6 Easy Social Studies Anchor Charts for Any Unit

Teacher truth: I have all the heart eyes for the beautiful anchor charts I’ve seen on social media, but in my own classroom, they were never as pretty. But guess what? It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t need to be fancy so long as it works for you and for your students. A functional and easy-to-make anchor chart that the kids will actually use is my goal! With that in mind, I wanted to share some of my all-time favorite, easy, REUSABLE social studies anchor charts that work for any history lesson in the elementary grades!

These anchor charts are especially great to use along with a picture book or chapter book read aloud, as well as during any history lesson or unit!

Key People, Places, and Vocabulary Anchor Chart

First up is an anchor chart to record key unit concepts and vocabulary. I love the simplicity of this chart.

I post this on my whiteboard when a new unit starts. As we move through the lessons, we add the names of significant people and places we’re learning about along with important vocabulary words and phrases – all based on student suggestions. And since the chart stays right up front, it’s easy to refer back to throughout the unit. When we finish, I just add it to my social studies content wall.

P.S. This anchor chart is perfect for quick question-and-answer review games. My students have always loved quizzing each other and using a flashlight or a fly swatter to mark the answers!

Cause-and-Effect Anchor Chart

The next one is a cause-and-effect chart. You can do this lots of ways. You can just have a simple cause-and-effect chart, you can do multiple causes and effects, or you can use a Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then type of organizer. Anything that helps students examine the causes and effects of events and choices throughout history will work.

History Timeline

Another must-have anchor chart for social studies is a timeline! Instead of making a new one for each unit with the number of boxes I think we’ll need, I like to just draw a line across the top and then add the vertical lines as we need them. So easy!

Stick Figure Anchor Chart

This stick figure anchor chart is a simple, versatile one to use when you’re studying important historical figures. Students can add basic biographical information, character traits, quotes, notes about contributions and significance, and more!

Parking Lot for Questions and Answers

This next one is a favorite of mine for recording questions and answers. (I’ve often used a smaller version in our social studies interactive notebooks, too.) All you do is draw a giant question mark! That’s it! I like to segment the question mark into Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? questions, but that’s totally optional. You can use this anchor chart as a parking lot for student questions as well.

Perspectives Anchor Chart

Finally, one of my favorite social studies critical thinking skills to have students practice is comparing perspectives. I like to start with a big pair of glasses and then draw a line through the center. In each half, we add pictures and/or words to show how two different people or groups of people see the same event from their point of view. It’s such a visual way to drive this concept home.

So that’s it! Not only are these history anchor charts simple to make, but they’re great to make with your students. I love that they focus on what’s essential about the content without a lot of distracting decorations or information. They work just as well for graphic organizers. I hope you give some of these anchor charts a try in your classroom the next time you teach social studies!