You can also work on teaching these tasks during scheduled center time. You are likely not scheduled to be at centers during that time because the goal is for these tasks to be independent. So plop some puzzles or iPads with the group you are supposed to be with and head over to centers to teach the process over there. Don’t feel bad about this for one minute. If you spend two weeks – really fully teaching centers you will be able to fully focus on the group you were supposed to be working with the rest of year versus only giving half of your attention to your group because you have to maintain what’s going on at centers.
So spend the time teaching the specific tasks that will be in the centers, this shouldn’t take too long because the content is mastered you are just reviewing the process of that task. When will you do this teaching you ask? Great question. You’ve got a few options. You can work on these centers during your direct instruction/small group/one on one time/etc. Remember how we said we aren’t teaching any new skills this September – well I just planned the whole month’s lessons for your direct instruction time. Use that scheduled time to review these tasks with your kids. Giving that strong foundation will allow them to do the tasks on their own later in the year.
Check out the video tour in this post for how I setup multi-task centers for students.
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6 Responses
Do students choose a binder and work on activities in that binder?
I have centers at desks (kindergarten) using Velcro activities.
Is this an acceptable center routine?
The centers have numbers and the students choose which number they want to start at.
That sounds like a good setup. There is no rule of thumb – as long as the students have a clear expectation what work they should do and what they get when they are finished! 🙂
Do you have a walk through of what the binder literacy centers look like? (whats inside)
Thanks
I have utilized work centers before, but I’m starting a K class this year with 2 support staff and probably a caseload of 8-9 students. Do you recommend staggering center schedules?
For example, would you have students grouped into 2s and 3s and rotate among adult-led stations for the first few days of school, and then eventually work some students into individual work stations or independent centers?
Yep! Here is a post with lots of pics – https://theautismhelper.com/literacy-centers/.
Yes! I think that would be good because you will need to teach the independent centers or work stations so have adults there initially and fade out (could take longer than a few days).