The back to school season is like New Year’s to me. Like every January, where I try to come up with some kind of resolution for the year, September has me thinking about all the things I would like to accomplish professionally and personally in my classroom. It’s great to have at least one goal in mind to focus on and work towards. It keeps me on my toes, professionally speaking, and both myself and my students reap the rewards of my efforts.
This year, my resolution is to put more time and effort into creating ANCHOR CHARTS. I love them, my students love them, and producing anchor charts is a great way to promote cooperative learning in the classroom. I am amazed by all the anchor charts I have seen floating around the internet. I have seen pictures of some that are real works of art!
I have always been a little scared of anchor charts because I am not the world’s best artist. I am fine with drawing stick figures and little doodles but that is pretty much where my talent for drawing ends. I wondered how on earth I was going to create some Pinterest worthy anchor charts – or at the very least some that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to hang up around my classroom, but then I realized that I don’t need to draw a thing! I have a pretty healthy supply of clipart on my computer and decided to use clipart images instead. Why work harder when you can work smarter?
So far, I have made 2 anchor charts with my students. Since they already know the extent of my “on the spot” drawing skills, we made some anchor charts with just the writing on them. Then, based on what they students and I were able to create together, I went home and made some little pictograms to go with each part of our chart. The next day, we came together to review the charts and add the pictos to them.
If you asked me, they turned out pretty great!
Here is our anchor chart for our Morning Routine…
And here is our anchor chart for our Morning Hallway Routine…
These wonderful clipart images are from Educlips. She has an amazing array of images for you to use!
I love how these anchor charts turned out! Knowing that I don’t have to draw on them takes the stress out of making them and now my students have a CLEAR visual to go along with each step they need to take.
I can’t wait until we make our next one! If you have a tip for making anchor charts, please let me know by adding it to the comments!
Have a great day!
susan krevat says
I think your anchor charts looks great! Your writing is very big and neat; your clipart adds the finishing touch!
I Heart Grade 3 says
Oh thank you, Susan! I want to make sure everyone can see the steps – no matter where they sit in my class. As for the clipart, there are so many talented clipart artists out there – I don’t mind paying the small fee for their tremendous talents!