Can you
tell I am thrilled?
No
Well how about this
YIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
How was that?
Did you hear me? Cause you know I can say it louder!
YIP...................... Well never mind lets move right along
Don't want to lose you
Anyhoo
I am
joining you to blog about my fav time of the school day……………………………………………………….
Centers!
Today I
will be blogging about how to organize centers
So what are
centers?
Why are
centers needed?
Where do I
start?
I know as a
first year teacher all of these questions ran through my mind. I was at a
complete lost and it took me a while to figure out what the heck I was doing.
By no means am I an expert but my principal calls me the small group queen
so……………………….
I guess I
will toot my own horn
Toot, Toot!
Moving
right along
I don’t
want to lose you
Back to the
matter at hand
It can be
very difficult for a teacher to meet each individual child’s need especially
when that teacher has 33 kinders (that would be me) for the first 2 months of
school! How do you do centers when you have that many children and how do you
do them successfully?
I
eventually ended up with 29 kiddos and I had 14 stations. I have 2 students per
group which made my center time so much easier
I have
tried groups of four or five and it was just too darn many and all they did was
argue!
Sorry so
off topic
Must stop
rambling
Must stop
rambling
*Shake,
Shake*
I think it
is all out of my system now
We may now
more on
*Shake*
Centers are
a great way to differentiate instruction and provide students with
opportunities to learn independently
So here
goes
Setting up
stations
Step 1:
Plan your space
Decide how
many stations you would like to have and how you want to arrange those
stations. It is a good idea to arrange your stations from quiet to loud or loud
to quiet. You don’t want your library station right next to the listening
station, now would you?
Maybe you
would but I sure don't
I don’t
have a large room by any means but I did run 14 stations for literacy and 14
stations for math! It was very messy but we lived
I mean it
looked like a hurricane and an earthquake came through and we were the remains
after the storm
But it is
okay we were learning
Don't be
afraid of a little mess
All of my
stations were portable and the students would either go to a table or use the
floor for stations.
Mostly the
floor because the kiddos liked to lay on it after sitting in chairs all morning
When I set
up my room I did so with centers in mind
My stations
were arranged as follows
I had my
centers arranged so that they flow around the outer edges of the room in a
circle
So that
when students moved to their next rotation I didn’t have to lose time with them
trying to figure out what station to go to next! They just simply moved to the
station that was to their right
Here is an
example of my station list
Station One
being the quietest station and the stations gradually get louder the lower down
the station list you go then gradually back to quiet
Remember my
station are set up in a circle so Station 14 is actually next to Station 1
Station
One: Alphabet/Buddy Reading
Station
Two: Listening Station
Station
Three: Word Work
Station
Four: Library
Station
Five: Spelling
Station
Six: Computer
Station
Seven: Sensory
Station
Eight: Word Family/Word Work
Station
Nine: Magnet
Station
Ten: Word Wall
Station
Eleven: Pocket Chart
Station
Twelve: Write the Room
Station
Thirteen: Phonics
Station
Fourteen: Journals
When
planning your space make sure that you clearly section each area and define
each center space. You can do this with a bookshelf, furniture, or rugs.
Step 2:How
will you store your center material?
When
planning for your stations it is important that you plan how you will store
your material
I
have a teeny tiny problem with cute storage containers so I use these to store
my center materials in
I am
very ocd about my center buckets. My centers usually have several parts: games,
manipulatives, crayons, pencils and etc
These
were my center buckets at the beginning of the year. I don't have many
bookshelves so I had to make one out of crates
The
baskets on the top row are for literature centers and the red baskets are
for math stations
The
buckets are two to a crate so that students know which basket to go and pull.
In the first crate there are baskets for stations 1 and 2 in the next crate
stations 3 and 4 and so on. The baskets are in the correct order of the
stations for example the blue basket in crate one is for Station 1 and the
purple basket is for Station 2. The center captains of responsible for getting
their basket and putting it back. ( We will talk about center captains in
another post)
This is how I stored my center buckets last year
This year I store them a little differently
I have a rolling cart that stores my math centers and my literacy centers are store in flat rubbermaid boxes
( Forgot to snap a pic)
Below are some examples of
how I store my material
Each basket has a label so
that I along with my students know what belongs in what station.
Inside the spelling station
basket is everything they would need to complete the station
I don't allow my students to
walk around during center time so I take a little extra time preparing my
centers so that everything students would need is already in their center
bucket.
The listening station material
remains next to the listening station.
Listening
center materials
A book
inside the ziploc bag with the cd
Game with
pieces and boards for when the students finished listening to the story
Station
3. Setting up your small group area
When
my students are in centers that is when I pull my small group
Here
is a look at my small group area
My
small group area is located in the back of the room so it is far away from the
other students while still close enough for me to monitor them
I
have a space for my anchor charts that I create with my groups
A
pocket chart for various activities and my letter tubs in the windowsill for
easy access
The
area below the pocket chart is magnetic so I utilize that space also
A
white board is a must!
