 Around the Clock Here is a center
game to reinforce clock numeral placement. For each
game board, glue a construction paper clock to a colored
background. Label each of several chips (in sets of
12 chips) with numerals 1 - 12. In turn have each
player roll a 12 sided die, then cover that number on her
clock with the correctly labeled chip. If a player
rolls a numeral that has already been covered with a
chip, she must pass the die to the next player.
Continue play until on numerals on each clock are
covered. Colleen:)/k-3
French Fried
Counting Getting an order of fries can add up to counting
fun for your students. Start collecting fry
containers. Then write a different number on each
box. Make fries by cutting yellow sponges into
strips. Place the boxes and fries in a
center. To do this activity, a child places the
appropriate number of fries in each box.
Colleen:)/k-3
Jars of Learning
Gather some jars that could be used for canning.
For each jar you gather think of a fruit or veggie to
make out of colored paper (apple, grape, corn,
banana.) Now cut out the shapes of the veggies and
fruit. For each fruit or veggie jar think of an
activity to place on the jars. For instance, one
jar may be called apple activities. You would cut
out apple shapes and label the jar appropriately.
You may choose to write math problems on the
apples. The student will take the jar and complete
all the math problems on another sheet of paper.
You might choose to name another jar corny questions and
place corn cut-outs with questions written on in the
jar. The student will take the jar and answer the
questions on a sheet of paper. Make as many jars as you
would like (be creative) and place them in a line on a
shelf.
Colleen:)/k-3
Edible Math
Students can review a variety of math skills at this
tasty learning center. Place a box of colorful
breakfast cereal and a supply of three-ounce paper cups
at the enter. The student fills one cup with
cereal. Then she uses pieces to complete a variety
of tasks. Post the following tasks in the center
and a worksheet with the following:
- estimate how many
pieces are in the cup and then count them to find
the actual amount
- determine if the
total is an odd or even number
- count the pieces by
two
- determining which
color has the most number of pieces
- create a color or
shape pattern
- After the sheet is
finished and turned in, the student may eat her
math!
Colleen:)/k-3
Finger Spelling
This activity is so much hands on fun! Place a
plastic shoebox, a can of shaving cream, and a list of
current spelling words at the center. A student
sprays a small amount of shaving cream into the shoebox
and uses her finger to write the spelling word she
sees. Or a friend tells her a spelling word and she
spells it without looking. After she is sure the
word is correct she spreads the foam around to erase the
word, then repeats the procedure until all the words have
been spelled correctly. Your thinking
"messy" aren't you. Actually, I did this
with a life skills class using numbers and all you need
to do or have the student do is wipe it up with a paper
towel and the shoebox is ready for the nest
student. You may want to have four or five
shoeboxes in the center. If your students did not
like to practice their spelling words before, they should
after this!!!!
Colleen:)/k-3
Sequencing
Hang-up Hang a clothesline in your classroom and gather a
set of clothespins! Program a set of seasonal
shapes with desired vocabulary words or numbers; then
laminate the shapes for durability and store them in a
clothespin bag. Also make an answer key for
self-checking and place it in the bag. A student
sequences numbers or alphabetize words by suspending them
on the clothesline in the correct order. Students
won't have any hang-ups about sequencing practice with
this clever activity!
Colleen:)/k-3
Dictionary
Detectives If you are working on dictionary skills or
looking for a way to introduce dictionary skills here
goes! Post a list of spelling words, vocabulary
words, or content words at the center. Place
several dictionaries, pencils, and a supply of writing
paper at the center, too. have the students look at
each word on the list and then write the guide words for
the page where the word was found. Then have the
student repeat this for additional words. A good
idea is to provide an answer key at the center so the
students can check their work.
Colleen:)/k-3
I try to keep my eyes open for chats about the topic of
centers. I then add them to this area. It is great to
read ideas from other teachers and maybe then use part of
their idea or modify an idea to meet your needs. We are
very lucky that teachers are so willing to help those
that are looking for ideas. Here are some good ones I
have found on mailrings and chatboards for teachers!!!!
Thanks to all the teachers that have ideas below... You
are helping many!
