center management

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center management
By Angie

I've been doing centers in my class for three years, and I finally have a management system that works for me. In my class, I run eight centers: read-the room, browsing boxes, math, abc, pocket chart, art, listening, and
writing. What's worked for me is to assign students into one of four "center groups". These groups are heterogenously put together, and I try to make sure that there are students of all levels who work well together in each group.
I use a center wheel that consists of two circles. The larger circle is divided into 8 sections and each section lists the name and icon of a center.

The smaller circle is divided into 4 sections, and lists the names of students in each center group. ( I color each of the four smaller sections a different color, so my kids are either in the blue, purple, green, or yellow group.)

I do centers four days a week. Each day a group is assigned to 2 centers. I pull my guided reading groups during this time. After I work with a guided reading group, the members go back to their centers.

On the following days, I turn the center wheel a quarter turn, and the groups have new centers for each day. The guided reading/ center time is about 45-60 min.

This method has really worked well with my little ones. It gives them the freedom to choose which center they want to do first, but it also adds some structure to the whole process. If a child is wandering around the room, I only have to look at the center wheel to know where he or she is supposed to be.

For students who finish their centers early, I have file folder games available for them to play.

One more thing... I found that my little ones need some type of product to turn in at each center. For example, if they unscramble sentences at the pocket chat, then I have them write down the sentences they made. That way I have a record of how successful they were at the tasks.