UTILIZING DIGITAL CENTER SLIDES FOR SMALL GROUPS
As a preschool teacher, I love incorporating centers into our daily learning activities. Utilizing centers for science, math and literacy are a great way to keep students engaged and make learning more hands on and fun. Incorporating visual into all aspects of the day is important for my preschool students to be able to begin internalizing classroom routines.
Last school year I created a ton of digital visuals for distance learning and plan on incorporating many of these into my classroom this upcoming school year. My digital rotation schedule slides are one of the many digital visuals that I plan on using this school year. Using digital slides to manage my center rotations help to bring organization and predictability for students during our classroom center routines. In this blog post, I will break down how I set up and use my digital rotation schedule slides and how they help me manage my daily center rotations.
CREATING SMALL GROUPS FOR CENTERS
Creating groups is simple and easy. I use my digital slides to break my class into smaller groups. Each group varies in size depending on the number of centers we have for the day. With a class size of 15-18 I like create 3-4 groups, making each group 4-6 students. For each center I like to add the name of the center and a visual next to the name of the center. Since my students are learning how to read, they won’t be able to identify the name of the center, but they will recognize the photo or icon next to the name. I also love to give each group of students a team name. I created a set of fun team names for each set of digital rotation schedule slides and I use them to assign each team a fun team name. Each set of slides comes with 6 custom team names and logos for you to use with up to 6 center groups. I find it much easier (and much more fun) to call groups by their group name rather than a simple group number or by each students individual names. Students love to see which group name they will get for the day. I keep the team name and team members consistent for the entire week and may switch things up the next week depending on the students and activities. I’ve included some sample photos of my Back to School and Fall themed custom team names.
UTILIZING A VISUAL TIMER FOR CENTER MANAGEMENT
Utilizing a visual timer is important for managing centers with preschoolers. My students are still learning the concept of time and often ask the teachers how much time they have left. This is especially true for students who tend to finish early. Incorporating a visual timer helps students to be able to see how much time they have left. This has helped to minimize students asking a teacher how much time they have left (although it still happens from time to time). At the beginning of the school year we drill into students to check the timer rather than asking a teacher. As the year progresses students learn to become more independent and fill the time accordingly. Adding a timer is simple and easy. You can search for timers on YouTube and add one to your slides or you can add a timer directly into your slides if you are using Google Slides. Once you share your screen, you can press play on your YouTube timer. The Google Slides timer will automatically begin once you start the slide.
Are you looking for great visuals to manage your centers this school year? My digital rotation schedule slides are a great tool to incorporate into your daily center routines. These slides are easy to use and make center management easy and fun. The digital rotation schedule slides allow you to create 3-6 groups and rotations giving teachers options for the number of centers they want to create. Each set of rotation slides includes 6 timers of varying lengths of time and are available for PowerPoint and Google Slides.
You can purchase an individual themed set or my growing bundle which will include 12 sets of seasonally themed rotation schedule slides for you to use throughout the entire school year. You can find more information or purchase the slides by clicking on the link below.
Do you have any tips and tricks on managing centers in your classroom? Do you plan on using any visuals for center management in your classroom this upcoming school year? Let me know in the comments below.
