My Daily Schedule- Work Centers
Okay, I know I post this a lot, but I’m here to share pictures of my work center rotation system. I absolutely LOVE my work centers. I know, I’ve said that before! I have fine tuned this system and continue and will always continue to revamp this system to make it the most efficient system ever for my students at that time! I love my work centers because my students REALLY DO learn. This system promotes independence and… surprise surprise… it’s consistent!
So, like last year, we have 3 work centers! Each center is labeled by color! See below 🙂
BLUE……..GREEN……RED
Notice my CUTE signs hanging above each table 🙂 I love them! And no.. hanging things from the ceiling does NOT distract my students. At least not the ones I have now!
So we conduct our morning work centers right after we finish our Morning Meeting. Students check their schedules and get their working card. They are passed out once they have check their schedule. I come around and let them choose a toy/activity that they are going to “work for.”
working cards and token economy (toy pictures) folder!
All of our TOYS! 🙂
Once they all have their working cards and activities picked, working cards start! The working cards are labeled by colors by groups. There is a pink group, orange group and yellow group. Each group has 2-3 students. These colors are different then the table colors to minimize confusion. As you can see, the working cards are glued on their work group colors so that it is easy to see who is in each group.
Working cards are carried by the student from table to table. Each group’s working card has visual cues at the bottom of the card indicating the order of tables they will attend to (Ex. 1st Red table, 2nd yellow table, and 3rd blue table). The working card serves as a great reinforcer for my student’s. When a student becomes unmotivated or begins to act out, a simple prompt to the working card reminds the student that they will be rewarded for good behavior and hard work. Depending on the student, I allow the student to change what they are working for during work centers if they become unmotivated.
My morning work centers are almost always the same! The blue table works on Math, green works on writing, and red is technology. (MUCH MORE DETAIL ABOUT CURRICULUM NEXT WEEK!) At the end of the rotation, if the student has completed their work and behaved appropriately they receive a clothespin to clip on to the working card. This provides a visual for the student that they completed their rotation as well as provide fine motor practice. We spend about an hour total during the morning work centers. We spend about 15 minutes at each center totaling 45 minutes of work time. After all three rotations, if the student has earned all 3 clothespins they place their working card on their desk and “trade” it in for their preferred task/activity. For those student’s that did not earn all three clothespins, they return back to the table they did not earn their clip from and finish their uncompleted work. Student’s are held accountable for their behaviors, and must earn free time. The students have about 15 minutes to play and clean up before breakfast time!
Colored clothes pins in colored bins at their colored table labels! (Yes.. I’m neurotic!)
(picture from last year, we have no yellow table this year.. it’s green instead!)
We do work center rotations again after recess. We do this same exact process to maintain consistency. During the afternoon work centers we do reading at the green table, technology at the red table, and science/fine motors at the blue table. Again- SO MUCH MORE about the curriculum and tasks next week 🙂
If you want to purchase working cards for your classroom, you can purchase them HERE!
