My Method for Charts

Hi Friends!  Hope your new year has started off with a bang.  I'm popping in to share a little about my charts and how I display them in my classroom.  Over the past few years I've shared my display on Instagram and often receive questions about the display.

SO, let me start by reintroducing myself for those that might be new!  I'm Cheryl Saoud.  I started Primary Graffiti as Mrs. Saoud's Blog in 2009.  I was a looping teacher from K-2 and communicated with my parents through my blog.  By 2011, I merged to Primary Graffiti.  Why Primary Graffiti? I was looping K-2, as mentioned above, and that's the primary years.  I also had my students writing blog posts at the start, and as many of you know, reading primary students' writing is like reading GRAFFITI.

So why are we here today?  I've had teachers asking about my method of hanging charts in my classroom.  Over the past four years, I've shared many posts of my classroom on Instagram.  Many times, the charts on display were in the background of the post.  Off topic from why the post was created, teachers would ask about my charts and how they were hung.  So here it is...

I display four hangers.  What I mean by hangers are the hanging system.  It's simply a laundry hanging system made by Spectrum and sold on Amazon.  I'm not here to sell you anything.  This post DOES NOT contain links that I make money from.  It's simply a system that works for me.  If you click on the word Spectrum, I have linked the product.

As you can see, I display the four main content areas in my classroom.  I have charts for language arts, math, writing and science. I create charted posters to display a summary of what we are learning.  My teacher created chart is created and hung after the lessons with my class. Behind my charted posters, I hang the class created charts on the same topic.  I do believe the kids need to be a participant in the chart creating process.  However, many of my lessons are charted over several days and several charts.  I like to come back and provide a beautiful visual that, as said above, is a summary of the weekly focus.  I clip all charts that go with the focus on the same hanger.

Example:  If we are working on addition, I have an addition charted poster with all the strategies we focused on as a summary.  Each lesson, such as communatitve property, associative property, additive, fact families, etc are all clipped to the back of my summarized charted poster.  If I need to pull a specific lesson, I unclip the lesson and move it to the front.

I find using the specific kind of hangers on the hanging system works best.  When I used cheap laundry hangers with laundry clips on them, The clips would get tangled and charts would easily fall.  This style of hanger allows for a stronger hold on the charts and are smaller given the space between each loop is close together.

Each hanger has a different domain.  I spoke of addition previously.  The hanger in front is subtraction.  I also have a hanger for number sense, measurement, etc.

So as you can see, this is my way of saving all charts for the year.  Being able to recycle them when a specific standard is being readdressed.  I can also spread out multiple charts on each clip during a specific lesson.

Example: I have many different charts that can serve a purpose when independently writing.  I want my kids to feel like all the resources are available at once. One chart is about capital letters.  Another chart is about writing topics.  In addition, I have a chart about adding dialogue.  And, don't forget the importance of displaying the chart about the writing process.  If we are in our writing workshop. I can move each of the four charts out on the language arts, math, and science hanging system to display all at once before moving them back after the lessons.

I'm aware I have a nice space that provides enough room for this display. Keep in mind, one hanging system can be powerful tool as well.  Each hanger on the system could be a different content area, just rotating the actual hanger on the system.  Be creative!

PS.  If you're looking for chart inspiration, I have a pinterest board devoted to it.  Link here.

Happy Teaching Friends!!!!