In my 10 year tenure as a first grade teacher, I have had a love-hate relationship with centers. I love working with kids individually and in small groups. I hate having to manage keeping everyone else busy and independent so I can do that. I hold reading centers in the morning and math centers in the afternoon, 30 minutes each. This is also the time that students are pulled by specialists for RtI or MTSS minutes. Here is the best way I have found to do centers:
Ketchup = Catch Up
Mustard = Must Do
These are things that they must do during center time. I have them in groups of 4. They share a basket of center materials. Here are some examples:
I set a timer for 15 minutes to do the center. If they are not done in that allotted time, they stop anyway and go on to the next mustard item.
Other mustard items include rereading two decodable books from the pouches in their desks.
These I send home for "homework". When they bring them back, they go into these pouches. I clean them out periodically to make sure they are reading challenging enough books for their independent reading level.
After their books, they do an iReady lesson. iReady is a computer based program that they take benchmark tests on three times a year. Then the program makes them a personal "path" of learning activities.
Pickle = Pick One
Mayo = May do
If they finish all of the previous tasks, there are may do options. Not very many students get to mayo, but I don't want them to run out of activities. These are more desirable activities to encourage them to finish the other parts.
What am I doing during centers?
During centers, I am pulling kids into similarly leveled groups to reteach or to read decodable text.
My school uses standards based grading. So when we are at the end of the grading period, I use center time to meet individually with students to test them.
Click the picture for a freebie with the ketchup, mustard, pickle, and mayo icons. These could also be used in a pocket chart.
