Easy Classroom Helper Chart

Welcome to Make and Take Monday! Today I’m going to show you how to make an easy and inexpensive classroom helper chart that also doubles as a daily literacy activity.

You will need the following materials:

• Library pockets- you can find cute ones to match your theme at the teacher store or you can decorate plain pockets with stickers to match your theme.
• One name card for each student
• Sentence strip
• Sharpie marker
• Sticky tac or other temporary adhesive
• Envelope
• Black construction paper
• Glue stick
• Stapler

Above you can see a picture of how I organize my classroom helpers. The light blue library pocket on the left near the top is labeled “need a turn” and the light blue pocket on the right is labeled “had a turn”. I place one name card for each student in the “need a turn” pocket. Each morning I select one name card at random and place it inside an envelope -pictured at the top tucked behind the sentence strip. I glue black paper to the front of the envelope so the students can’t see through it. I slit one end of the envelope open. After we sing our good morning song I take down the envelope and slowly draw the name card from the side of the envelope revealing one letter at a time. Students try to guess who our helper of the day will be by noticing the letters in the name.

When the helper is identified I stick his or her name card to the blank space on the sentence strip. The leader then takes a pointer and points to the words in the sentence as the class reads it aloud. At the end of the day the helper moves his or her name card to the “had a turn” pocket. The dark blue pockets on the bottom are for the PM class.

I made this video below demonstrating the process.

I hope you liked the video explanation, please leave a comment below if you found it helpful.