MATH MENU
GEOMETRY GRADE 2/3
1.With a partner
collect 1 basket of pattern blocks. Take turns sorting
blocks into two different groups and ask your partner to
guess your sorting rule? (Some rules could be shapes that
stack, roll, slide, or shapes with 3 edges, 4 vertices, 6
faces)
2.Finish these
patterns: square triangle circle square triangle circle
square ______ ______ circle oval oval circle oval oval
circle ________ _________ Make up one more pattern using
2-dimensional shapes.
3.Look around our
classroom, draw: 2 things that are rectangles, 3 things
that are square, 1 thing that is a triangle, and 4 things
that are circles. Remember to color the pictures. (Grade
3 can also try to find a hexagon, an oval and an octagon
shape.)
4.Design a robot
using only one shape. Choose a square, circle, rectangle,
diamond, or triangle. Everything in your robot has to be
that shape. Have
fun! We will put these pictures up on thebulletin board.
5.Use a set of
tangrams to create a design. Trace around theoutside of
each shape.
6.Choose 2
geometric solids. Write 3 facts about how they are
different and 3 facts about how they are the same. For
example: a ball has 0 corners,
a cube has 4 corners. Think about their edges, vertices,
faces, and if they slide, stack or roll.
7.Use a geoboard
and create a shape with 1 elastic. Copy the shape onto
dot paper. Now use 2 elastics to create a shape and copy
this design onto dot paper.
8.Use pattern
blocks to trace different shapes out of construction
paper. Use these shapes, string, straws to design a
geometric mobile.
I love to use math
menus from Marilyn Burns. I divide mine into appetizers,
entrees and desserts. Everyone has to do the appetizers,
they can choose one or more from the entrees. The
desserts are more challenging, so they are for after the
students have tried the appetizers and some of the
entrees. I try to build learning from one menu item to
the other, such as:
Geometry
Appetizer
1. Using a basket of pattern blocks fill in one or more
of the pattern block puzzles using the interior outlines
to show you which shapes you need. Count how many you
used of each shape. (These geometric puzzles indicate
exactly which shapes they must use.)
Geometry Entree
2. Using a basket of pattern blocks and a baggie of
pattern block puxxles try this activity. Fill in the
first puzzle using the shapes indicated. Now, using the
same puzzle design, recreate using other pieces by
ignoring the interior lines and just following the
outside boundaries. Count and record how many you used of
each shape.
Geometry Dessert
3. Using a basket of pattern blocks and a blank piece of
paper create a pattern block puzzle. Trace around the
outside. Count and record how
many you used of each shape. Give the traced pattern
block puzzle outline to a friend. See if both of you
created the puzzles the same
way. Try it again with another friend. Remember to count
and recordhow many you used of each shape every time you
recreate a new puzzle.
The Pattern
Block: a game for 2 children
How to play:
Children play this
game in pairs.
Children take turns rolling the die and moving their game
pieces around the board.
After each turn, the child takes the number of pattern
blocks shown in the box where
he/she landed.
When the game is finished, each child creates a design
using the pattern block pieces
he/she has collected.
Materials:
15 pattern blocks
of each color
2 teddy bear counters for game pieces
1 game board
Posted by
jenny/2/oh on 4/24/02
caththorn2@yahoo.com
writes:
HI,
I see many
people are taking about centers. I have done them
many ways. (free choice, by catergory, by group) I
have been working on my centers since I began
teaching. I have a workable solution but it changes
every year. I find some classes need different
amounts of control than others. This year I have a
very nice class that can easily stay occupied for up to 1
1/2 hours. This class loves to listen to stories on tape
and play games so my stations are set up to accomodate
thier interests. I am horrible at writing but this
is a fair idea of what I do almost daily.
I have 4 stations that my students rotate through on days
I want to work with small groups. This would be my
chance to work with leveled groups. I teach
specific strategies that the group needs. I do not
teach the same lesson to each group. Studetns
change groups often as their needs dictate. I try
to do stations 3-4 times a week. On these days it
goes something like:
Groups vary in size from 2-3 to a maximum of 6-7.
