What is a Pineapple Chart?

Let’s talk about the pineapple chart. You may be asking yourself, what is a pineapple chart and what does it have to do with education? A pineapple chart can share learning and activities with other educators. The idea behind the pineapple chart is for educators to voluntarily invite other educators into their classrooms or learning environments to observe and gain more information that they can take and apply to their classroom or learning environment.

School Building: What could this look like in a school building? While teaching at my first school, I brought this idea to my fellow educators. We decided the best place to put the pineapple chart was in the teacher’s lounge. I got to work creating our pineapple chart on an unused whiteboard in the lounge. Since we were in an elementary school, it was set up a little differently than a junior high or high school would look. We set up our chart based on hour increments and days of the week. Here is an example of what our chart looked like:

This is just one idea on how to set up a pineapple chart. You can tailor it to meet the needs of your school and schedule. If your lesson will not last the whole hour, you can write about the time that the lesson will take place. The idea is to write the educator's name in the box of time and day and add a little description of the lesson being taught. This is a great way for educators to share unique lessons with others or even get feedback from other educators. You can invite educators to watch break-out rooms, room transformations, mathematics centers, and so much more. This is then an open invitation to let other educators into your classroom.

Homeschool: The idea of the pineapple chart could also be used with individuals who homeschool. Homeschooling is rapidly growing in the United States and there are a lot of social media groups for homeschoolers to go to for sharing ideas and resources. You could create a pineapple chart using Canva, Google Sheets, or Excel and share this resource on a local homeschool group page. This is a great way to invite other ideas to your learning environment to share lessons, ideas, and activities and create relationships with other homeschoolers.

If you have any questions, want to learn more, or want me to help you get started in creating a pineapple chart, just let me know. Have a great week and see you back here next Monday!