Anchor Chart Display Ideas

Anchor chart display space can be a challenge in the classroom, especially if your wall space is limited. So much of the learning that takes place in my classroom is closely and carefully tied to an anchor chart or poster that my students and I have developed and curated together. In fact, you can read all about the importance of anchor charts and how I make them student-centered and student-created in a blog post I wrote here, called Let’s Talk About Anchor Charts!

Where do we put all of those anchor charts? How do we make them easily accessible so that as teachers, we can retrieve older anchor charts to help students make connections to new learning? How do we set up our room so that anchor charts can be MOVED from one place to another depending upon where our students are flexibly learning? In this blog post, I’m going to share with you six ways that I display anchor charts. Here we go!

The Bulletin Board Anchor Chart Display

Hanging up an anchor chart on a bulletin board is not a new idea, but I want to share a little tool that I use to allow me to quickly and effortlessly switch out the anchor chart that I display on my bulletin board! Do you see those little gold hooks on the bulletin board in the picture above? I got tired of always using push pins on my bulletin board to hang up my charts. It made holes all over my charts and I could never get the chart straight. I solved this problem by using these push pin hooks at the beginning of the year. The hooks stay on the board all year, and now I can easily switch out my anchor charts without the fuss! It’s quick and easy! Below is the link to the hooks I used. You can also use these magnetic hooks if you have a magnetic board that you want to use as a display area.

Throughout this post, you’ll find some Amazon affiliate links, like the link above, which means Amazon throws a few cents my way if you happen to purchase something from those links – at no extra cost to you. These little links help me keep my tiny corner of the internet up and running, so that I can continue to share lessons, teaching ideas, and resources with you!

Tip and Trick: When you’re setting up your classroom at the beginning of the year, resist the need to fill up every bulletin board in your room with “stuff.” Leave a couple of boards completely blank. Add the hooks, and use them strictly as anchor chart displays that you will change in and out throughout the year.

Magnetic Curtain Rod Chart Display

This one is a FAVORITE! I am blessed with a huge whiteboard and I love to display anchor charts on it! I use magnetic curtain rods and pocket chart rings to hang up my anchor charts. The best part?! I can MOVE the entire chart by simply taking the magnetic curtain rod and sticking it on another whiteboard surface. This is great when we need to refer to it at the small group table. SO EASY! It also keeps things looking neat and clean. Below are some of the magnetic curtain rods that I use in my room, as well as a link to the pocket chart rings. If you’ve never used these curtain rods before to hang up your charts, you’re going to be in anchor chart-heaven!

Anchor Chart Clothing Rack

Another one of my favorite ways to display and store anchor charts is this perfect little IRIS clothing rack that I found on Amazon this year! Teacher-friends…I’m in LOVE with it! It fits my decor, my kids like to use the shelf at the bottom as another flexible-seating work area, and it has CHANGED the way I am able to access charts that we need to look back at and refer to!

As you can see in the picture above, I am using these wooden skirt hangers to hang up the anchor charts that we aren’t using at the moment. It’s SO easy to simply grab a chart and hang it up on the front of my smartboard, or even keep it on the hanger and hang it onto my easel. I don’t even have to take the charts off of the hangers- it’s amazing! Of course any skirt or pant hangers will work, but I like how these wooden ones were so sturdy! You can find my chart hangers here.

BONUS: The clothing rack itself acts as an additional anchor chart display. Not only does it store your anchor charts and allow you to easily access the ones you need, but you can hang a chart on the front of the rack, too! In the picture below, you can see that I displayed our quotation mark chart from my Dialogue and Quotation Marks Unit by positioning the hanger on the front side of the rack. Voila! It was perfect!

Chart Paper Display

This idea is an extension of the magnetic curtain rod section. Remember that you can also use your pocket chart rings and magnetic curtain rod to not just hang anchor charts but to also hang up chart paper. I like using these half-size chart paper pads for the small group table. I’m easily able to make a quick chart or graphic organizer with my guided reading or small group. Then, I can rip it off and display it anywhere around the room. Hanging up the half-size chart pad ensures that I’m not wasting time gathering paper for my visuals. I always try to put my small group table in front of a whiteboard for this very reason!

Maximize Your Easel Display

Your easel is probably your featured space for your anchor chart display. Therefore, it’s more than likely front and center in your meeting area and used daily! This is where my chart pad is always located. It’s where my students and I MAKE our anchor charts and posters. Sometimes we need to switch between making and working on a reading chart and a writing chart.

I use large binder clips on my easel. (You can see them in the picture above.) I can clip a chart to these binder clips and “store” a prominent chart on the easel. This makes it easier to switch between the poster and my chart pad. I don’t have to spend time flipping the pages of my chart pad back and forth throughout the lesson!

Many people have asked me where my easel comes from. You can find the red easel that I use from School Specialty by clicking here. It was provided by my school and has a flannel board on the back. I don’t use the flannel board, but the other side of the easel is perfect for hanging my pocket chart. It works out perfectly!

Take Inventory of Your Chart Displays

I hope this blog post gave you some good ideas of how and where you can increase space for your anchor charts! My best advice is to scan your current classroom and take “inventory” on the space you have available. Are there bulletin boards you didn’t really use this year that you could leave blank next year and hang up charts? Do you need or use all of the whiteboard space in your room, or is there a spot that you can dedicate for a chart display? Is there a corner of your room that could fit a small clothing rack to solve your chart storage problems? I hope that you’re able to tackle your anchor chart display and storage with ease from now on!

Share These Chart Ideas On Pinterest!

Feel free to use the image below to pin to your Pinterest Board to refer to later or share with your colleagues. If you loved this blog post, don’t forget to check out my flexible seating blog post, too! It will show you more pictures of my room and give you better idea of where things are located. Thank you again for visiting my blog today!