or reference it during writing times. The purpose of the mathematics word wall is to support the development of kids’ mathematical vocabulary and give them tools for writing. We require writing during the last 15 minutes of the math block (in lieu of exit tickets) three times a week.

3. Pockets for Bankable Words

This teacher uses pockets to bank old words that students no longer need to see every day. This is a great solution for when you begin to run out of space. 

4. Kindergarten Word Wall with Picture Supports

This kindergarten word wall uses pictures to help support the development of letter sounds, and then she displays only high frequency words and tricky words from our curriculum on this particular wall. 

5. Easy Magnetic Word Wall Idea

These word wall cards are actually magnetic, dry-erase labels! I absolutely love this solution because our lockers are a surface that kids can easily reach. During writing time, students remove these and bring them back to their desks, and then return them when finished writing. 

Above is the banking system for the magnetic word wall. When the designated space for words on the wall begins to overfill, there’s a bank where students can access previously mastered words. 

6. Sound Wall

This kindergarten sound wall includes words that students need for writing. As students ask for help spelling words, the teacher posts them to the board. 

What makes this wall special is that it’s organized by sounds rather than letters. You can see images of mouths making the necessary shapes to produce the sounds. Notice that the /ch/ sound includes the word “lunch” even though the /ch/ is at the end of the word. 

7. Pocket Chart Word Wall Idea

This teacher has both an English and Spanish word wall, since we are a dual language campus. This pocket chart system is working so well for her. She cut pocket charts in half to put one on each locker, and the index cards have stayed put quite well. 

8. Tricky Word Wall

This teacher uses a tricky word wall to help students master words that don’t follow decodable patterns. Those words are in yellow. She has a template with every tricky word the students will encounter throughout the year, which she prints once, laminates, and cuts. This makes it easy to add tricky words throughout the year.

The green ones are decodable and high frequency words.

9. Decodable Patterns Wall for Kindergarten

This teacher is working on CVC, VC, CCVC, and CVCC words with her kindergarteners. When they finish a task early, they “read the room” by visiting the word wall. These words are exclusively decodable and can be used in their writing quite easily.

In the upper right hand corner, you can see her ziploc bag full of banked words. These will ultimately get filed into folders that students can access for extra practice.

10. Heart Words for Transition Times

This teacher has strategically placed her “heart words” on the door so that students can practice each time they line up at the door. These words are tricky words for kindergarteners, so she has placed a heart over the part they “have to learn by heart.” 

11. Below the Board Word Wall

For those of us who have limited wall space, a word wall situated beneath your white board can be perfect. It’s super accessible to kids and makes good use of an awkward amount of space that might otherwise be ignored. 

In case it’s hard to see, this dual language teacher has a word wall in both languages under her board.

12. Ribbon and Paper Clip Word Wall

I love the size and functionality of this word wall. As students use words in their writing, their teacher writes the word on index cards when they’re not sure how to spell them. 

She keeps her word cards, Sharpie, and paperclips right by the word wall so she can quickly add word wall words. 

Later, students can pull the words from the wall to help them spell as they continue using them throughout the year in their journal writing. These 2nd graders have learned over time how to use paper clips so they don’t make messes. 

See above for an an up-close image of the banking system she uses. Directly above each letter, she has a thumbtack and word ring. When she runs out of space on the ribbon, she puts mastered words on rings so that students can use those, too, throughout the rest of the school year.

13. Academic Vocabulary Word Wall

This science and social studies 4th grade teacher has a great system for improving her vocabulary instruction and giving kids opportunities to add words to the word wall on a regular basis.

Because students are in charge of this word wall, you’ll notice occasional mistakes and spelling errors that should be corrected, but I absolutely love the student ownership of learning on this wall. You can tell that kids actually use it. 

14. Color-Coded Word Wall

This SLAR (Spanish Language Arts and Reading) word wall is color coded to help students locate words quickly. The colors of the words are dependent on which 9 weeks the students first encountered the word. You can probably guess which words were added first based on the complexity and frequency of the words!

15. Oversized Word Wall

This dual language teacher needed something bigger than what would fit on a bulletin board, so she simply stuck butcher paper over a large surface of her wall and added some fun trim, and used hot glue to adhere the top of a ribbon and letter headers. 

She is easily attaching words to her wall with index cards and paper clips. The words have been cut in half horizontally to fit more into the space.

