Team Building with Anchor Charts

My school using the Character Counts system which means we watch for students who show the six character traits throughout a school day. This year I wanted to have my students get a better understanding of the six traits (respect, trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness, citizenship, and caring) by doing a team building activity. I found this great idea over at Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher. I tweaked it to fit the needs of my character counts lesson so I could hear everyone's idea. Students in my classroom have learned about these traits since they were in Kindergarten and I wanted them to share what they know!

I started with talking to them about what the six character counts (six pillars) are and then posted up a question about each pillar. Examples of the questions include "What ways do you see trustworthiness in our school?" and "Write a definition for caring." Groups were given one marker and placed at a character count question. I set the timer for three minutes and teams were to list as many answers or examples they could come up with together. After the timer stopped, teams would then rotate to the next question.

My students enjoyed this activity because they got to move around and write on anchor charts with smelly markers. I saw more engagement with this activity then if I would have had a whole group lecture about the character counts. Students will then pick one of the pillars to represent on an individual poster. I will have the student choose one pillar and then create an illustration and a paragraph explaining ways they show the pillar. A great way to get students up and working together!