Visuals at the Tip of Your Fingers

I have written before about the importance of using visuals in your kindergarten classroom. You can check out these posts to learn a little bit more about why I feel so strongly about using visuals with little learners. Visuals make everything easier! They prevent you from having to repeat yourself over and over again. They give your students the autonomy to find solutions to their problems. They streamline transitions and tighten up routines.

Today, I’m going to take it a step further and encourage you to have visual cues at your fingertips. I have a great teacher tip to share with you today that will make it easy to prompt and remind your students of your expectations throughout the day!

Visual Cues on Lanyards

Visual cues only work if your students can see them. If you are using anchor charts or posters to remind your students of your expectations, you hang them up somewhere that is easy for your students to see. Another great way to make your expectations visible is to put routine cards on a lanyard. This handy little teacher hack will put routines and directions right at your fingertips, making them easy to reference!

How to Steps

1.) Download a set of visual cue posters. I have this set and use it with great success with my own kindergartners.

2.) Print the cards on card stock at around 30% to make them the size of a small index card rather than a full-size poster.

3.) Laminate for durability and hole punch the top of the card. Place them on a lanyard.

Benefits of Visuals on a Lanyard

As the year goes on, you don’t want to keep every routine or procedure you’ve taught up on the wall at the same time. You will run out of wall space! Shrinking the posters down and keeping them on a lanyard saves space on your wall while still making the expectations visible when you need them.

As you are teaching, it’s convenient to have all of the cards right at your fingertips. In the middle of a lesson, you can prompt your students to quiet their bodies without missing a beat. It’s easy to flip to the card that has expectations for rug behavior. Just flash the card and give a quick reminder. It saves you time and hassle during your lessons!

For routines or procedures that the entire class is struggling with, you can make all of your students matching lanyards with reminders that they need to get through the day. Or, if you have a student who is struggling with something on his/her own, you can make these card-sized posters to keep at their desk or in their pocket. This way, they can discreetly remind themselves of the positive steps to take to complete a task without you needing to remind them.

You can grab these visual cue posters here. Get started with making your expectations visible to your students, and eliminate several classroom issues at once!