Wow again! Y’all are awesome! Your responses to “Scoop Alert!” and “Paperwork SOS” are so fantastic. Teachers are the BEST! I hope you’re enjoying the comments as much as I am. And if you didn’t get a chance to respond yet, please still do!
I kept trying to post yesterday, and I declare it just didn’t happen. But it’s happenin’ today! Speaking of happenin’, it’s June 15, and you know what that means: the 15 new books I told you about last week are now on TheMailbox.com for your viewing pleasure. And, of course, you’re probably wondering about today’s blog topic (since a response before June 20 earns you an entry into our drawing for a free book). So read on!
This weekend, as I was meandering between booths at a local farmers’ market, I was reminded of classroom learning centers. I imagine it takes a lot of effort to set up and maintain a booth at the farmers’ market. I know this is true for learning centers, no matter what grade you teach. When I taught third grade, I had free-time centers for early finishers, which I changed out monthly. I also had daily center work, which students were required to complete. The prep was challenging but the benefits were tremendous: lots of skill practice took place, the kids loved going to centers (yes, even in third grade!), and I had very few behavior problems.
So let’s talk classroom centers! What types of learning centers do you have? What set up and management tips do you have for teachers who are just getting started with learning centers? What types of centers do your students like the most?
Waiting to hear from y’all,
Diane
When I began using centers, I began with too many and it got overwhelming! I suggest starting with fewer centers and working your way up to more centers. AND I started with too long of a time, plan for a shorter time because it’s easy to extend. AND I try to have a good mix of centers, some academic and structured and some fun and unstructured, but don’t make one way more fun than another! ; ) In the end I believe centers are hard, but are beneficial and it just takes time and practice to get the hang of it (as is with most things in life).
I teach prekinder, and I am a participant in the Texas State Ready! grant. We are required to have 7 centers: Pretend & Learn, Construction, Math & Science, Creative Corner, Writing, ABC, & Library. (I also have a computer center.)
I have had very few behavior problems with my centers. Each child has a name/picture tag with a piece of Velcro on the back. There are anywhere from 3 to 6 places for the children at each center. They must stick their name/picture tag on one of the the open slots at a center in order to be there. If a center is full, then they must find a center that is open. I make sure that every center is filled with planned, purposeful, playful activities.
The most popular center is usually Math & Science. I always thought Pretend & Learn or Construction would be the most popular, but I was wrong.
The name/picture tags are placed in what I call the Name Basket at the end of center time, and each day it’s a different student’s job to collect the tags. They love that job!
I haven’t used centers in a few years due to either the young or mixed age group I have. But when I did what I remember was using a audible timer that the kids could hear, they knew after a few days they only had a certain amount of time in a center and that was it, they got right to work/play, and again after a few days there were no complaints about having to leave to move into a new center, and having a timer they could hear they started to monitor themselves or each other and left me time for other important/fun tasks.
i teach a 3 to 4 year old class and although i would like to use centers more i have a problem with class space.i am wondering if portable centers can work with that age..ie in a box and moved to different parts of the table or floor…any suggestions?
I have taught both kindergarten and 4th grade and have done centers in both. I have found that when you start centers it is super important that your directions are very clear. I would agree that if you are starting them for the first time it is best to start with a few and work your way up. I have always had a center dedicated to reading, math, and working with words. The others differed depending on the grade in kindergarten it was usually either a craft or play center. In 4th grade I had a social studies/science center and writing. My students seem to really enjoy centers, especially those that are hands-on activities, as opposed to just completing papers. I also try to incorporate collaboration skills when I can. To minimize behavior problems I used a cooperation chart in 4th grade. This chart was grouped by station and each station at sub headings for staying on task, noise level and collaboration. For each station the student would evaluate themselves (using 1-5) and have 2 other people from their group evaluate them as well. It seemed to work really well.
I love the concept of centers and even put forth a great effort to create centers but I have to be honest I am horrible at center management. This year I want to give my 4th graders time to use and learn from the centers I setup in my classroom. My biggest concerns are motivating my students to use the centers and manage their behavior. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to successfully manage centers I am all ears.
When starting work stations (centers), it’s best to go slowly and practice procedure. In the beginning, I walk around and monitor students. Afterwards, we have a group meeting and discuss things that went well and things that didn’t go well.
