Establishing and Managing Literacy Stations in Kindergarten

Managing a classroom full of kindergarten students while you as a teacher try to work with a small group or individuals is no small task.  The first step is dividing your students into groups.

I have a morning and afternoon wheel.

As you can see, I have divided my students into 3 groups. I will have a giraffe, zebra and tiger group in the morning.  I will have a triangle, rectangle and hexagon group in the afternoon.
Around the wheel I have the classroom assignments for each group.   I have computers, seatwork, STEM, finish seatwork, teacher, and stations.  I laminate everything.  Then I attach Velcro to the assignments.  I want these flexible and easy to change without having to create a whole new wheel.  If you have four groups, here is another idea.

Four group wheel

Next you need to think about how you will set your room up.  I want my teacher table in a quiet area, so I have it in a corner.  On the opposite side of the room, I have my technology.  I don't want my group distracted by looking at computer screens. I have my student desks or tables in the center of the room. I arrange my seating chart so that two members of the same group are not across or next to one another.

Plastic Coconuts from Dollar Tree work great as pencil holders for my Jungle Themed Classroom

Finally, I want to spread out my "play" centers that will be used in the afternoon and my literacy stations.  I have 5 stations each week.  I assign one child from each group to each center.

I use clear plastic photo frames to post goals and student stations assignments.  Here is my beginning of the year alphabet stations.

If there are more than 5 students in a literacy group, I partner two students who will work well together.  Sometimes I partner students even if I have less than 5 students in a group.  For example, I might place a non-English speaker with a bilingual students.

Here you see all five of my literacy stations.  I choose which skills my students need for each 9 weeks and try to change the stations very little from week to week. For example, the rhyming station will have new cards to match and a new activity sheet.  However, these will look very similar from week to week.

Rhyming Station Week 3

Rhyming Activity during Week 4

In the afternoon instead of literacy stations, students will go to STEAM/ STEM  play stations that can be integrated into our weekly theme. For example, I will focus on nursery rhymes during the first 2 weeks.  I will put eggs in the block center and let them do a Humpty Dumpty STEM activity and Little Miss Muffat props in the kitchen.  During week 4 we read How do Dinosaurs go to School.  I will have dinosaurs in my sand and block areas.  I find a lot of cool ideas on Pinterest.  I only need play stations for 6 kids at a time, so I don't have to use all of my areas.  The other group that isn't with me is on technology or doing a seatwork assignment.  I still do an open choice playtime at the end of the day.

I hope this helps in managing your kindergarten classroom.  If you like my center ideas, you can visit my TPT store.  My Nursery Rhyme unit is designed to help get you started.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/STEM-and-Literacy-Centers-for-Nursery-Rhymes-3945970

The Nursery Rhymes unit will help you establish your literacy stations and establish routines with step by step instructions.

Other Units:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Building-With-Dad-STEAM-and-Literacy-Activities-3894418

Over the years I have found what works best in my classroom for managing students during my small group literacy time.  I divide my 18 students into 3 ability groups.  Since my room has a jungle theme, I have a giraffe, tiger, and zebra group.  One group meets with me while the other 12 children have to work quietly and independently.  My school wants small group reading instruction to begin the 3rd week of school, so I don't have much time to train independent responsibility.  I assign one group of 6 to technology.  That means they are either working on computers, tablets, or at a listening center.  The other students are assigned to stations.  I have 5 stations; one for each day of the week.  At each station I post a goal and the students assigned to that particular station.

I am currently developing more TPT units that can easily be used at stations.  I like to have each station change very little from week to week.  My alphabet station will remain an alphabet station from week to week.  Just the activity changes. I also have a rhyming station, writing and vocabulary station, word building station and a phonics station.  I'd love to hear what other teachers are doing in their classrooms, so leave me a comment below.

Building With Dad Unit

Memory Books for Kindergarten

Memory Books for Kindergarteners

Coogle It Teacher Pay Teacher Store

Every summer I set out to start the next school year better than the previous year.  One of my struggles is organizing student work and photos at the end of the year.  I start out SOOO good!  I take the first day photos and make each child's cute little handprints after reading The Kissing Hand.  I even do pretty good the second and third week.  Then something happens.  Life happens.  Craziness happens.  I end up with a huge stack of writing and art.  The bazillions of photos I took throughout the year are still locked inside the Google cloud or on my phone.  I end up spending most of May and a ton of money downloading and 1 hour printing photos, sorting work samples, and filling clear plastic sleeves.  I tell myself about a week before school is over that I am NEVER making scrap books again.  But, then the end of the year party and little graduation ceremony takes place.  Parents fill my classroom.  When the singing is over, I hand each child his or her 1 inch binder with memories.  I watch as parents turn the pages.  Their laughter, tears, and smiles make all that work worth while.  And, I promise to keep making them for at least one more year.
Well, this year is going to be better.  I made a file that includes every photo page I want to take and a companion art project.

First day of school photo page, art page and photo prop.

My first volunteer job will be to place 50 plastic sleeves in each child's 1 inch 3 ring binder.  I am going to have everything already printed and organized in file folders to pulled out and use monthly.  I even made hats and / or props for each month.

100th Day of School Hat

  If you are interested in using the file I created, you can find it in my TPT store: Coogle it.

Coogle It

Keep following me and I will share photos and more ideas throughout the year as we make our 2018-2019 memories.