I get asked a lot of questions about station time in my classroom.
What does station time look like?
What stations do you have?
What do the children do at each station?
How do your students know which station to go to?
This blog post should answer these questions and more. It's long, it's got lots of pictures, and lots of links to the activities I use. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the LONG read!
Station time is my favorite time of the day! I change how I run stations pretty much every year because I am always evolving. I get bored of the old way, figure out a new way, and so on, and so on. When you've been teaching for 20 years, you gotta change it up and keep it fresh. At least I do!
I think I love my station procedures the best this year.
But, then again, I'm pretty sure I say that every year! LOL!
I teach kindergarten and first grade reading/writing, but this post will just be about kindergarten. I have 18 students and I have 5 stations, so each group has 3 or 4 students. I have 2 top groups and the other 3 groups are a mix of on-level and below level students. I did this so that my below level students will benefit from the wisdom of my on-level students.
These are my 5 stations...
My teacher station is where I meet with small groups. We practice our sight words, phonological/phonemic awareness skills, read leveled readers, and work on writing. I meet with 2 groups Monday/Wednesday and 3 groups Tuesday/Thursday. On Friday, I pull students who need me the most. I use these reading comprehension stories a lot!
At the phonics station, the children use open-ended, hands-on activities, activity sheets, and interactive notebook activities.
Here, you see my students enjoying CVC Clip It Cards. There are 100 of them and it comes with an answer key, so this activity is very independent.
These activity cards are also a big part of my phonics station!
I also use these activities, as well: phonics spinners, word sorts, building words, CVC word booklets, literacy skills printables, pocket chart activities, little books, flip books, and learning mats. Variety is the spice of life!
My students really enjoy these sight word mats. They build the words, write the words, and write sentences, as well. Sometimes, they write a sentence and forget to use one of the words on the mat, but that's okay with me!
There are so many different ways to use these mats. My students choose the materials they want to use. Dry erase markers, letter tiles, letter beads, or alphabet magnets. They also practice writing their words on white boards or paper. I have lots of sight words books that I put out at the station also. You can find some of them here, here, and here. Using play-doh to help practice sight words is always a big hit. I also use these fluency sentences, sentence puzzles, sight word searches, dice activities, bingo games, reproducibles and sight word games. Having all of these activities on hand, means I never have to scramble to set up stations.
My budding writers have lots of opportunities to practice writing letters, words, and sentences. In this photo, my students are writing color words.
This fun activity comes from my top seller, Writing Station Activities for Young Learners. This pack is loaded with writing activities that kindergarten and first grade students can work on independently. Writing the Room is always tons of fun too. I didn't snap any pictures, but my students did this color words write the room FREEBIE when they finished I Can Write Color Words. At my writing station, I also use these sentence writing booklets, write the room activities, labeling sheets, and writing station activities.
My students thoroughly enjoy visiting the library. Relaxing with a good book is always tons of fun!
My students use these cards during station time. After a few days of using them, they were able to switch to their next station without help from me. I have cards for Monday/Wednesday and cards for Tuesday/Thursday.
Station time is my favorite time of the day because the children are always eager to head off to their station and work collaboratively with the children in their group.
And I get to be the GUIDE ON THE SIDE!
How long do the students stay at each station?
ReplyDeleteMrs. Lansdell, each rotation last anywhere from 10-20 minutes. It depends on the time we have and what activity I'm doing during small groups. One time, we had a fire drill and class started late. But, I still managed to have my 3 rotations. Sadly, each one was only 6 minutes long! LOL!
DeleteWhat does 1st grade rotations look like?
ReplyDeleteHollie, I'm going to write a whole new blog post for first grade. It's similar, but I have 6 stations and do three rotations a day.
DeleteLooks like your kids have a great time during centers! I love it all! I wish I could have your entire store! #stalker!!!!!
ReplyDeletexo
Megan
LOL! Stalker! Love it! And love you! Thanks for "stalking" by!
DeleteExcellent post! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeletePalma
kfundamentals.blogspot.com
So glad you enjoyed my post Palma!
DeleteWow! Great posts with lots of great ideas. I love how you've made your stations self-checking with answer sheets. My struggle has always been "How do I make sure kids are learning it right?" This answers that! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete-Amanda
Kindergarten Teacher at the Wheel
Glad you enjoyed the post Amanda! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Delete