I use a listening station, computer station, writing station, independent/buddy reading station, teacher station, math station, and games/puzzles station. The games/puzzle station could be something like Scrabble, Upwards or some other game where the children can work on spelling. The children really love going to the computer station. Each week they have a new activity to complete. They also like going to the listening station. There, they listen to a book and complete some kind of follow up activity.
I teach third grade. Instead of calling the activities, I call them work stations.
I haven’t tried centers yet. I look forward to reading everyone’s comments. Maybe they’ll give me the courage to try.
I have centers each day in my first grade classroom. I use a center chart that I bought but you can also make one that has the students names and which center they are to begin in. I set my classroom up so that students rotate clockwise with their group. I use a rainstick once to signal cleanup and again for moving to the next center. This is incorporated in my reading/literacy block so I have a reading group, library, computer/leapfrog, listening and word study. I sometimes have themed centers in the afternoon(maybe once a month) if I want to incorporate a theme like apples, Dr. Seuss, seasons etc… I switch out activities for my morning centers weekly based on the reading skill. For example short a-listening to a book on tape with short or or short vowels phonics activities, playing a short a game on starfall.com for computer, short a matching game in word study, finding short a words in stories for library. Some center activities are store brought, others I have my assistant make or sometimes I make, ideas from The Mailbox of course and the reading series. hardly any behavior problems, make sure to go over the center before placing students at that center and hold them accountable for the work done. Once you get them established it’a just a matter of switiching out the activities.Also I rotate every 10-20 minutes.
I have used centers in both 4th grade and then kinder when I moved down.
I have a space issue in kinder, so I had to really work with the students to clean up and put things back so that we had space to work when center time was over.
I use a timer to remind everyone when it is time to move to the next center that way I can totally focus on the group I am with.
I know next year I will continue to refine all my center time in kinder to ensure I meeting the needs of the students and myself.
Teaching is a never ending life of learning what works and what needs changed depending on the group of students from year to year.
I have taught Kindergarten for the last 5 years. I use centers for skill practice in writing letters, letter recognition, letter sounds, and high frequency word practice. I use different types of centers or stations. Sometimes it is actually writing letters, other times it is a game, and other times it could be a puzzle, or a puppet that begins with the letter we are learning. My first year of teaching Kinder it took me alot of extra time after school to get all the materials together and get the station ready for the next day, but now it does not take that much time. The kids love stations and cannot waituntil the next day that we do stations.
I teach kinder and I start out introducing 4 centers the first week (puzzles, sand, homeliving, & library or blocks). Then after that I keep though and intro more. I have up to 15 but normally have 8 to 10 open at a time. Then I switch out when they get bored with one. A great literacy center book is Literacy Work Stations by Debbie Diller and then of course I add activities from the The Mailbox.
I use centers daily in my prek room. Because of space issues Mary I do put cneters in different corners of the room on the floor. It all depends on what they are using of course. Storage bins can be really helpful in keeping things together.
I have used centers in my 3rd grade classroom for 12 years. I have 6 centers that students rotate through, and allow up to 4 students in each center at a time. Students can choose any order to rotate through the centers, but must complete them all before repeating any. Each student keeps a daily log sheet where they summarize what they did in their center that day and also rate their own behavior in the center. At the beginning of the year we model what Outstanding, Satisfactory and Needs Improvement behavior in a center looks like. Reminder posters are around the room, so I have very few behavior issues – peer pressure to make sure they can rate themselves an O is better than me rating them! During center time, I work on interventions with individuals or small groups and schedule any “pull outs” so students never miss direct instruction or seat work assignments.
I have two types of centers; play centers and learning stations. Learning stations are the areas my students have to complete tasks in each week. On Monday I give them a map of the different stations and they have till Thursday to do the work that is in their folder at each station. I give them an hour every morning to work, then we meet for circle time. After classwork and Fridays the kids have free play. Centers help to keep the students active and has helped with tattle telling and fighting. Knowing that they have work to do they get busy right away. One tip I found that it makes clean up faster and easier if the centers are color coded. For example homeliving is pink and purple, & blocks is blue.
