SmorgieVision: Centers Made Simple Webinar Questions Answered

hey everybody its mr. Greg here from the kindergarten smorgasbord and today I'm gonna be answering some questions that I received when I recently hosted a free webinar with my friends from est I in the webinar I talked about our Center management system and how we keep centers simple in our classroom during the live webinar there were lots of follow-up questions that people asked and so today I'm going to spend a few minutes with this video answering some of the questions that I received and in this blog post I'm also going to link to several other blog posts and several other videos there will also help answer a lot of the questions that you had during this free webinar so let's just jump right into the questions and I'm going to keep this pretty short and simple but a lot of the blog posts and the videos that I link to today will give you a lot more in-depth details do students do math and reading centers together or at separate times math is done in the afternoon literacy is done in the morning so math and literacy centers are done at separate times do your kids come into kindergarten knowing how to write some do some don't just like every classroom my kids come in at all sorts of various levels of reading and math and writing so some kids can write some can't it just every year it's different and we'll have kids of all abilities and so that's our job is to meet them where they are where did you get the tub storage from this is a million dollar question that I get asked all the time that the large wooden tub that we use for our literacy tubs was actually in my classroom several years ago and so it was just pure luck that I have that storage unit the smaller PVC version that we use for math I actually built with my dad and so it's just PVC pipe and Dollar Tree baskets and I'll link the directions on this blog post what happens if someone else has the tub that a child needs to finish if you go to the basket and you have some unfinished work and you check and you go to get that tub and somebody's already using it you join them and you hear do you enter this whole group when in the year at the beginning of the year centers are introduced starting the second week of school we start whole group with just our tubs we will really work on the procedures and the routines for weeks with the tubs then we add in right the room and then we add in read to self and then computers and finally listening same with math and then after a few weeks of once all the centers are kind of up and running then we introduced the wheel so probably about week six we introduced the wheel we're now at week 10 or 11 in our classroom and things are running smoothly I always tell people watch for the pumpkins so by the time the pumpkins come at the end of October everything is up and running and everything um generally is is running is running pretty smoothly how do you group your students they're grouped by skill and so we always use est I to assess our kids and it's so with est I being so quick and easy it's like almost a constant ongoing assessment and so our kids are grouped by skill so some kids are gonna be working on letters someone sounds and right now I've got a few I'm working on CBC words so they're grouped by skill brand-new kindergarten teacher how do I come up with that many choices so overwhelmed you don't at first the choices and all of the creations and the center's that I have are things that I've accumulated in eight years of teaching kindergarten and so it takes time to accumulate that kind of stuff and so you can just start with what you have and you can go through my blog and I have lots of simple DIY low prep centers and activities so don't feel overwhelmed I know it's it's a lot and there's a lot of information being thrown at you but you can you can start with what you have and just slowly build up to those choices what about those students who want to do technology for a whole hour that's their choice and if they choose to do technology and that's what the wheel tells them to do that's their choice and that's what they're allowed to do do you have a whole group block yes it lasts about 30 minutes and that leaves us over an hour for centers and guided reading do you have a set number of centers and just swap out the work yes so the center's stay the same we just change out the activities every two weeks we switch out a few of them and then at the end of a month or right after a holiday we'll change out all of them how often do your kids visit a center can be once a week it could be two times a week three times a week depending on how the wheel gets turned our ela block is a hundred and twenty minutes how how do you hold your students accountable to get the centers completed do you give rewards no so it's an expectation so we have very high expectations they know that they're expected to choose a center set down and do the work and complete it I don't collect their work I don't check their work I do get up and move around between transitions between our small groups and guided reading groups so the kids know I'm up and monitoring and I'm observing and also when they finish they walk by and they show me their work and so I can quickly glance and know that they did a good job or didn't do a good job how long does it take to prep your centers initially for the week the thing is I don't switch out my centers every week and this is what saves me so much time and makes this such an easy system is that because there are so many choices built in I don't have to switch out centers every week so every couple of weeks I can shot just a few centers in all the groups so everybody sees new fresh things so there's not a lot of boredom but I'm not switching out everything all the time so a couple of hours on Sunday to get everything ready and that's can be shorter if it's not a center switch out week of course if it's you know the time when I'm switching everything out at the end of the month can take a little bit longer what type of printer do I use I use an HP laserjet pro 200 can pick purchases on Amazon how would you do these literacy centers with a small room and no technology I came from a very small room with limited technology we use the same system I'm just kind of have to you just have to get East being in a small confined