Center Rotations

    Hello there!  Today, I wanted to share some of the new things I have started this year that have been a lifesaver!  In the mornings we do a structured center rotation.  Students are given choices of what they want to work for and then are broken up into groups of two.   Each group is then given a center stick (paint stick) with the order of the three centers they must complete to receive the reward.  The centers are ran by myself and my two assistants.  

    The stations include literacy, art and these cookie sheet activities.  I will go into the other center activities on a later post.  I run the literacy center and below you will see the visual schedule that is in place for that center.  We start out with greeting our friends followed by the calendar.  Each group of students is working on different areas of the calendar so it makes it easier to work on those skills in smaller groups.  As we finish each section, I close it and they say "all done".  They love this part!  :)  We also cover the letter of the week, story, and some sort of game or file folder activity that relates to the story or theme.

  

  The students have really responded to both of these tools.  It gives them an idea of what we have to accomplish before they can rotate to the next center.  

I would love to hear how you structure your centers and/or rotations!!  Thank you for stopping by!

WELCOME!!
I am so excited to start this blog and share my teaching experiences with you!  I am new to the blogging world but hope to provide interesting and helpful information.  Before I begin sharing posts about the classroom, I feel I should give you a little bit of information about ME!


My name is Meghan and I am a special education teacher to Pre-K/K students.  Although I love my current age group, I did not start out working with this level.   My first job was working for the Elderly/Disabled population in their homes using my Social Work degree.  I learned very quickly that I wanted to be with a younger group.  I then changed to the 21 and younger population within the same field of work.  From there, I decided to go back to school and become certified to teach in special education.  I received my Alt. Cert. in K-12 Special Ed and started teaching at a Jr. High self contained classroom.   I absolutely loved this setting but after 3 years, I realized I wanted to work with a different group.  Not just because of the age but also because of the size of the students.  See, I am a pretty petite gal and some of these students over-powered me and I didn't like feeling a loss of control.  That is when the offer came to work in a much younger, much smaller setting...preschool!  I was absolutely TERRIFIED excited!  It was a big change but I feel I have started settling in and getting into my groove.  I have learned so much about special education and about MYSELF as a teacher.  This blog is to share those experiences and lessons to help anyone that might find themselves in the same boat as I have been. 
I am married (8 years!) and also a mother to two young, energetic kiddos.  One is 6 and the other is 4.  I hope to introduce them at a later date and time. 


So what do you say...Let's get this thing started!