Anchor Chart Walks

     Every other Friday, I like to take a walk around my building and snap pictures of all the new anchor charts up in the classrooms.  I start in kindergarten, and make my way to 5th grade.  I take pictures of reading and writing charts, as well as math charts.  I then upload them all to Google and put them in a gallery that I share with my staff.  I have 2 goals in doing this every other week.

1.  The teachers in my building get to show off their charts, and give ideas to us all.  It is like going to Pinterest, but all the charts are Hiawatha's own.

2.  My primary reason is to give the classroom teachers a glimpse into the instruction of the other classrooms in our building.  It takes a village to educate a child, but we don't often get to see what everyone else is working on.  This gives them a glimpse into the learning going on down the hall.

This week, I wanted to give some shout outs to some things I was extremely excited about.

Character Traits with Mentor Texts!

     I was really excited to see that many of the anchor charts that involved character traits/ feelings included real characters!  Last year, we made a lot of charts with lots and lots of traits listed.  The kids, however, didn't really know what they meant.  Their limited vocabulary left them confused at what some of those traits really meant.  This year, by introducing the traits through characters, the traits they used will be a lot easier to transfer because they have a reference to compare it to!  Some of the charts were from novels the class was reading, and some were just from a read aloud from the week, but all are specific to real characters in real books!  

Experience Charts!

     Many of our students lack the life experiences they would need to really use a wide vocabulary when writing.  Our first grade classrooms solved that with doing their pumpkin writing after taking a trip the the pumpkin farm.  Not only did they go on the trip and take pictures of their adventures, but they also carved a real pumpkin to generate adjectives to use when writing.  The first graders generated those words all on their own, with a little help from a real pumpkin and some great teachers!  I can't wait to read their writing samples!

Learning Targets!

     OK, this one might be cheating.  But, boy was I excited when I saw this.  It isn't really an anchor chart, but I will throw it in anyway.  This first year teacher (yep, first year!) writes her Learning Targets each day and the class reads them at Morning Meeting.  Not only does this help those little first graders prepare for the day, but I am sure it helps Ms. LaFleur remember exactly why she is teaching what she is teaching every day.  That little bit of thought about targets can really make learning purposeful.  

Craft and Structure Examples!

     Our students have traditionally struggled with the craft and structure Common Core Standards (4-6) when given the F&P test, as well as in reading and writing workshop.  This anchor chart in Ms. Cardelli's 5th grade not only gives students some real examples of how to show, not tell when writing, but it also gives them a little checklist for students to look at when they are drafting.  Perhaps the examples will also help them pull out language from the books they read independently as additional examples, too!  

Check out the rest of of fabulous charts here!