Plan and Prepare Visual Aids
Visual Aids are anything that the audience looks at to process information. After you organize your research into an outline, you will then need to plan and prepare visual aids for each category in your organizational tool. It’s best to have a variety of visual aids, and not just one type. Visual aids can be “found” objects; they do NOT have to be something original you created.
All significant information will need to be represented with a visual aid or the product!

Possible visual aids:

acrostic poem
advertisement
alphabet book
audio tape
banner
booklet
chart
collection collage
comic strip
concept map
cross section
demonstration
diagram
diorama
editorial
experiment
fishbone diagram
flannel board activity
flow tree
glossary
graph
illustration
interview
jigsaw puzzle
journal entry
letter
list
map with legend
mobile
model
museum exhibit
newscast
newspaper article
painting
pamphlet
photographs
plus/delta chart
project cube
puppet show
poem
pop-up book
poster
puzzle
rap
riddle
role play
scale drawings
scavenger hunt
scrapbook
sculpture
simulation
song
story
survey
timeline
TV program
Venn diagram
video tape
web diagram
word hunt

1st & 2nd grade: 1 visual aid; 3rd & 4th grade: 2 – 3 visual aids; 5th grade: 3 - 4 visual aids
Remember, all visual aids must also meet quality standards:
• Have correct information;
• Be creative (fluent, flexible, original, elaborate);
• Well organized (makes sense, nicely spaced out, not too cluttered or too sparse);
• Large enough for the audience to see easily;
• Carefully constructed (doesn’t fall apart, put together well);
• Neat and attractive (no scratch-outs, neat coloring and drawing, neat cutting);
• Neat writing (stencils, die cut letters, or typed when possible);
• Stencils and straight edges used when possible;
• No pencil, tape, or glue showing;
• Correct CUPS (capitals, usage, punctuation, spelling).
Your visual aids should have a WOW! factor –something so different,unusual, or surprising that it captures the audience’s attention.