I love learning centers/work stations, but space is at a premium for me, so I rely on products that can do double duty. For instance, I do have a Playdough Place, but it includes letter & number cutters in addition to homemade activity mats I can change out according to the theme of the moment. My Science Center includes a plastic box full of transparent magnetic chips mixed in with solid non-magnetic chips on which I placed little stickers of fish, butterflies, farm animals, and jungle/safari animals for categorizing, counting, and/or graphing in addition to teaching magnetic properties. And I decorated one of my Book Nook walls with a folder storage holder that holds literature-themed file folder games. The Mailbox Magazine and Books patterns have proved invaluable to me when adapting and creating educational material for my centers/stations!
I love centers! My advice to teachers who are getting started would be to get a resource book (or talk to a colleague) to explore different management techniques, then figure out what works for you and jump right in! Not all management styles work for every teacher’s personality!
I’ve been teaching for 17 years, and I don’t mind a little “noise” during center time, so I do “free choice” centers — my kindergarten students choose from @ 8 centers, and are supposed to stay on task and complete 2-3 centers a day; centers stay the same all week, for 3-4 days (depending on our special schedule). They have “center folders” with a “center report”, where they color to record their choices (centers are color-coded). They must visit all centers before revisiting a favorite. When training at the beginning of the year, center choices might include playdoh, lego, coloring (things that don’t need a whole lot of teacher assistance). Later, centers include the following: books, LIstening to books on CD/tape, writing, read-the-room, math, art, science, games, “extra” (misc. activities that don’t fit elsewhere), or ??
A few years ago I had a friend who felt that if she did centers, she would “lose control” of her class. On the contrary! If you look closely, all of the students are engaged in meaningful learning activities! Sometimes I feel like George Peppard on the A-Team — “I love it when a plan comes together!” (And sometimes, not so much!!)
I have required learning centers for must preschools,
block, dramatic play, art, science, manips./puzzles, litercy,circletime, listening, music, computers and a be by myself area. My students love center time their favorite areas are blocks, dramatic play and art.
As a preschool teacher, I definitely use centers. They are the best way to teach children to use their skills independently. Most of the centers are fairly common, house, blocks, writing, math, puzzles, listening, computers, art, sensory/science, etc. The children love most of the centers, but blocks, house, art, puzzles, and sensory/science are the constant favorites. I try lots of different things in house and the children LOVE it! Their favorites this year were an igloo, where we went ice fishing, a music store, where they could practice all of their favorite instruments, and a gym, where they got to run on the treadmill and do exercises on the ball and with therabands, which I got from our PT.
Centers…I need them so that I can work with children individually and in small groups. The children need them so they can have some down time to themselves, be creative, practice cooperating and problem solving, and sharing. I have been teaching a little over 20 years, most of them with kindergartners and have noticed a trend in children not knowing how to really play, create, build, be imaginative. Most don’t know how to stay engaged with blocks, dolls, and other open ended materials. I felt being able to choose what you play with and who you play with was valuable. I learned so much about the children watching them interact and play. The only problem is now that my teaching assistant is working only a couple hours a day she is not here at center time and it is difficult to oversee the children’s behavior and activities and accomplish writing conferences/ tutoring. I am deciding over the summer whether to continue to let the children choose or micro manage so that I can pull children to work with them.
I do literacy centers during my guided reading groups. I have around 8 going at a time for a class of 24. I try to keep it to 2 or 3 people per center as I have found in my school at the Kindergarten level this really helps with management. At the end of each rotation I ring a small bell which signals clean up and gathering time to view where the students are going next. I rotate the center cards and place up the reading groups if they are to meet with me at the table. All the centers focus on skills practice for things we have learned in the classroom, such as Computer, Word Wall, Sound Sort center, Alphabet, Writing, Library, Listening, Words Galore (this comes later in the year as they are building and reading words here), Rhyme and Tell (for practicing reading nursery rhymes), handwriting center and art center. Some stay open all year and the activities just become more challenging, others I take away and replace. I use activity choices within each center, so I don’t have to make a new activity each week, just straighten it out and make sure it is stocked. I love centers as I enjoy working with the small groups and giving the students the opportunity to work independently.
As I finish reading the comments it seems space was a big concern. If you have a window ledge or countertop the children can reach you can use tape to divide it into sections. At each spot hang a chartlet with skills you want the children to practice and place a pointer at each spot for children to play teacher and put some other activity there as well. Children often prefer to stand when working on something. Another option would be to divide your dry erase board or chalkboard into sections. Put letter, number, or word rings on stuffed animals’ necks using a ribbon and shower curtain ring and have the children say and write them on the board.