Hey teaching friends! How about a fun and easy way to display your classroom center signs? And I bet you might even have all the supplies you need already on hand! Score!
Trying to figure out where to hang up center signs with all the other items hanging up in the room can be a visual nightmare.
Between the word wall, the alphabet line, posting the weekly learning objectives, behavior expectations, a daily schedule, and displaying student work, amongst other things, it can create a lot of distractions and overwhelm for some students who really need a minimalistic approach to classroom decor.
But you still need a way to clearly label where your centers are throughout the classroom too. It can definitely become a catch-22.
Where to Position Your Centers in the Classroom
Knowing where to place your literacy and math centers in the classroom needs to be addressed instead of just tossing your centers wherever.
Why?
You want to make sure the learning spaces are clearly defined, are far enough apart from one another, while still having access to shared materials to complete the activity successfully.
I like to begin by deciding how many student centers there will be in total. Typically I like to have no more than 3-5 students per center, so I take how many students I have in the classroom and divide by 3, 4, or 5.
Then, I subtract 1 from that number because I always have a teacher-led small group activity going on as well.
This gives me a number for how many additional centers there will be.
Then I simply give those centers a number, rather than a name.
It is way easier to number your centers than to give them a name – and the signs never need to be changed!
You can always easily display one editable note on the board or interactive whiteboard that says:
Center #1: At the small group reading table
Center #2: Writing Center
Center #3: Vocabulary Center
Center #4: Math Center
Center #5: Listening Center
Or something similar, depending on your curriculum.
Easy peasy: grab some binder clips! You can use pre-decorated metal clips…
…or make your own with some plain black binder clips and washi tape!
Next, get your signs ready, stand up the binder clips, and slide in your signs! Done! I love projects that take 30 seconds to pull together.
You say you have no cute number signs to number your centers?
Well, I have you covered today with a fun freebie! Grab it below.
Enjoy and I would love to see your signs on display in your classroom on our Facebook fan page too!
Talk to you soon,
~Charity
This post originally appeared at Organized Classroom.
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