Organize Those 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.” -Around the Kampfire 

We know how vital anchor charts are and how creative teachers are finding ways to incorporate these visuals into everyday lessons. However, what do you do with all the magnificent anchor charts you have created over the year? Surely not throw them away and start from scratch?!

There’s a great solution for anchor chart organization and storage, and it’s simpler than you may have  thought! Hangers. That’s right, hangers. There a couple different ways we think will work well to store and organize your charts, using clothes hangers: 

Plastic Hangers:

Hole punch two holes in the top of each chart, then thread metal book rings through said holes. Aquire a few (or 20) plastic hangers clothes are often hung on in stores. Ask your local retailer or consignment shop for donations! Use a label maker to label each hanger to easily find the charts you need!

Pants/Clip Hangers: 

This will work best if you laminate your charts and don’t want to add any holes, etc. Your anchor charts will not wrinkle, tear, or get lost in the mix. With clip hangers you can easily organize by subject, time of year, unit of study, etc.

Hang in any closet, or, if there are no rods in your classroom closet, add a small coat rack or garment rack to a closet or teachers lounge. Who knows, maybe other teachers would want to join and you could create an anchor chart library!

BONUS: Other ways to make anchor charts last:

• Make them interactive—reuse anchor charts from previous years or lessons and allow students to add to them (rather than acting as the “recorder”) for a hands on experience. Use post-it notes or relevant cutouts

• Don’t be afraid to cut them up and reuse! If you have a particularly great headline or artwork that you spent oh so much time on, don’t be afraid to add it to a new anchor chart for a new super chart!

How do you organize anchor charts in your classroom? We’d love to hear your input—leave a comment!

Image sources: Storing & Displaying Anchor Charts