From Worksheet to Art Project

Wanna hear one of my new teacher confessions?

I hate worksheets. Despise them actually. I remember completing all of those worksheets as a kid or the mountain of papers my kids bring home and I wonder why. Why in this day and age are we still asking students to complete copious amounts of worksheets?

Sure they are easy to make copies, use them, and grade them but do they have a high engagement value, is there a high value of information conveyed, and if we send them home do they ever come back and/or get looked at?

Here's a picture of one of my littles working on a math worksheet. If you notice the red at the top of the page you will see my notes. This is suppose to be a review activity but a majority of my kiddos don't get it.

(If you read my previous post you saw their grades! YIKES! Yes, this post is backwards as this came before the test but I hope you will forgive me.)

I spent the entire class period running around the room offering 1:1 help on how to complete this. My cooperating teacher is a genius at turning things into art projects/anchor charts. So after we checked to make sure everyone got it right...

We had them cut the chart into pieces. Yep... it became a giant puzzle!

The students had to match all of their answers up again. For an additional challenge and skill... we had them but the decimals in order from greatest to least, glue those ones down first and then recreate it the rest of the chart.

Brilliant! Now this... this type of worksheet project I can handle! We hung them up for a few days in the hall to show off our latest student-made anchor charts.

Oh and before I forget to tell you, BEFORE we cut it out the students had to complete the backside of the worksheet and get it approved prior to starting the project.

Prepping for THE TEST ~ Anchor Chart Raffle

Have you been counting down to testing day?

It is 10 calendar days or 6 school days (including today) until the big test! It is nerve racking for everyone as this is the first year that 35% of the teacher's review is based upon how our little angels do on THE TEST!

In addition to all of the prepping and review we are doing, we are stripping our walls of all of the materials we have covered it in over the course of the year. On the big day (well week) nothing can be there to aid our students.

If you are anything like my cooperating teachers, your walls are covered in anchor charts. Floor to ceiling, every available inch has been utilized. We refer to the things on the walls constantly!

So what does one do with all of those anchor charts? I was wondering the same thing! It seems such a waste to throw away all of our hard work!

Introducing the anchor chart raffle review!

Love LoVe LOVE this idea! Here is how it works... 

Step 1 - Remove Anchor Chart from wall

Step 2 - Every student in the class signs the back of it

Step 3 - Ask review questions about topic of anchor chart

Students raise hands when they know the answer. 

First person to raise their hand and answer correctly.... 

gets to take home the chart. 

Step 4 - Ask 3-4 more questions increasing in difficulty. 

Step 5 - Repeat with a different Anchor Chart. 

My students go batty over this! They love that they autograph the posters and I have received photos of bedrooms covered in anchor posters. My kiddos really do go home and hang up the posters on their walls! They talk to their parents about it and share how they are the expert on this topic. 

Do you see why I love it? 

A few tips... if you are raffling off multiple posters a day, pick a different "winner" each time. There are some students who process slower so if the first hand that went up got it wrong and a slow processor FINALLY raises their hand, call on them next so as they can win too. 

Make sure everyone gets at least one poster. We never raffle off more than 4 a day. This keeps the momentum going. PLUS we do not raffle them off in any order. It is completely random. This means that many of my students go home at night and are practicing on their own so that they can win the next day. 

When you do review, throw in a few questions from the anchor charts previously raffled off. This is a FUN review time for my students. We have even had competitions by table to see who can win the right to autograph the front side. 

Have I told you about how I use experts in the classroom? I need to go and look. One of my personal rules is that my experts on a topic cannot win their own anchor chart poster. This means that they have to become experts in other areas too!

What do you do with Anchor Charts at the end of the year?