With an increase in class sizes, it’s getting harder and harder for teachers to have extra space for group work during centers. One teacher has the desks grouped in clusters of 4 and rotates the center each day. Each center is in a plastic shoe box and the kids take a different shoe box depending on the day of the week.

She places the the entire class set of copies, materials, etc. in the box at the beginning of the week (which saves lots of time). The directions for the center are on colored paper in a plastic page protector (this gives her the opportunity to switch out the activity as needed without the hassle of laminating). She also puts a sample of the worksheet/activity for her very lowest learners to copy if they need to. I agree with her that copying the spelling words a few times a week is much better than sitting doing nothing. The kids know which box to grab, because it’s posted on the wall. The TA (Teacher’s Assistant) is the student who is in charge of getting the box from the counter and returning it with all the materials in it at the end of centers time. Each day, she switches which person gets to be the TA.

Since there are only 5 centers, tables 4 and 5 share the box.