I love using pocket charts and sometimes wonder if I could teach without them. Hmmm??? Many teachers write asking me for pocket chart ideas. As a result, I decided to create this page! This is the time of year that Walmart puts the pocket charts out for the great price of 9.99 and Target often has smaller ones for .99!!!
Pocket charts can be used for so many purposes. They are great to place center activities in. They are fantastic for posting schedules. I could go on and on. I have utilized them to:
Reconstruct poems, songs and chants
Sequence alphabet or pictorial story lines
List days of the week, months of the year
Word banks for themes or journals
Word tricks such as the,they,them,then/no,not,now
Pattern sentences for reading and journal sentence prompts
Build rhyming word banks
seasonal and thematic vocabulary
Making Words activities
small group instruction – great for resource rooms or special education k-8
SOME TIPS FROM ME:
To store the materials that go along with the many pocket charts I create for centers, I staple ziploc bags to the bottom of the chart. I fill the bags with the materials I need for the certain pocket chart activity. When it is time to take down a given pocket chart, I store all the materials for the pocket chart in a large folder.
You can purchase seasonal pencils and attach a seasonal eraser to the pencil. Use this to have the children point to words on a chart. They enjoy this! Don’t sharpen the pencil!
In July, Walmart stocks the regular pocket charts for an awesome price of about $10.00. You can find them in the school supply section of the story. Can’t miss this buy!
Often teachers will sell some of their neat-o pocket charts on Ebay. You know the ones that come in the cool shapes? Do a search for pocket charts on www.ebay.com and see what is there. Sometimes you can find a good deal.
Go ahead and cut those Walmart charts to make them fit on the back of tables or where you see needed.
Be sure to check out all the good pocket chart ideas here:
http://www.teachingheart.net/pocketchart.html 
