Bright Ideas! Making the Most of Your Anchor Charts!

I'm joining LOTS of other bloggers in a BIG blog hop to share 
some bright ideas and time-saving tips you can use 
in your classroom! Here are some ideas for
making the most of your anchor charts!

Anchor charts are a wonderful tool to document 
students' thinking and learning and serve as a visual 
reference of our learning process.  They keep what we are 

currently learning accessible and enable students to 

make later connections. Anchor charts "anchor" our learning, 

bring focus to a particular strategy or standard we are working 

on and support students during independent 

practice, class discussions or whenever they just 

need a little reminder.  

Record the learning process.

Make Your Charts Interactive.

For me the most effective charts are FUN and made with my students.  

I sometimes am the 'recorder' for their ideas, questions, 

noticings, and thinking, but I also like to make our charts interactive.  

One way I do that is by making my own sticky notes with 

construction paper shapes that fit the topic or theme 

of the lesson.  My students love these 

and it's a fun way for them to add their ideas!  

I use removeable glue sticks so that pieces can be moved 

around or sorted.  This also makes your charts easy to reuse!

I also collect all sorts of Post-Its and sticky notes.
You can find seasonal ones at craft stores and in
the dollar section at Target. If you have a die cut machine
at your school those work great too!

.

Be flexible.

Let's face it. Some charts can be time consuming to create.  I don't always 

go all out.  Sometimes the need arises and you seize that 

teachable moment by grabbing the nearest piece of paper, making a chart, 

and turning it into an impromptu lesson!  

Other times I plan my charts ahead so that I can reuse them from year to year.  

Those are the ones I gussy up with color and spend more time on.  

Cut that baby up and reuse it!

I've learned to work smarter not harder when reusing my charts.  

Don't be afraid to cut them up and reuse your artwork if you decide to 

take the learning in a different direction!

Love these ideas?  Pick your favorites to PIN and share 
with your teacher friends!

For more anchor chart ideas visit my Anchor Charts board on Pinterest!
Visit the Bright Ideas board for lots of bright ideas for your classroom!

The next stop on the hop is Arlene from LMN Tree.

Hop over for some bright ideas on using poetry to engage 

your struggling readers and ESL students!

You can also search by topic using the link up below

and move along to any blog on the hop! 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up