Back to Basics- Power Pics

Back to Basics-Power Pics

A Power pic is something we use every day in our classroom. A power picture is a colourful picture prompt in the middle of a card. Around the card is a coloured border. At the top of the card is the question and answer for the children to learn. The bottom of the card has the gesture to use with the answer to the question.  Power pics are colour coded on the border. A blue border is for English power pics. A red border is for Mathematics power pics. A green border is for science power pics. 

You can make power pics for any topic, question and answer.

We use power pics to help us learn a specific fact. At this point in time I have two walls set up. One is for English and the other is for Mathematics. I have them on display all year round so the children can refer to them whenever they need to. 

Last week we reviewed expanded form. Before I could point to the power pic I saw several chn looking at the wall and looking for the appropriate card. We used the card as a prompt with Mirror activities. It was also used for teach o.k. and other strategies in the lesson plan. During the same week we made a graph and again I saw children referring to the wall to help them explain what a graph is. 

The visual cortex is a large area at the back of the brain and it is really important that we use this area in all our lessons. The more areas of the brain we use in every lesson the higher the opportunity for learning. Power pics are an essential part of daily lessons in our classroom. I am a visual learner so this appeals to my way of learning and I know it helps my students have success in learning.