Morning Stations....LONG! By Leslie

I do "Morning Stations" with my fourth graders Tuesday-Friday (Monday mornings are reserved for morning meeting and teaching of the new spelling skill) . There are four stations in my classroom that remain the same each week, and students are placed into preassigned groups.
The groups rotate Tues-Fri, so for example on Tuesday a Group A will go to Station #1, Wednesday this same group will go to Station
#2, and so on. The activities remain the same for one week, then change. Here are samples for each station:

Station #1 : Reading Comprehension (they read various high interest articles or stories and answer questions, usually open-ended questions).

Station #2 : Math (Usually a brain teaser from eduplace.com, or similar word problems)

Station #3 : Language Arts (review of previously taughts skills, such as sentence building, parts of speech, punctuation, spelling, or cursive practice).

Staion #4 : Writing Prompt

This has been very effective in my classroom. These stations take about 15-20 minutes to complete, and students self-correct their
work. When they are done, they know what they can work on, which is usually "work in progress" or silent reading. If students do not finish their work at a station, I usually will not have them
finish it and just check what they have completed. If they haven't finished because they were fooling/talking/daydreaming, etc. then
they must finish at recess.

Other miscellaneous info about morning stations that you may find helpful:

I have a bin in the front of the classroom labeled "Morning Stations". In this bin I have 3 folders labeled according to where the stations are, like "Carpet Station", "Octagon Table", and "Rectangle Table". I place all papers that the students will need for each station in these folders. There is not a folder for journal prompts b/c I type the prompts on the computer so the students can glue them into their journal notebook (this saves time so they're not copying the entire journal prompt themselves and can spend the time writing). I also have another folder labeled "Answer Keys" where the students can easily find the answers to whatever they're working on. They know that they can only view the answer keys after they have finished. In the morning, the first student to the station gets the correct folder. The group is responsible for putting the folders/papers back into the bin when morning stations are over.

I have a "Morning Station" sheet that I post on the chalkboard explaining each station. Also posted on the board are the groups. Here is a sample of the "Morning Station" sheet that's posted on the board:

MORNING STATIONS
Remember to date and title in your notebook.

1) Tease Your Brain!! Work at the octagon table to figure out who purchased lunch first. Be sure to explain in writing how you found each answer. Do the second brain teaser if you have time.

2) Dogs Giving a Hand!! Work at the carpet to read how dogs can help people and answer the questions in your notebook. If you finish early, read and answer questions about Mummies!

3) Amazing Adjectives!! Working at the rectangular table, find adjectives and adverbs in a story about the Davis family. Write the answers in your notebook. Complete the reverse side on adjectives when you’re done (in your notebook).

4) Vivacious Vacations!! W hat activities did you do during April vacation? Using at least 4 adjectives and 4 adverbs, clearly retell your
favorite activities during vacation. Underline the adjectives and circle the adverbs!! Work at your desk and write at least 16 lines.

Hope this helps, and let me know if you need further information. Maybe interested teachers can correspond via email to trade ideas for this...let me know if anyone's interested!
If you need more info, just let me know!

Leslie/RI/4th