Pocket charts maybe a teacher’s best friend, whether you’re teaching children about numerical values, celebrating birthdays, or everything in between! There are numerous ways to enrich your teaching space thanks to the large variety of pocket charts available. If you’re unfamiliar with the wonders of pocket charts, they’re comprised of a flexible nylon cloth with clear vinyl strips across the front, which are open on the top and stitched on the bottom to provide “pockets” for storing phrases strips or cards. Metal eyelets on the top of each chart allow it to be simply hung on the wall or from a pocket chart stand. One thing most teachers are usually short on is space. The biggest advantage of pocket charts is that they’re portable and don’t take up much space in the classroom.

Set up stations or learning centers with the pocket chart as the focal learning activity as one approach to get started. Math centers, for example, could have a counting and number sequencing pocket chart, science centers could have a solar system sorting game, and literacy centers could encourage kids to write their own poetry using a stack of pre-selected word cards.

Pocket charts with calendars and schedules are also very handy for classroom organization throughout the year. Use bright and cheerful date cards to display important events and students’ birthdays, or use a huge visual schedule to ensure children know what to anticipate each day. These pocket charts can serve as an exciting backdrop for students and an interactive teaching tool for you if you’re still teaching remotely. Other uses of pocket charts include: using it to post questions of the day, use as center rotation charts, sign-in name cards, creating a visual schedule etcetera.

You can also use pocket charts to keep up with small group assignments, for taking a class vote, for graphing, to play rhyming match games, and much more. If you want to utilize this all-in-one tool for your classroom, we have made a list of some of the best products on amazon:

1. Learning Resources Magnetic Pocket Chart Squares

In the 5 rows of clear pockets on the front of each chart, you can display your own cards, images, and short sentence strips. Additionally, keep things organized and accessible by placing them in the convenient pockets on the back of each chart.

This chart can be hung in two ways in your classroom. Using the grommets, suspend the squares from your own pocket chart stand, or use the built-in magnets to adhere them to your whiteboard. Each chart is a different vibrant, vibrant color. You will receive one of each of the colors red, orange, blue, and green. They offer a cheerful spectacle for pupils when combined. Use the 4 colored charts alone, or connect vertically or horizontally with hook-and-loop fasteners to make a larger chart. This option is great for small groups, centers, combined whole-group displays, and more.

This 4-pack is available on Amazon for $24.99.

2. VNOM Standard Pocket Chart

The 10 pockets chart is great for holding up sentence strips, index cards, vocabulary words, pictures, etc. to aid in teaching students or kids or to play games with them. This pocket chart measures 43 inches in height and 28 inches in length, and combined with that, the 10 clear deeper pocket rows mean it is large enough and spacious enough for all classroom activities. The pockets have lots of space between lines so that you are not limited on the sentence strips you use.

The Words pocket chart is made from premium-grade plastic material. It is a heavy-duty pocket chart in all senses of the word. Each strap is stiffened to keep sentence strips or cards upright. And the four reinforced grommets at the top make it versatile for hanging on classroom walls.

The hooks and sentence strips are not shipped with this product and need to be bought separately.

3. SpriteGru Magnetic Pocket Chart

This chart comes with 10 dry erase cards free, alongside the chart. These are double-sided, reusable, and eco-friendly. Each of the cards measures 12.4” X 2”, you can cut them into 5 pieces or more, just choose the size you need and design your display. The design of the main chart includes 7 pockets for the showing card on the front, plus one large storage pocket for the cards not in use on the back. The extra-long magnetic strip on the top makes it mountable on any magnetic receptive surface. The chart itself is 17.7 inches long and 13 inches wide and comes in two color options (black and blue). You can get a piece for just under 10 bucks on amazon.

4. Eamay Standard Pocket Charts

These standard-size pocket charts are lightweight and durable, with basic patterns that hang effortlessly on sturdy hooks. It has ten see-through horizontal pockets that can be used to store letter cards, math cards, photographs, and other items. Kids may inspect what’s inside the holder by standing in front of it.  Teachers can easily secure it on a classroom or playroom wall with metal grommets. For transportation, it also fits into an upright chart frame.

This heavy-duty pocket chart is made of durable nylon. The solid construction comes with industrial-grade stitched inside each pocket chart for stability. It has a size that can be used for a variety of purposes: Sentence strips, micro sentence strips, and word cards can all be stored in the 10 see-through pockets, which are made of stronger plastic. It’s ideal for gaining language expertise, learning new words, learning math concepts, and telling stories. It is also designed to aid children with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and other learning challenges.

5. Daily Schedule Pocket Chart

If you are after a pocket chart that you can use to make schedules, this product from SpriteGru may be the one for you. The smart design made up of 13 extra-large pockets for regular schedule cards and 1 bottom tool pocket for cards not in use and stationery like markers, scissor etc. helps to save desktop space and aids in being organized. The package also includes 13 coloured and 13 blank double-sided reusable cards. These are made from premium card board and comes with dry erase film, which makes it that much easier to wipe off and reuse.

For mounting on the classroom door, it comes with 2 stylish “over-door” hangers which can be hooked to chart grommets then put it over the door. Available now for only $14.99.

6. SUNEE Daily Schedule Pocket Chart

This is a similar schedule-oriented pocket chart with an even more compact design. Made from tear-resistant nylon, and shipped with 18 reusable dry erase cards. It can be mounted in two ways, with 2 metal hooks for over-door mounting and 2 self-adhesive hooks for wall mounting, both of which comes with the package. The class daily schedule can also be used for a to-do list, class job chart, softball line-up board, game score ranking, or other activities that need a board.

7. Teacher Created Resources Pocket Chart

This chart is one of the biggest options in our list, measuring in at 34 x 44 inches. It comes with 10 rows of clear pockets, but can fit a lot more stuff compared to the others. The chalkboard-like design is easy on the eyes, and this can help with the display of alphabet-word charts, and student name charts etc. which take up a lot of space usually. Can be wiped-down or sprayed with disinfectant to help prevent spread of germs without damaging the chart itself.

8. Headif Standard Pocket Chart

This one is yet another extra-large option. It too has a 10 Pocket design, each pocket made out of clear PVC 28″ wide and 2″ high, with 4 reinforced & non-corrosive grommets for hanging up on whiteboard, cubicle wall or standard pocket chart stand. It can aid in many things for young learners, including children’s hands-on centres, dramas and plays, tracking, sight word practice, picture and word cards, number recognition and counting, sort syllables, match rhyming words and literacy rich activities.

9. Scholastic Classroom Resources Pocket Chart

This set is a calendar design, complete with full-colour photo cards including 12 month cards, 33 date cards, 7 week days, 4 birthday cards, 2 field trip cards, and 2 special day cards. A two-page activity guide is also included in the package. The monthly calendar pocket chart is a useful educational tool that allows children to practise reading and utilising a calendar. Each month of the year can be represented by a different set of cards in the Chart. You can also use the pocket chart and schedule cards to complete the tasks indicated in this resource guide.

10. Learning Resources Alphabet Center Pocket Chart

You can give little ones a fun, interactive way to learn the alphabet with this colorful hanging pocket chart and letter cards. The 156 double-sided cards show pictures on one side and vocabulary phrases on the other. Kids can match the word ‘king’ with the K, the ‘rose’ with the R, and so on.

This hanging pocket chart is made of durable nylon and is ready for years of use in classrooms and centres. Bright colours, engaging images, and active learning make this pocket chart the fun way to practice letter and sound identification, word building, spelling. Find it on amazon for only $28.32 using the link above.