IF
you don't have one a table top one will do
The
purple bucket on the white board holds student's pointers for guided reading
I have two
buckets that hold my pointers, small anchor charts, sight words, alphabet cards
and picture cards. The crates on the left side hold activities that my small
group is working on that week and also binders for me to track their progress.
The pink
container in the middle also holds games and reading buddies
The two
crates on the right hold another set of alpha cards and also the students
guided reading books
Once you have set
up your stations and organized them what is next?
We are going
to talk a little about how to manage stations so that they will run smooth and
effectively for the entire year
Are you ready?
STay with me peeps
When I set up my
centers I also determine my center jobs for my students
These are different
from classroom jobs
Here are my center
jobs
* Center Captain:
The center captains are responsible for getting their center card and their
center bucket. The center captain gets to wear a special hat and is the only
person in that group allowed to disrupt my station or my TA's station if there
is a question
*Material Master:
The material master is responsible along with the center captain for putting
all material back into their bucket and cleaning up.
* Noise Monitor:
simply put they monitor the noise level
If a group gets too
loud and is playing in their center the center captain loses their hat and that
group can't get their number for their BINGO Board
I start the year
off with a Ten Frame chart with numbers on it as a reward system
If the center
groups are on task they get to pull a number and cover the number on their
bingo board
When they get all
numbers filled on the board they have a small treat such as popcorn for snack
As the students get
better in stations I begin to use a 20's chart, 50's chart and finally after
Christmas I use a 100's chart to manage center behavior
This is the same
idea as behavior bingo I just called mine Center Bingo
Works pretty well
for me
----------------------Chirp--------------------------
The next thing that
I noticed that tends to make my centers run smoothly is using center signs
These are posted
around the room and are also written on students center cards that the center
captains use
I use a sheet
protector wrapped in duct tape stuck to the wall to slide the center signs in
*Warning the chart below is very ugly! This was before my TpT days so................... don't hold it against me*
Each of my center
groups has a name
I had a jungle
theme classroom last year so all of my center names where jungle themed
The large picture
cards are my center group names. At the beginning of the year the center
captains would come in and look at their group picture and see what two centers
they would go to for that day
The books are my
guided reading groups
The two books at
the top showed what groups I would get for that day
I would see each of
my reading groups 3 times each week
* EEks I told ya it was hideous*
This worked pretty well but I did not like that they numbers were so small and
some of my groups forgot where they were supposed to go causing some confusion
so I changed it a little and I was so much happier with the results.
I like this system
much better and I am going to use it again next year
Sorry I don't have
a picture of them in the pocket chart so I had to improvise
Here are my center
group cards
Don't worry about
the numbers along the side they were from a previous management system that I
used but didn't like so well
On the back of each
card is the student's numbers who are in that center
Helps me out when I
am rotating center captains plus I had a couple of students who for the life of
them could not remember what center group they were in
With 30 kiddos it
was hard for me to keep track
Problem solved
Instead of using
the number cards from the earlier pic I used some ready made center cards
The small black
numbers on the cards are the center number that match the numbers on the large
center signs.
These are the cards
that the center captains get to tell what station they go to,
In my pocket chart
the animal cards are next to the center cards
So using this
system in the pocket chart the giraffe center captain will come get their card
and go to station 10
Lions would go to
station 6
Monkeys will go to
station 2
When it is time for
students to go to their next center they will just rotate to the number that
comes after. Remember my stations are set up in a circle so the next station is
right next to the station that students are already in. So giraffes will go to
11, lions would go to 7 and monkey would go to 2
Here is a look at
how the cards would be arranged in a pocket chart so when I get ready to assign
students their centers for the next day all I would have to do is rotate the
cards up
The first group
will always start in center 1 in this case it is giraffes. I do centers
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday the first group, the giraffes,
will go to Station 1 and when the next rotation is called they will go to
station 2.
On Wednesday when
we get ready to go to the next station I just simply take the cards 1 and 2
from the top of the pocket chart and move all the rest of the cards up! The
giraffes will now have the station card that says station 3
This is by far the
simplest management that I have tried and it worked really well last year!
Crystal?
Okay enough of that
-------------------Chirp-------------------------
Now what do you do
with all those recording sheets?
I used recording
sheets in just about all of my stations and I do not like the kiddos bringing
all those sheets to me at one time so.......................
Each student has a
center folder that they put all of their recording sheets in and their guided
reading books in
These made it
ALMOST till the end of the year
The students just
slid in all of their center work and guided reading books
At the end of each
day I would check them and give stickers to the ones who completed their center
work. On Friday if the students did not get a sticker on their work they went
back to that center
On all of my center
recording sheets I write the station number in the top corner so when the
students have to go back and complete work they know which station to go to!
After we cleaned up
stations the students would put their folders back into a pocket chart attached
to the back of our door
* sorry my pinkie
is in the pic*
Next year I think I
might use these folders that I got from Target to see if they hold up better
Alright peeps I
think I have rambled enough
Now on to some a freebie
You can use these for you center folder covers if you would like
Click the pic to take you there
When you have time
come and visit me sometime
Peace out Peeps
