Anchor Chart Storage Solutions

Anchor Chart Storage Solutions Happy Sunday, and welcome to another month of Bright Ideas! I am teaming up with Shelly at Teaching in the Early Years as well as over 150 other bloggers to bring you a monthly "bright idea." I'm a little bit sheepish about this "Bright Idea." It's not super bright, and I am willing to bet that a ton of you do this already, but something had to be done about my anchor chart storage drama. Yes. Drama. Every time I went searching for an old anchor chart to reference, I would take one look in my cabinet, shut it, and say something like, "Okay, you remember that anchor chart we made 6 months ago? Yes? Good!" I wanted to be able to pull them out and use them, especially now, around test prep time when we are reviewing, reviewing, reviewing. I have seen brilliant ideas on Pinterest about anchor charts, including putting pictures of them in a binder or taping a hanger to the back so that you can hang them up. Except, I don't have anywhere to store them that would work to hang them, and I wanted to be able to leave them up for several days at a time when we review. Also, I admit that I couldn't quite bear to just throw away some of my more aesthetically pleasing charts. :) I have a small space between my file cabinet and a bookshelf where I could fit something to store them, and here is what I came up with. I went to Target hoping I could find an adorable bin that would be tall enough to keep all of the charts in check but also large enough to store them all. I didn't find anything. So, I resorted to an 8-gallon black trash can. It was actually the perfect size. As gorgeous as a black trash can is not, I had to do something about it. After all, I couldn't chance letting the custodian throw away all of my anchor charts after I spent so much time making them. I went to Hobby Lobby searching for some vinyl dots to decorate the trash can with, and I lucked out and found some big dot stickers that were only $2.99 (Plus a 40% coupon). They worked perfectly! I also printed out a title and put it on with double sided tape. It definitely doesn't look like a trash can anymore. I neatly rolled up each of the individual charts and put a single rubber band around each one. I also wanted a way to be able to easily find which chart I was looking for. I bought an inexpensive set of colored labels at Target, and despite my urge to print them out in fancy fonts, wrote the topic of each anchor chart in Sharpie and put the little sticker at the top of the rolled up chart. It won't interfere at all with the chart itself, but finding the chart I'm looking for is a breeze! I labeled all of my math anchor charts with a yellow sticker, and all of my reading and language arts anchor charts with a pink sticker. That's it! Nothing fancy, but it accomplished my goal. I organized my anchor charts, I can easily find the one I am looking for, and it looks pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself (and my husband also says so, and that must mean something. Right?) This was a breeze to put together, and it will be so easy to keep up with. Just a rubber band and a label, and I can plop each anchor chart in, ready to access when I need it again! Now, before you go get your trashcan Bin of Adorable Anchor Chart Organization ready, continue hopping through these other bright ideas from my fellow bloggers! Make sure you stop by Molly at Classroom Confections to see a neat way to use calculators to teach expanded form. How cool is that!? And look through these other bloggers to get even more "Bright Ideas"! An InLinkz Link-up An InLinkz Link-up", "name": "Anchor Chart Storage Solutions", "authors": [{"name": "Teaching With a Mountain View"}]}, "link": {"locale": "en", "title": "Anchor Chart Storage Solutions", "site_name": "teachingwithamountainview.com", "description": "Happy Sunday, and welcome to another month of Bright Ideas!  I am teaming up with Shelly at Teaching in the Early Years  as well as over 150...

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