Visuals in the classroom are crucial for student success. They help promote independence, support all types of learners, including language learners. Furthermore, they provide stability and predictability for students throughout the day. If you’re tired of hearing, “What are we doing next?” or “What time is lunch?” visual aids can come to your rescue! Chances are, you aren’t using enough visuals when these questions are asked frequently. If you’re ready to teach more with fewer disruptions and behavior corrections, let’s explore how to easily implement helpful visuals in your classroom!
Importance of Visuals in the Classroom
Visual supports in the classroom take away unnecessary barriers for students still learning to read. To foster independent learners who thrive and grow without constantly needing you, they must learn how to meet their needs. When it comes to students blurting out, wouldn’t it be great if you could point to an anchor chart of the expectations you already taught without saying a word? If students need a new crayon, imagine an easy visual to point out exactly where to find it.
These scenarios happen every day in the classroom. We can quickly become overwhelmed by the number of requests and meeting the needs of all those little people. However, with visuals in the classroom, we can promote an environment where they can meet their own needs and quickly redirect undesired behaviors that arise.
Must Have Visuals in the Classroom
The good news is there are some quick and easy ways to add supportive visuals in your classroom with minimal setup! Let’s start with hand signals. Hand signals are a great nonverbal method of communication. Think about all those times you ask a question and five students raise their hand. You call on a student for an answer and they ask to get water. Talk about a loss of instructional time! Instead of having students raise their hand for every request, give them signals to ask for specific needs. Students can show the signal for water, leaving you with the option to quickly respond to their needs without a whole group interruption. Simply either nod your head yes or shake your head no. It’s fast, easy, and effective. No more wasted instructional time!
Next is a visual schedule. Remember how we talked about students asking when lunch is or what is coming up next? There are SO many times a day when students want to know what to anticipate. By posting your daily visual schedule for students, they can see exactly when each of those things occurs. They might not know how to tell time, but they’ll know recess comes right after math!
How often do you give directions and students forget what to do? Or maybe they forget what supplies they need. Turns out there’s a visual for that! Visual directions are a go-to when giving students directions for an activity. Use the step cards and supply labels to show students exactly what to do and precisely what they need. If they forget, all you have to do is point! No more stress or headaches from repeating yourself all day! It’s a game changing visual in the classroom!
Let’s talk about school supplies and manipulatives. The goal is to create independent students who thrive. This ultimately means giving them access to ALL the things they need. As you can see pictured below, students can access any materials they need at any time. Visuals are included for each material, such as where to get and put sharp and dull pencils. These are quick and easy ways to build independence and take burdens off of you.
A good rule of thumb: If something has a place in your classroom, it can also have a visual accompanying it! Boosts independence AND organization in the classroom which is a total win-win!
How Visuals in the Classroom Affect Behavior
Now that we’ve discussed what visuals you can add to your classroom to support student independence, let’s discuss how they can help support student behavior. While we may often use visuals to explicitly show students their expectations, remember we can do the same thing for behavior too! Start by thinking about what the behavior expectations are for different parts of the day. For example, what should they look like coming into the classroom every morning, when they sit on the carpet, or when they are transitioning? Additionally, what does their voice level sound like? All the expected behaviors can have a visual attached to help show students EXACTLY what their expectations are.
Take a look at the slide below. This is just one procedure that shows students their expectations when they enter the classroom. Instead of clip art, you can add real, in action visuals of students completing these tasks so there is no misunderstanding about what they need to do when they enter the classroom. My students have always loved seeing themselves on the big screen showing off great behavior so it’s also a great motivator!
Classroom Procedure Posters and Presentation
What kinds of procedures and routines benefit from added visuals in the classroom? Check out these specific routines and procedures below:
Sitting on the Carpet
Lining Up
Working with Partners
Walking in the Hallway
Voice Levels
Morning Routine
Using Supplies
Cleaning Up
Work Completion
Center Time
After we’ve discussed and modeled the routine, it’s time to snap those in action visuals and create an anchor chart students can refer to any time they need a reminder. This is all about alleviating stress and fostering independence! Leave these visuals up as long as needed, bring them back out when they need a refresher, and don’t fret if they still need more practice. Stop and practice any time they need it! I promise you, it all pays off.
Daily Slides are another great visual tool to support students throughout the day in the classroom. With slides you can map out your entire week and provide all the visuals needed throughout the day. Not only do they provide great reminders for expectations, the embedded timers are also an amazing time management tool for students. Unlike other timers, timers built into slides are easy for all students to see and hear!
Daily slides also work wonders while teaching content. Did you notice the behavior clip art in the top right corner? That is an indicator to the class that students cannot go to the bathroom or get water during this slide. There are other visuals for voice levels, as well as reminders for what it looks like and sounds like during their partner time. No more forgetting their topic of discussion because that’s also included on the screen for them! They are constantly supported and encouraged to utilize these visual tools provided. This allows for easy management and less disruptions!
Take a look at more of the optional behavior clip art visuals included below!
Want another classroom management must have? I have a super simple way to help students transition to an activity WITHOUT chaos. Try a movement code word! You provide the word of the day, or week, and it’s the code to move to the next activity! The word can be as creative as you want to be, such as “taco” or “robot.” Students know they can’t move, get started, or transition to an activity until they hear that word! It’s a fun and engaging way to get students’ attention and use it as an anchor to help them remember to move. Grab it FREE by subscribing below!
More Helpful Management Blog Posts
If you loved reading about all of these visual aids and other management tools, check out these posts below!
How to Encourage and Support Independent Learners in Your Classroom
Using Daily Slides: The Must Have Tool
The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Procedures
I hope you enjoyed learning why visuals in the classroom are necessary in primary grades! If you are ready to have your best school year ever, where you create a solid foundation from day one and have your classroom almost run itself, you need the Ultimate Classroom Management Bundle! It’s full of tools, strategies, activities, and, of course, visuals. This year long bundle will have you covered from day one until the last day of school. Whether students need support with transitions or reminders in the middle of the year, there’s a tool for that in this bundle. Grab yours now below!
The Ultimate Classroom Management Growing Bundle
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