Are Anchor Charts Weighing You down?

Hello.  My name is Tammy and I'm an Anchor Chart Addict.  Reading charts, writing charts, grammar charts, math, science, social studies...  you name it...  I've got an anchor chart for it! If you are like me, by the end of the year, you're drowning in a sea of chart paper!

Before I throw out the life preserver, here are a few anchor chart tidbits I'd like to share:

I'm artistic by nature and I think making anchor charts taps into that creativity.  Not only do anchor charts brighten my classroom, but they are also meaningful teaching and reference tools for my students.

I almost always make my anchor charts with my class.  I believe that there is more buy-in and ownership for the content if students are active participants in the creation of the charts.  When we make our anchor charts, I start with the title and design a border around the edge of the paper.  I read something, somewhere, a long time ago that said when you add a border, you keep your reader's eyes focused on the information within the frame.  If you don't have a border the eye may, more easily, drift from the page and we don't want that!

Colors are also important.  I don't pre-plan a color scheme, but that might be a good idea for the future.  I usually just pick colors I like, colors that fit my classroom, or colors of markers that actually have some ink in them (I need to get some new markers!).

My favorite markers for anchor charts are the Sharpie Flip Chart Markers.  They have a bullet tip and put out a lot of pigment onto the paper.  I also like Scentos markers because they... well...  smell good and in a fourth grade classroom, that means something!

In my classroom, anchor charts that are currently in use are pretty much displayed all around the room.  My math anchor charts are on the math wall.  My science or social studies charts are in that area of the room, and my ELA charts are on my ELA wall.  Charts that we are currently working on are usually displayed on our white board at the front of the room so that we can continue to add information to them.

Once an anchor chart is completed or we have moved on to another topic, I move that anchor chart to the reference section of our classroom.  The anchor charts are stacked and stapled, one on top of each other, but still accessible for my students.  It is not unheard of for a student to go to that wall and look through the anchor charts to find some tidbit of information that they need for an assignment or project.

Here are some other brilliant display ideas from Pinterest Pinners:

Needless to say, but by the end of the year, I have a ton of anchor charts to deal with.  I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of paper.  Since I prefer to make my anchor charts with my students, I usually end up recycling all of them.  The last year or so, I've gotten a little bit smarter and started taking pictures of the ones I'd like to repeat with my class the next year.  I save these photos in a file name Anchor Charts on my school computer so that I can reference them the next year.

I've also seen a lot of great storage ideas on Pinterest.  Here are a few smart storage suggestions:




Here are a few more of my MANY anchor charts:

I hope you found some great ideas for your classroom.  Thank you for visiting!