Linky Party Word Wall

Looking at everyone's word walls gave me a chance to really look at mine. With the latest linking party I have used this technique for a while. (Our district encourages requires that our wall are shown across the alphabet. The only space I could utilize in this way was to use the space above the white board. I do know that it is visible to the kids but not accessible. I have personal word books that the children keep in their desk and we add the words to their book each week-- (those that we are focusing on).This is how my word wall looked before I took it down for testing:

You will have to use your imagination since this is the best picture I can find! I had used a large font on the computer (200) and printed the words, laminated, and hung. The blue ones are the kids' names.

I had to either cover the word wall or take it down during testing so I just chose to take it down rather than have any more clutter covering up any little letter, word, or number in the classroom. (I never remember this process when I was in elementary school.)

I decided to change it a bit. I found colored index cards at Dollar Tree and bought three packages. I took the Dolch words, no-excuse words that my first graders were responsible for and printed them--in my own handwriting. I used a separate color for letter identification and think it does make the words more visible.  

 I did try to utilize the word wall more during the last month of school. We looked for vowel sounds--long and short, etc. Next year I will take down some of those and start with a few that the kids' had in kindergarten.

How do you use your word wall?