Each group is a color name. Roughly the lighter the
color the easier the material they are given to work
with. I have a chart with group assignments on the
board. Each station has a colored game for that
group. Yellow group always takes the yellow folder
and so on.
At the beginning of the year I teach every game at my
station while the other students play games or put
puzzles together or color. My goal the first week
is to teach them to move from one table or area to the
next with as little confusion or talking as
possible. Slowly I add a game to each
station. My games are all leveled so the beginning
of the year the games are very easy and get progressivly
more difficult. I make most of my own games but
have been know to purchase games. (LAKESHORE). I do
not alter the rules to the games but make them
progressivly harder. I teach at a very low SES
school so most my kids do not know how to play simple
games.
Setup - I
have 4 stations. I try to have 4 groups of desks to
tables to use but since I rotate room 4 times a year that
is not always possilbe. I choose the areas for each
station and then do not move them. It might be a
carpet, group of tables or desks or just an area.
My lowest group always starts at staionnumber 1 and moves
on sequentially. This is easiest for them. I
am always station 4. At the beginning of the year
stations might only be 5-10 minutes at each
station. By the end of the year they might last 25
minutes. It depends on the day.
Stations -
I have my games divided into comprehenion blending
and segmenting skills, written communications, high
frequency words. IN the past I was lucky and had a helper
in the classroom for stations. I no longer have any
help but used my aids with the High Frequencey games.
Comprension
- beg of year listening to books on tapes and coloring a
book report. Later writing book report end of year
reading books and writing a response to me about the
book. I often read books on a casette and kids
listen to me reading a book. This might even be a
book from our reading series. I try to keep the
book length abut 5 minutes of reading leaving lots of
time for them to write me about the book. This is a
great way to see what they are understanding.
Blending
and Segmenting - Beg of year. If I have enough
computers (some rooms do not have any) I use computers
for this station. If not I do amkaing words type
activity. I record my voice on a tape. Kids
play the tape and make the changes. They start and
stop as needed. I also stress beg sounds at this
station as well as memorizing patterns. I have many games
I have made that use these strategies. One of the
easiest is I found picture and put the name on the back
(example a picture of a cat on the front CAT on the
back). Kids sit at a cocokie sheet with
magnetic letters and look at the picture. They use
the letters to spell the word. For my lowest they might
only be trying to get beg sound or ending sound and so
on. I have lots of picture made and sorted by work
family, vowel sounds, spelling patterns and so on.
Written
Communications - beg of year this might be dittos from
our reading series (district mandates we use them so I do
here) At the end of the year this is more a free
writing area making up stories. I often leave a
stuff animal or small plastic toy at each desk.
They write me all about the item, or a story about the
item. They can work on this for days. Each
child as a folder (stored in a folder holder) at that
station.
High
Frequence - Bingo with HF words, Wordo with HF words,
Checkers with HF words and any other game I can think
of. Kids take turns being the caller on BINGO or
WORDO (tic-tac-toe with words). I control the
words. They might be a spelling pattern we are
learning, high frequency words or even wrods that I am
hearing many mistakes on. Each group will have
their own words so that they are working where they need
to be. Kids love this station as they think
they are playing games.
My station
- this is where I target skills a child or group of
children need. It gives me a change to hear every
child and work with them in a small group.
I will also use this setup on days I need to test but I
only have 3 stations and I call out indivuals to be
tested. I see myself using this with some of the
ideas I have taken from OSG. I can see her
confrence time as similar to my station time.
I hope this is not too confusing.
