What am I supposed to do with all of these anchor charts?
At my first school, I had the quintessential teacher closet. (The one that throws up school supplies every time you try to open the door.) So, with a system in place to limit the number of anchor charts I actively displayed in my room, I needed a place to store the charts I wasn’t using.
Being the superbly-organized soul that I was, when I would get done with an anchor chart, I would roll it into a Declaration-of-Independence-in-the-National-Treasure-movie-style scroll and shove it into said coat closet, never to be seen again.
As you can imagine, there were some issues with this strategy:
I had to unroll each chart to see what it said, usually taking a minimum of 5-10 tries before finding the right one.
The anchor charts was an unusable curled mess when I did find the right one.
This led me to the question,
What am I supposed to do with all of these anchor charts?
Answer: In the last couple of blogs we have talked about how to make anchor charts you actually want to look at, where to hang your anchor charts so they don’t become wallpaper, so now we need to decide how you want to display and organize the charts (and what to do with the charts that aren’t displayed).
Options for Displaying Anchor Charts In Use
Let’s start with how you will display the charts you are currently using. You could just have one up at a time or you could keep a whole unit’s worth on a ring or clip. Here are some options for how to hang them:
Easiest: staples and magnets
My favorite staple remover perfect for bulletin boards and avoiding staples eating your anchor charts.
Pant hangers and hooks or stand to hold them
Magnetic towel rods and binder rings
Clothespins glued to push pins
Options for Organizing and Storing Anchor Charts Not in Use
What about organizing and storing the charts you aren’t actively using? Here are some ideas, whether you want to physically keep them or not:
Use hooks to store them
Use a storage bag
Take a picture of each chart and add it to Google Folder so students can also access the anchor chart digitally
Have students recreate anchor charts in a notebook alongside you
Toss them and just re-draw the anchor charts if you need them again
Takeaway:
Just like everything else in your classroom, you have to find what fits YOUR personality and needs as well as your students’. You can decide to hold onto every chart you’ve ever drawn or recycle to your heart’s content. Either way, just know you are free to choose.
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Looking for more Anchor Charts tips? Check out these posts!