16. Spray Adhesive Interactive Word Walls

There are two things I love about this word wall. 

First, these are pretty impressive words for 3rd graders. A word wall should be organically generated by student request and used daily during writing practice. 

Second, this teacher reports that she sprayed her high-quality butcher paper with Gorilla adhesive spray at the start of the year. Believe it or not, these cards still stick in January, even though they’ve been removed and replaced multiple times by students. 

17. Laminated Cardstock Word Wall

This is such a smart idea from @MsKohlsKids because you could customize the size of it quite easily, remove and add new words with ease, and keep things quite tidy in appearance. It’s not interactive, so it doesn’t meet our campus requirements, but for many primary teachers, this could be helpful!

18. Whiteboard and Washi Tape Word Wall

I love Mrs. Pauley’s whiteboard word wall that she set up at the start of the year. It’s so smart to use your extra whiteboard space and tidy Washi tape lines to give clearly defined spaces for everything. It’s also quite customizable, because you could easily write with an Expo marker to keep things easy. However, if you wanted it to be interactive, simply make use of magnets on the back of each card. 

19. Student-Led Word Wall Routines

What I love about Traci Claussen’s interactive word wall isn’t so much how it looks (although it’s lovely), but the many different ways she uses it. If you’re feeling like your word wall is basically wallpaper that isn’t benefiting students, click over to her post and learn some practical tips. 

20. McDonald’s Inspired Interactive Word Wall

I found this Word Wall at SupplyMe. It’s not just CUTE, it’s also a really well-designed interactive tool. Students can find overused adjectives in their own writing, and then pull a more sophisticated french fry from the recycled containers on the wall.

Students can quickly locate their overused words even from a distance during the editing process and improve their word choice easily.

21. Clothespin Word Walls

What a fabulous idea from Totally Terrific in Texas! She uses clothespins to attach her words to the ribbon, with descriptive headers at the top of each one. This allows students to easily remove the words from the ribbon during the editing process. 

22. Phonics Family Word Walls

This type of word wall works great at the kindergarten and 1st grade level when kids are still learning decoding patterns. While students won’t be able to bring the words to their tables, they can still practice the words in each word family as they line up to leave the room, or chant them as an early finisher activity. This idea comes from The Classroom Creative.

23. Popcorn Word Wall

Do the same words keep “popping up” in your kids writing? Are they spelled correctly? I love this editable popcorn word wall from the Teacher Wife if you’re looking for something cutesy. Of course, this one is not interactive, but you can still get a lot out of it if you incorporate it into your daily routines. 

24. Writing Reference Poster Word Wall

I loved reading Kristin’s post over at Teeny Tiny Teacher because she details how she transitioned from a traditional word wall to these reference posters in her classroom.

She says, “It’s not a word wall, but it IS a WALL OF WORDS.” And she says her kids use it daily, which is what we want. The best part is that she has these reference posters for sale, and she leaves them up all year. 

25. Personalized Word Wall Folders

The word wall folders by Chalkboard Chatterbox are very helpful if you’re wanting kids to remain in their seats while writing. You can personalize this writing folder by adding in student names, important locations around your community, and your sight words or high-frequency words. 

26. Parts of Speech Word Wall

Have you ever noticed how INCREDIBLY difficult parts of speech are for kids to learn? Why? I can’t figure out what makes it so tricky for them! This parts of speech word wall from Tiny Teaching Shack really supports their deep understanding of how the different parts of speech fit together to form sentences. I love this idea. 

27. Sound Wall

Many kindergarten and first grade classes are doing away with a word wall (if their district allows it), and replacing it with a Sound Wall, which is based on the science of reading. Read more about how it works here! 

28. Interactive Phonics Word Wall

I absolutely adore the way this The K Files uses post-it notes and phonics “houses” to help students master common spelling patterns. Her students add the words and then refer to them in writing daily.

29. Fly Swatter Word Wall

Get two fly swatters from the Dollar Tree and make a game out of swatting sight words on your word wall. If you want to be extra cute about it, purchase fly words from The Barefoot Teacher on TPT! 

30. Digital Word Walls

The Techie Teacher has a great post about building a digital word wall that can complement your physical word wall. It’s a pretty elaborate resource and might be really wonderful for grades 2-5!