CAT
STockton, cA
I used a pocket chart to hold my
center information. It was so easy to flip my cards
from morning to afternoon and also to rotate the groups
daily. I made one set of student groups with their
group name and their individual names on it. I
would place that card first. Then I made four sets
of each center card. For instance the "Reading
Nook" was duplicated four times. I post a
matching card at each center. I usually have four
centers that are required. The four centers are lined up
after their name card. I then rotate the center
cards each night before going home. It just takes a
minute to slide them all over. The kids seem to do
better when I don't change their name cards. I then
have "Happy Face Places" that are marked around
the room. The children can visit a HFP anytime they have
completed and shown me their work, or they have rotated
through all four centers. I have a center file box
set up by their cubbies. They file their center
work as they finish that center. Not all centers
will have something to file. By the end of the
year, I have them write down the title of the book that
they read or looked at even at the "Reading
Nook." I can check daily on how many centers
they visited or how much "time" they spent on
each. I also can ask a child to bring me his/her
center work if I suspect they are heading to a HFP
prematurely. This system has worked very well for
me. The kids seem to understand it after only a day
or two of modeling. I hope this helps! Have
a great day!
Whitney :)
Because I use 4
blocks, I don't have "traditional" reading
groups. I have several different activites
available for the kids to do during "activity
time" (that's what we call it). Each activity
has a certain number of tickets (laminated pieces of
2" x 4" construction paper - different color
construction paper signifies which activity that child is
doing). I only have 3 tickets for Listening Center
because I only have 3 walkmen right now - one broke and I
haven't replaced it yet. I just make sure there are
about 25 tickets available so kids can move around.
Here's a day's example: Computer Center - 4 tickets
(we have 4 computers); Listening Center - 3 tickets; Art
Cart (I have a couple of rolling carts that I fill with
crayons, markers, templates, glue, scratch paper, etc...
that the kids use to draw - it makes me feel better about
not doing as much art as I'd like to) - 4 tickets;
Reading Center - 4 tickets; Lego Center - 4 tickets;
Puzzles - 4 tickets. I excuse each table to choose
their activity (tables rotate who chooses first).
Oh, and students who have unfinished work cannot choose a
ticket until all their other classwork is finished.
So all the kids are engaged in activities - what do I
do? I use this time to pull students who need extra
help or who were absent and need to work on an
assignment. I only do "activity time" for
30 minutes a day and I found this time sooooooo helpful
to play "catchup" with kids who've missed class
and give those students who need extra support.Hope this
help - Kim/1st-2nd/CA
You need to
practice your centers and the behavior you want their
before you try doing anything else. Be ready
for a working humm. I spend time at the
beginning of the year teaching the kids how to rotate
through the centers, what is expected while they are
there. They also need to learn that they may
not interrupt the teacher while she is with a
group. They may ask questions bewteen groups.
They also need to know which students that they can ask
for help. The best rule is no more that two people
at a center. The more grades in your
school that do the centers, the easier it will be for you
to teach them. I'd suggest using stationary centers
like they have in Fountas and Pennel. You'll
save a great deal of time, the kids won't play with the
"cute" games, save your time. Good
luck! Robin in Missouri
CeeGee14@aol.com
wrote:
Hi all! In my room, I collaborated with the other 2nd
grade teacher at my school. We decided together what
centers to do and brainstormed together. Although we did
the same ones, I adapted those to fit my style. I am
sending the centers that we used with a description. If
you have further questions please ask. I am planning on
using them next year, so if you have ideas,
please add (I love hearing suggestions!!).
1.
Proofreading--(everyday) This center had to be done first
everyday. The students were given 3 sentences, poems,
statements or 1 paragraph a day to proofread and correct.
Mistakes included end marks, names, addresses, beginning
capitals, any other grammar mistakes that had been
introduced previously. These sentences were gone over at
the end of the center period.
I know that proofreading in isolation isn't necessarily
the best way ! to teach grammar, but it is required on
our standardized test (PACT). We thought this was the
best way to cover grammar everyday.
2. Poetry--(Once
a week) I introduced two poems on Mondays before shared
reading. The class discussed what the poem was about, any
poetic elements (rhyming words, etc.), as well as ways to
illustrate the poems. Then during the center time, the
students would read the poems and illustrate them in
their Poetry Journal. The students were also allowed to
read these during
reading times.
3. Browsing
Boxes--(Twice a week) The books in the baskets are books
that the students have read during guided reading with
me. These are books that are on the students reading
level or slightly lower. The students are allowed to
browse through these books and read ones that they are
interested in. Ideally, all these books have been read
with the teacher, but I put books from the same sets in
the baskets. For examp! le, if I read an Amelia Bedelia
book with a guided reading group, I wouldn't hesitate to
put another Amelia Bedelia book in the baskets. I believe
this keeps the students from getting bored with the
choices.
