November is the perfect month to engage your students with festive, hands-on activities that build literacy and phonemic awareness while keeping learning fun. Pocket charts are an excellent way to create interactive lessons that students can explore independently, and they’re perfect for the primary classroom. In this post, I’m sharing some must-have November pocket chart activities that are ready to use, low prep, and incredibly effective!
Why Pocket Charts Work So Well in the Classroom
Pocket charts are one of the easiest centers to establish in your classroom. They’re compact, easy to store, and simple for students to use independently. Once students learn how to interact with a pocket chart, they can practice skills on their own or in small groups. When finished, all the pieces can be tucked into an envelope or small container for safekeeping until next year, making organization a breeze. Plus, pocket charts are versatile, too! They can be used on the tabletop, floor, or even as a shared reading space. Now, let's talk pocket chart fun for November!
Pocket Chart Poetry Activities for November
Poetry is a wonderful way to develop phonemic awareness in kindergarten, first, and even second graders. Not to mention, kids think it's a lot of fun! In my room, I liked to use two different Thanksgiving-themed poems that are perfect for pocket charts, tabletop activities, or floor practice. One is about being
thankful, and one is all about those silly
turkeys. You'll start by teaching the poem orally and then let students practice reading, rhythm, and rhyme independently. Each poem pack includes:
- Poem split into pocket chart word cards (2 colors included for matching)
- Printed version - perfect for student reference
- Instructions and ideas for using in your classroom
How to Teach the Poem (Step by Step)
If you’re brand new to teaching with poetry, here’s a simple routine you can try:
Model the Poem Orally: First, read the poem aloud with lots of expression, so students hear the rhythm and rhyme. Then, invite them to echo you line by line. For example, read:“Turkeys big, turkeys small” and have the whole group repeat it back three times.
Add Movement or Gestures: Young learners love actions! As you read together, flap your arms like a turkey or gesture big and small. Movements make the words easier to remember.
Point and Read Together: Display the pocket chart words and track each word with a seasonal pointer (a fun leaf, turkey, or even just a craft stick with a sticker). Move left to right, pointing under each word as the class reads along. This models voice-print pairing and reinforces one-to-one correspondence.
Student Practice in the Pocket Chart: When you're ready, place the cut-apart word cards in a basket and let students rebuild the poem. At first, they can simply match words on colored paper to the black-and-white chart you’ve pre-assembled. Later, challenge them to put the poem in order independently. This is a great way to differentiate the activity for all of your learners.
By repeating this same structure with both the Thankful Poem and the Turkey Poem, you’ll give students the comfort of routine while keeping things fresh with seasonal content. These poems are a wonderful way to practice fluency daily, and the pocket chart format makes it easy and versatile to use in a variety of ways.
Pocket Chart Poems for the Whole Year
I know once you give these a try in your room, your students will be hooked, so be sure to check out the Year-Long
Pocket Chart Poem Bundle, too! This includes 12 different poems, so you can continue the poetry pocket chart center all year long!
With these poetry pocket chart activities, your students will strengthen a wide range of early literacy skills in a fun and interactive way. They’ll practice essential reading behaviors such as left-to-right progression, return sweep, and one-to-one correspondence, while also building voice-print pairing and sight word recognition.
Each poem reinforces phonemic awareness through rhythm, rhyme, and repetition, and gives students the chance to work on beginning sounds, rhyming words, and overall reading fluency. Together, these skills provide a strong foundation for growing confident, independent readers all year long.
More Uses for the Poems
Beyond the pocket chart center, you can also use the included printed poems in
"I Can Read Notebooks". Using this resource continues to reinforce top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading and return sweep. This resource includes 10 different sample pages to get you started, as well as everything you need to make the binders themselves, including cover pages and binder spines. Then, each month, as you introduce new poems, you can add them to the notebooks for continued, independent practice. Students will love reading the poems at their desks and illustrating them.
Colorful Turkeys Pocket Chart
Learning colors has never been this fun! This Colorful Turkeys November Pocket Chart activity is perfect for students working on color recognition and reading color words. The adorable turkey graphics make matching exercises engaging, while students practice reading simple color words or sentences. Here's what's included:
- Turkey picture cards
- Color word cards
- Color sentence cards (This turkey is....)
- Color or Black Text options
- Bonus color gameboard and spinner
To play, place all cards in a basket near the pocket chart. Students match picture cards with the correct color word or sentence. You can choose the option that best fits the skill level of your students. For students who have not mastered color words, start with the color text options that allow them to match colors while also practicing reading these words. For more of a challenge, use the black text option. Consider using a seasonal pointer to use as students read the sentences or identify color words for an extra layer of fun.
Next, use the spinner game to move pawns to matching turkeys as a follow-up activity. This game is perfect as a companion to the pocket chart activity that will extend learning and give kids more opportunities to practice color recognition and color words! They will love "racing" to the finish line as they spin, identify the color, and move their game marker!
Thanksgiving Nonsense Word Activity
Looking for a way to boost fluency and decoding skills this November? This
Nonsense Word November Pocket Chart Activity engages students while practicing CVC words. Kindergarten and first graders will love sorting turkey-themed cards into real words and nonsense words. Plus, it's far more exciting than a plain word list! This resource includes:
- 60 turkey-themed cards
- Header cards for sorting "Real Words" and "Nonsense Words"
- Optional student recording sheet for additional accountability
Students will choose a card, read it, and sort the cards under the correct heading based on whether they are real or nonsense words. The activity covers all short vowels, making it a comprehensive, engaging center for small groups or whole group instruction. Not to mention, this one is always full of giggles as students decode the words and determine if they are real or not! You can also use the optional recording sheets for some additional accountability and have students write the words as they sort.
November Pocket Chart Fun for Everyone!
Pocket chart activities are a simple, low-prep way to build essential literacy skills in the primary classroom while keeping students engaged and independent. From Thanksgiving poems and color matching to nonsense word fluency, these November resources will help you create meaningful, hands-on centers your students will love.
Head on over to TPT to snag these and many other activities that can be used in pocket charts in your classroom.
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