I got a great question on my last post and I too had the same question for the longest time. How do you get 8+ stations in during one week?!! Well, I hope to try to answer that for you to the best of my ability.
First I am going to show you my visual plans since that is probably the main reason why you came here! :)
... but, I promise if you stay you're not going to be disappointed!! :)
(wink, wink--free stuff)*
I hope these plans help you out this week!! :)
Link up to share yours!
Now, onto 'How I get 8+ stations in each week with out craziness going on all around me!?"
Let me start off my saying that stations are by far my students and my favorite part of the day. It's a time they get to do, "fun stuff" as they call it... without even realizing that they are learning SO much! I get to work with kids during this time as well.
My Literacy Station block is 80 minutes long. On Monday and Tuesday students are pulled for math intervention for 20 minutes at the beginning of this time. Monday-Friday students are pulled for 30 minutes also at the beginning of station time. So, this time is my 'intervention' time and that is why the block is so long.
Below is my stations board. You will see 5 large blank white boxes on the board. This is where I place student pictures. Each box is a group of students. Those students work on three stations next to their card. Students are responsible for completing all three stations that day. ...Don't freak out yet!!
The three stations that they complete are ordered by 'urgency'-- if that's the right word to use for it?! (They're all 'urgent/important')... Their first station that the group must complete is the station that has a recording form. That means, it is one of the meatier stations that requires them to turn in a paper to show me they understand the concept. Students are not aloud to move onto the 2nd station until they have finished and turned in their work for the first station.
These are the kind of activities I use for first station rotations.
One of my first rotations is called a "Sentence Center." Here students work with sentences in different ways. This week students are fixing stations. Next week they might be unscrambling sentences or writing a describing sentence... With this station students complete it then fill out a recording form that they turn in to me.
This is another one of my stations that students complete for their first station rotation. I call this one "Word Work B." Here, students sort the short e words according to the short e word family. Students will record their answers on a recording form and then turn that into me.
You can grab this one for free now!
Click on the kids!
I also have a 'Write the Room' station. Each week students will work on a particular skill in write the room. This week students are unscrambling a short e sentence that contains some of their sight words.
I am currently in the process of making a write the room packet for first grade.
Stay tuned for that one!
Click & Grab this below!
When students move to their second station the same rules apply. Finish that station before you move onto your third. The second station rotations are ones that do not always require students to turn in a recording form but more "word worky" activities. Take a look at the pictures below.
These are the type of activities I use for second station activities.
In the first picture with the large piece of cloud paper students pull a card and slap a short e word then write the word on an I-pad app. The second station is my 'Spelling Station.' Students will be writing these words in shaving cream on a cookie sheet.
For the second station you have to make guidelines or else the students will stay at these for the entire time! I always say the most you can do the station is 2 full times then you need to move onto your 3rd rotation. They are honest little things so they do a good job with this.
Students third station rotation is simply read to self or read to a partner. This is the time where the movement in the room begins to calm down and stations come to an end. If I notice that most of the students in the room finished they stations early and have the class has been reading to self/partner for a while then I will stop stations early... because they can get antsy... we all know that. Just use your best teacher judgment here.
So, basically you don't tell students when they are finished with a station. They work at their own pace and progress to the next station when they are ready. Having stations like this allow me to provide students with more 'content based' station activities rather then the same 'word worky' activities week after week. I like to have some meat built into these things but still keep some of the simple stuff for 2nd rotations.
Every time a student completes a station they also have to cross off their name so I know they have completed that station. If their name is not crossed off then I know what they need to make up. (This was taken Wednesday... whew!!)
* A little tip for you*
I hope this post helped some of you! It is very possible to get 8+ stations in a week but you just have to make sure they are all not 'meaty' stations. Make sure the first rotations take some thought and time... move onto the easier/word worky manipulatives activities for the second and wind the kids down with the third. It works like a charm in my room and I love it!
(Oh.. if you read my last post on how I did stations... Yah... I changed it--- wanted to try something new... didn't work so I went back to what works best for me)
If you have any additional questions then please do not hesitate to ask.
That's why I have this little blog! :)
.JPG)
.JPG)
