Anchor Charts and How I Use Them
I think anchor charts are one of the most efficient ways to teach a skill. If they are colorful, meaningful and easy to read, the students will always refer back to them if needed. Usually anchor charts are displayed in the classroom somewhere after the skill is taught to reinforce it. I've also seen anchor charts as a literacy center, where the bulletin board is the anchor chart and the students are interacting with it using post-it notes, or a graphic organizer of some kind. The anchor chart gets switched out with every new skill. This is something I want to add to my classroom for next year!
When teaching with anchor charts I've used them in several ways:
To Introduce A Skill
Interact With The Students
Review a Skill Already Taught
Extension of a Skill Through Students' Own Work
I have anchor charts for EVERY subject: Reading, Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies.
I bought colored chart paper tablets from Lakeshore last summer and spent the whole summer writing out my anchor charts for each skill that I teach in every subject... it took a LONG time, but it was well worth it. My anchor charts are reusable, meaning that the students use post-it notes to interact with them so I can use them again next year.... this saves me a lot of time!
At the beginning of the chart tablet, I made a table of contents so if I want an anchor chart about teaching Layers of Soil, I can look at my table of contents and flip to the page immediately!
This helps so much, especially if I'm in the middle of a lesson and there's a teachable moment. I can flip to a certain anchor chart in lickety-split! I have a chart tablet for each subject.
If you notice, at the top left hand corner, I write the mentor text that I use to read that goes with this anchor chart... this is so helpful for me when writing my lesson plans! On the right hand side of the chart, I have the page number.
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Synonym Anchor Chart for Reading
After learning a skill on the anchor chart, I extend it with a graphic organizer, game, craftivity or interactive notebook activity. When doing these activities, I keep the anchor chart displayed in the classroom so the students can refer back to them.
This is an example anchor chart I use for social studies:
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Landforms
After learning about landforms, my students made a craftivity using glitter, construction paper and labels.
Craftivity: Living on Landforms
If you're interested in checking out my anchor charts for social studies, click here:
1492: Maps and Columbus Thematic Unit Grades 1-3 |
Example Anchor Charts for Science:
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Weather Tools Anchor Chart
As an extension activity, my students colored this graphic organizer and glued into their science notebook.
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Weather Tools Graphic Organizer
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Layers of Soil Anchor Chart for Science
As an extension activity, my students made a craftivity about what's in the soil using different colored construction paper and then made a list of things in the soil. |
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Craftivity: What's In Soil?
If you're interested in checking out my anchor charts for science, click here:
Rockin' Inside the Earth: Rocks and Soil Thematic Unit Grades 1-3
It's Raining Cats and Dogs! A Weather Thematic Unit Grades 1-3
Anchor Charts for Math:
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Mathematician Anchor Chart
As an extension activity, my student learned how to play the game BUMP using dice and this game template. I laminated it so we can reuse it every year. I have all of these templates for every month!
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BUMP Math Game for October
Click on this link if you want to see more of my BUMP games:
BUMP Games for Every Month and Season
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Graphing Anchor Chart for Math
As an extension activity, we graphed our transportation:
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Transportation Graph
If you're interested in checking out more anchor charts and graphing for math, click here:
All About Me: A Back to School Thematic Unit Grades 1-3
Example Anchor Charts for Writing:
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Write From the Heart Anchor Chart for Writing
As an extension activity, my students made a heart puzzle of different topics they can write about in their schema notebook:
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Write From Your Heart Graphic Organizer
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Anchor Chart for Labeling in Writing
As an extension activity, my students practiced labeling different parts of animals: |
Example Anchor Charts for Reading:
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Antonym Anchor Chart for Reading
As an extension activity, my students wrote antonyms inside their cupcakes and cut it out for their schema notebook:
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Appetizing Antonyms Graphic Organizer
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Cause and Effect Anchor Chart for Reading
As an extension activity, we read the Rainbow Fish and my students completed a graphic organizer for their schema notebook.
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Rainbow Fish Cause and Effect
If you're interested in checking out my anchor charts for Reading, click here:
Are You a Bookworm? Reader's Workshop Mini-lessons Grades 1-3
Sometimes, I use anchor charts to link literature together, this includes an interactive anchor chart the the students can use post-it notes to interact with. Here's an example:
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Rosie's Walk Interactive Anchor Chart
While the students are sitting on the carpet and watching someone come up to the anchor chart to complete the sentence, they are writing their prepositions on their template:
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Rosie's Walk Around the Farm
If you're interested in checking out my Rosie's Walk Linking Literature click here:
Linking Literature with Rosie's Walk
I hope you got some great examples of how to use anchor charts in your classroom! If you haven't used them yet... your students will LOVE them!
Love, Kara
Graphics Courtesy of:
www.theclipartstand.com
Glitter Meets Glue Designs |
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