4. Listening
Center--(Once a week) I have one listening center set up
with 3 head sets and enough books so that each can have a
book to follow along with. This was the hardest to plan,
because most of the books that we used, we had to make.
However, the students thoroughly enjoyed listening to the
stories and following along with them. Next year, I am
planning to do something with the books every once in a
while, such as write a different ending or something to
get them a little more involved.
5. Partner
reading--(Twice a week) The students partner read with
someone in there center group, which is not in their
guided reading group. The students are reading with
someone who could be reading on a higher or lower level!
. The studnets are allowed to pick any book (which does
not have to be a browsing box book) to read, as long as
they are reading. This one sometimes takes a little more
guidance, but is very helpful for students to
"practice" with someone that can listen and
help.
6. Spelling
center--(Twice a week) This center definately helps when
cheering the words becomes mundane. In this center I had
magnetic letters, a baking pan, and a magna doodle.
Therefore two sets of partners could be working at one
time. With the magnetic letters, the pairs of students
were practicing spelling the word wall words for the week
by "quizzing" each other. With the magna
doodle, the students practiced spelling any word wall
words. One student would call out some words and check
them after the other wrote them, then they switched. On
Friday's spelling test we test the 5 word wall words and
5 words from around the room, so this helped with both.
7. Accel! erated
reader--(Twice a week) During this time the students were
allowed to read and take AR tests. This is an incentive
program in our school. The scores for AR seemed to go up,
as well as the students interest with this center. I did
not require AR test to be taken. The important thing for
me was that the students were reading.
8. Wee
mail--(Twice a week) At our school, we have the Wee Mail
program set up where students write letters to friends
and teachers and it goes through the mail system. During
this time, the students were allowed to write letters to
friends that did not and could not (due to time) get
written at other times. This increased the amount of
writing in the classroom.
While
the students were in centers, I was working with a guided
reading group (ability grouped) at a round table. We
worked on reading skills that the students in that group
needed. It was time for me to spend working with small
groups. ! Although I didn't do it this year, I would like
these small groups to engage in literature circles during
this time next year. I did not start centers until after
Christmas (half way through the school year). I left
shared reading as a time to work on comprehension
(stories out
of the basal) and those groups were left as multi-ability
groups. I had about an hour and a half each day for
centers. Some days less depending on time. I did not do
SSR after I started centers because there was plenty of
reading and choice that the students were doing. I always
introduced the WWW on Monday using Working with Words,
but some days during the week this was left out (the
students had the center to work with the words). I am
planning on using centers all year next year. I
definately saw the benefits, such as increased indepence
among my students. There were a few who did not use there
time wisely, but for the most part the students loved!
the idea of being able to work at their own pace. Reading
scores went up, so I know that the reading helped and
most used the time wisely!!
I am know that this e-mail is long, but for those of you
that read it, I hope that it gave you some ideas that you
could use. If something is not clear, please ask
questions. If this sparked ideas or you have some of your
own, please share.
Have a great summer,
Christy
2nd/SC
I just came
from a 2 day workshop on Lit Centers for K-2. The
presenter said she divides her class into groups of no
more then 4, One high, one low and two ave. She does
centers for 2 hours and 20 min. The centers are: Writing
Activity, 2 practice reading(one for guided readers they
have been using in group and one for free choice or AR),
a listening center with about 40 taped books available,
working with words center and an optional activity center
for theme, MAth, Sci,SS, or computers. They are
every center every day.
She
calls a guided reading grooup every 20 minutes, so they
come from differnt work groups to be in their ability
group for guided reading instruction.
The
last 20 minutes is a make up time for whatever center
they missed at Guiding Reading time.
In
the writing center they do a journal activity, step book,
pop-up book, shape book, friendly letter, post card,
lists, response to reading, etc.
At
the working with words she has an assigned activity every
day too: Bingo, Rivet, Pocket charts, and I can't
remember them all.....it's in my notes.
