An Anchor Chart Guest Post!

Hey folks! Today I am super lucky and crazy excited to have Tina from Crofts' Classroom guest posting for me...all about anchor charts! Check it out!

Hey everyone! This is Tina from

I am SO excited to be here at Nichole's blog today! Nichole has been around since I started my blog last summer and I just love her.

Today I am going to be sharing some of my anchor chart love with you! If you use anchor charts then you and I should be friends. If you don't use anchor charts then we can still be friends, but we need to have a serious talk :)

This past year was my first year to incorporate my beloved anchor charts. I kept seeing them all over pinterest last summer and finally started looking into what they were. What I found changed my teaching! When the school year started and I ordered my supplies I made sure to get me a huge poster paper pad and some 

Oh how I love Mr. Sketch markers! Except the black one...Blah!

As I began making anchor charts I realized how beneficial they were to ME and my students. My lessons were more focused and I reiterated what was taught again and again because I kept referring back to the anchor chart.

As colleagues noticed my anchor charts they started asking questions or my students would ask them to make an anchor chart in their room for a certain topic. Gradually anchor charts started popping up around my school and the students would come and tell me when another teacher created one. It was great!

I was so lucky last year because I had an AMAZING room with lots of wall space. (I am going to the elementary this year to teach 4th grade so I will have a different room) I was able to store my anchor charts on a bulletin board in the back of my room.

It was perfect! My students were able to refer to all the anchor charts easily and had quick access. This year I plan on doing the same thing but over my windows with the commander hooks. I highly suggest posting your anchor charts or taking pictures and putting the pic in a binder. I never had a class when a student didn't refer to one of my anchor charts.

Here are a few of my favorite anchor charts! Click any pic to take you to my blog and from there you can go to the original source if there is one. 

I love using a 25 word summary. It makes the students REALLY weed out the details. When teaching/practicing summarizing I always do an activity where we read the first paragraph of an informational text and the students write a 25 word summary. Then we read the next paragraph and they write another summary of the two paragraphs together. We keep going until the entire text is summarized using 25 words. It is so great. Here is a FREEBIE of the paper I use when practicing summarizing. 

Such a fun anchor chart! When I had extra time I would pull this chart off the board and we would play charades with verbs!

This Complete Sentences anchor chart is one that I have visible ALL YEAR! I can't count the number of times I asked students to refer to this anchor chart when they were writing. I kept it front and center on my anchor chart board.

I am constantly pinning anchor charts and would love to have you follow me on pinterest! I mainly want you to follow me so I can follow you back and see all your great ideas!

A BIG thanks to Tina for a great post! Make sure to head over and check out her blog! Have a great day!