Is the pocket chart center a favorite for literacy learning in your classroom? Standing up, moving around a bit, learning ... a combo that pleases just about everybody, right? Keep reading for some ideas and a freebie, too!
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Why use a pocket chart?
* Occupational therapists frequently recommend using vertical surfaces for learning. Although of course your students won't be writing on the pocket chart, there are still advantages to varying learning positions, particularly for students whose desk posture is typically slouched or hunched forward. The pocket chart encourages students to look up, and also requires broader arm movements.
* Pocket chart centers take less space than you'd think! Try putting two large pocket charts back-to-back and hanging from a garment rack. Get one that has wheels and you can roll them out of the way when not in use! I prefer this kind because has a shelf on the bottom to keep your containers for cards and sentence strips right where your students will need them.
Desktop pocket charts are another space-saving alternative. Your students can move them to different spots around the classroom, including :) their desk tops, of all things! When you're not using the charts, you can flatten them, stack them, and tuck them away.
What kinds of literacy activities can your students do at the pocket chart center?
I love to use the pocket chart with our poem of the week. Put a small copy of the poem at your pocket chart. Use sentence strips with one line of the poem on each and have your students build the whole poem, and of course read it aloud to check it! Then, on a set of different color strips, break the sentences into phrases to promote fluency. On a third color, write several single words on each piece and have your students match these to the poem they've assembled on the chart.
Pocket charts are great for matching and sequencing, everything from alphabet to opposites! Here are a few ideas to try.
* Pull out your sets of alphabet flashcards from the dollar store and have your students match uppercase to lowercase, or even put the whole alphabet in order.
* Get two sets of early sight word cards and have your students match pairs. Match a picture to the letter it begins with. Match pictures of rhyming words.
* Click here to get some free sequencing cards for the months of the year!
Pocket charts are the perfect format for sorting. Provide two header cards, like "Nouns" and "Verbs", short a pictures and short e pictures, long vowel words, short vowel words, etc. Then give your students a great big pile of cards and set them to sorting! Sorting helps students recognize similarities and differences, and teaches the brain ways to organize information.
Pocket charts are great for games! Remember, an activity doesn't need to be "A Game", in the formal sense ... if you add a fun element to practice and call it a game, well, then, to our students it's a game!
Pocket charts are a great format for students to use in building sentences. Try giving your students sight word cards or sight word phrase strips, and combining thematic words that will reinforce your current teaching. Teaching about insects? Add word cards (or picture/word cards, for more support) of grasshoppers, ants, and crickets. Seasonal vocabulary works well with this, too!
Of course, all of these activities could also be done with the same materials, working on a tabletop or the floor. But I just think a pocket chart makes them more fun!
I have a LOT of pocket chart sets for sentence building in my store. Click here to see the whole list!
At a customer's request, I've bundles together all of my building sentences resources.
Here's a peek inside "Fun in the Fall", which gives you a good idea of what these resources are all about.
Each of the 13 sets includes color-coded word and punctuation cards (first words in green, ending punctuation in red), mini-sentence strips to give your students ideas for sentences to make,
three themed mini-pointers for extra practice with one-to-one matching, and a student response page.
Several sets are seasonal, and the others are about more general topics, like birthdays, reading, and pets. If your students like Go, Dog. Go!, they'll love using the "Go, Puppy!" set.
Because these are bundled, you're basically getting two sets free!
Click here to see the bundle.
Click here to see all of my building sentences resources.
Aaaaand... here's your freebie, a chance to try a set of these building sentences resources free! Just click on the cover to get it at my store, and you'll have a November center ready to go!