Anyway
if you have questions you can email me back.
Terry
Centers can
be a very worthwhile and much loved time for the kids if
you don't make yourself go nuts in theprocess. =-) As
someone else mentioned, I think the key is to keep it as
simple as possible. The general format of my centers
stays the same each week and I just modify the activity.
I am very careful about the amount of planning that I put
into my centers. If I'mspending more time prepping for
them than I am for my actual reading lessons, something
is wrong.I use a very modified workboard from the
Fountas and Pinnell book.
My kids have one main center that they\ go to each day. I
usually meet with two guided reading groups a day.
Whichever group comes to me first doesnot go to a
"main" center that day. Instead, they finish
any center work that is not yet complete and is in their
folders (more on those to come) and then they can do one
of the secondary centers. On Fridays, the kids go to
whatever center they didn't go to in the week when they
were with me for the guided reading group as the first
group back. I have four main centers that the kids rotate
through.They are as follows
Dialogue
Journals/Poem Illustration: Students write to me in their
composition books in the form of a friendly letter and I
write back. It's a great way torecord growth and is a
super assessment tool. I like doing them as a center
because I only have 4-5 to write in a night. When they
finish with their d.j. they illustrate the poem of the
week that will beadded to their poetry notebooks on
Friday. I started adding this to center time because they
could do it completely independently and it seemed like I
wasn't using time wisely when we gave up 15 minutes for
the hwole class to stop and illustrate a poem.
Working With
Words Center: The kids might do a writing around the room
looking for digraphs, play a word wall game (Get the book
Making
your word wall morer interactive-
great ideas that can be adapted for centers. I usually
teach them one week whole group during our working with
words block and then the next week the kids can do it
independently in the center.)Rainbow words, magnetic
spellings, etc. are all examples of things we do during
this center
Reading Center:
Listening Center with tapes is commonly used for this
center. My kids need to do some type of response to it
when they are finished. This center might also feature
some type of extension activity that is going along with
whatever story we're reading whole group. Getting out
some big books, reading around the room, etc. are all
options for this center.
My fourth center
each week is usually my only one that I need to think and
plan for. I often have some type of activity that
correlates with our science and social studies themes but
involves reading and writing. For instance, during
dinosaurs, the kids completed (wrote and illustrated) a
flip book with five facts they learned about dinos. They
also enjoy\par when we do research at this center. During
the oceans, they had to choose a book about an ocean
animal from the tub, read it, and then create a
3-dimensional cubes with facts/illustrations. I also may
make this be a math center: writing word problems,
creating a menu to use during a math lesson on money,
etc.
Finally, if I
have a very cool art project that I don't want to take
time away from my large group instructional time to do,
I'll have the kids do it during center. I tend to limit
my centers to reading/writing activities, but I figure
one that is just art won't hurt from time to time.
Ceneter Folders:
I also have struggled with the management issue of
keeping track of things in the past. I went to a great
conference by Linda Holliman of BER. She showed us how to
make a four pocket folder out of oaktag. Take two large
pieces of oaktag (I use 24 x 36). Fold one in half with a
hot dog fold (the long way) and\ then fold into a
hamburger fold. This will make up the pocket part. With
the second paper, Fold it in half as a hamburger fold
(short way) and then open it back up. Place it (the paper
is going horizontally) inside the fold of the one you
folded as a hotdog/hamburg fold. Then fold it and voila!
you have a 4 pocket folder. Staple the ends to create the
pockets. On the outside, the students put their names. On
the inside pocket, they write still working, on the
right-hand inside pocket they write finished, and on the
back, cubby (or mailbox, home, etc..) They may then
illustrate the top parts of each page of their folders.
(Oh, the decorating of the folders is actually one of
their first center activities!).\pWhen they are at
centers, all center work goes in the folder. At the
front, they can place center menus,directions, etc.. When
they finish something it goes in the finished side.