area and with no technology I would just add in another choice instead of having technology I have consistent centers too but the skills change the kids tell me they are boring what do you do then we have to sell it and the thing is with anything in our classroom we have to be excited about it we have to sell it we have to get the kids pumped up about it so I get really excited for Center time and for hippopotamus time so the kids are excited about it I try to change the clipart as much as possible because their brains love novelty so just changing the clipart they can may think it's new colored paper colored cardstock also helps but really sell it is every student checking the unfinished baskets at the same time no they have a ticket to centers which is independent work so everybody finishes that at a different rate and so it's kind of a staggered release to go check the baskets do all centers have a worksheet no none of our centers have a worksheet where cheats are busy work we don't do busy work all of our centers have recording sheets where they're recording their learnings from their worksheets how many copies of the recording sheets do you leave in each tub depends on the activity in the center I can usually tell which ones might be a little more popular for the more popular ones 10 to 12 for the less popular ones 6 copies do the kids use where to go or do you tell them they get to choose it's all choice for them they look at the wheel the wheel gives them two choices and then they have the freedom to pick from those two choices where do you get your spinners from Amazon how many students are at each Center depends they could up to four because I have four kids per group could be anywhere from one to four how long were your Center groups we don't have Center groups the kids stay in their centers for about an hour there's no cleaning up and transitioning time what if the kids do a really lousy job when their Center work I'm up monitoring their work they also will show me their work when they finish so I can kind of glance at it if I say that it's lousy they have to redo it does mr. Greg write the name of the student on the differentiated queue for each Center tub so the students know which sheet to use no I do not everything is color-coded and so that's how they know what sheets to use they're looking for their colors how many students does Greg have in class this year I have 18 when setting up centers etc example the alphabet you give the whole alphabet to match or just some I always give the whole alphabet how do not independent or behaviorally challenged students adapt to your centers I've used this system for five years and I've had all kinds of behavior issues and non independent students and everyone adapts very well because it's very very visual and so that really helps and because they have a lot of choice and freedom that helps with the behavior challenge students the students in the guided reading group come from the same center color group sometimes but not always so my center groups of my guided reading groups are different they could have some of the same kids but they also could be different how long is it from when you introduce tubs centers to when you start pulling small groups to weeks so we do centers for two weeks and then I start probably start pulling POG group small groups the baskets and the pictures hanging in the wall are the right the room baskets the baskets on the floor are the math baskets are the groups color-coded by differentiation based on skill level yes is there always a worksheet never a worksheet almost always a recording heat for them to record they're learning the correct papers no are the hands-on stations or hip rows like ducks and noodles in the tubs yes favorite apps I will put a link on this blog post to my favorite apps when did the kids show you their Center work are you bombarded with students after your stop light goes off or during cleanup I'm not because when they finish they just kind of I call it a walk by I'm display and so they just walk by my me as I'm a guided reading and they hold up their paper and I give it a glance math tubs and math baskets are the exact same thing just dirt I just change out those names do you check all of their work no I glance at it but I don't grade it do you send it home yes when they finish it goes in their cubby to go home does Greg do guided reading during centers yes so while all the kids are in centers I pull guided reading groups what Center is toss across with it is part of the Tubbs did you make your own light box yes and I will put a link to the directions on this blog post are you putting the centers that are a little bigger like muffin pans and toss away paper plate puzzles and the tubs yes all of that would be included in their tubs my kids are famous for destroying pieces from games I use heavy laminate and they still bend them put them in their mouths etc the best trick I have for kids who are destroying things is put the ownership on your class I tell my kids from day one this is not my classroom this is not my stuff this classroom and everything and it belongs to all of us and so it's your stuff and we have to all take care of it together if we don't take care of it then we don't have any of this fun stuff to learn in kindergarten won't be any fun and so put the ownership on them and put that responsibility on them that this is all of our stuff by doing that we also add in a little bit of positive peer pressure so that the kids know that if they don't take care of the stuff and if they tear up all of our centers then their friends are going to be upset with them and that really helps so I did not answer every follow-up question that that was asked but be sure to check out all of the links and videos that I share on this blog post because it goes into a lot of detail and will answer all of your questions about centers made simple in our classroom and if not you can feel free to use the contact form here on the blog or send an email to kinder smorgy at gmail.com and we'll be happy to answer your questions or or direct you to some links and videos that will help you thanks everybody bye

Channel: Greg Smedley-Warren

Views: 3,658

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: iMovie

Id: g8MUsl-dby0

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 18 2016