Anything that is still being worked on gois in the still
working pocket. At the end of centers they put the
folders in one of two crates. If anything is in the
finished side, it goes in the crate labeled finished. If
they have nothing on that side, it goes in the other
crate. This way, I only have to go through folders that
have something completed. After I check off the kids
work, I either put it in the home/cubby pocket or back
int he still working (corrections, not completed, not
done up to\par the standards, etc..) The kids go through
their folder the next day and put any papers from teh
back pocket\ into their cubby and then get to work. It's
been a lifesaver!!! I hope this makes sense. If anyone
has any questions, please feel free to email. Paula
The easiest and
most popular centre (station) in my room this year is
Writing Around the Room. We didn't do this one until
later in the year but they love it. I cut up the
long sheets of foolscap in half and I have 4-5 clipboards
all stored in a box. Each child gets a
clipboard places a sheet of paper on it and then for the
next 15-20 minutes they literally write around the
room. Many copy the daily morning message or parts
of it. Others make a list of words from labels
around the classroom or word wall words or copy friends
names off of charts around the room or book titles
off the shelf. A few on my students are drawing
things at first but usually label them as well or at
least try. At the end of the station time (I set a
timer bell) each student date stamps their sheet and
places it with their name and number on it in the
finished box. I don't mark these but I can see what
they did in that time period. I file these in
their archive and then they go home with everything
else once we pull 3 items for our portfolios.
You can also do reading around the room with a few
pointers and then they partner up and take turns reading
around the room to each other.
Start out with
very limited choices and spend time teaching the kids
exactly what you expect. Start with the least complicated
centers and when those are working smoothly add new ones.
Don't try to start any sort of small groups for at least
a month or 6 weeks. Spend that time monitoring the groups
and interacting with the children. When all your centers
are up and going independently, then start your small
groups. Good luck! Addie/mo
on 6/17/02
I agree with
Addie, spend LOTS of time explaining and modeling how
things work and give lots of praise, positive
reinforcement... I have had to try several different
methods for center time. Each teacher is different, so
what works for one may not work for another. I am
currently searching for another new method for next year,
but here is what I have tried over the years:Free choice
centers= lots of time spent at the beginning of the year
modeling, etc.., kids get to choose their centers
independently. During this time I would work in small
groups on activities, projects, guided reading,
etc...This method was my favorite until I lost my
assistant due to budget cuts. The kids get to become
independent and make their own choices and become
accountable for their own actions.Rotation centers= This
is the method I had to go to after my assistant was cut.
I found that I had too many students to circulate around
the room independently without a "go to" person
in case of emergency or other mishap. I was spending all
of center time taking care of little things instead of
getting any work done in small groups. I used Microsoft
clip art and some real photos of each center in the room
to make groupings of centers. On a red piece of
construction paper I put 3 pictures; Computers, blocks,
puzzles etc... Then on yellow 3 more centers and so
forth, you get the idea. Then the kids were grouped into
colors and I tried to seperate the troublemakers into
groups with the level headed ones. Each day each group
had 3 centers to rotate through and there were 3
"free" centers that they could visit if they
were finished with all 3 centers. This seemed to work and
take care of alot of problems during center time, but I
just felt like I was cheating the kids out of alot of
things.
This year I am looking for something new... hopefully
somebody on this thread will have a better idea...
Good Luck,
vanna/tx
Hi.
I have a literacy center time in the morning and a free
center
time in the afternoon.
In
the literacy centers, I have 2 students per center. There
is a chart with velcro pictures of the centers I can take
off and rotate to the next group of kids names. This way,
I can change out the
centers if they start to get bored as well. I take
digital pictures of all the centers, lamintate, and
velcro them. After 20 minutes, the kids rotate to the
next center. They will only do three literacy centers per
day. One of these will include a thematic lesson (various
depending on what we are working on), others include ABC
stamps to spell words on the word wall, letter tiles, abc
boards matching magnets to alphabet letters, headphones,
magadoodles, leappads, etc.
In
the afternoons during free center time, they are able to
choose from any center at random. However, the rule is
that no more than 4 kids can be in any center. If they
are arguing over a specific center, I either set a timer
for them to switch, or if they keep arguing they both are
not allowed to play in that center. They learn really
quick to work on a compromise :) - Brittany on 6/23/02
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