Station Rotations....Under the Sea Style!

For ESY our classrooms usually have a variety of students who work at many different levels. This is just one of the cool things about getting to teach in the summer! It is a challenge and gets the teaching brain cooking.

Once I know I am hired for ESY, I choose a theme.

When I receive information about the students, I compile their objectives into categories:

• Math skills
• reading and writing skills
• behavior and social skills
• communication skills

I pack what might be needed ( I always over do this, I'm trying to reduce the number of boxes but it's hard).

If the theme is a new one for me, I go to Oriental Trading, they ROCK!

After "regular" school is out, I spend a couple of weeks doing what I want and the third week planning for summer school.

I purchased my own laminator....and....it is the best thing ever! I don't know why I waited so long!

(PSSST....also the film is so much better then the film we have on our school laminator)

My brain requires time to sort out how and what I want my classroom to look like. I know teachers who just open the boxes and they are ready! I envy them, but I would be hysterical if I tried to do that!

Most of the time, after the first week of ESY, I relax. Our team (usually 2 assistants and myself) figure out ongoing problems as they occur and everything goes just FINE!

I work with the most amazing people! I have been teaching ESY 8 years and have never worked with anyone who wasn't fabulous!

I'm getting off topic......

this all leads to the  STATION ROTATION part of our school day!

 

The theme is "under the sea".

 

The stations are named to match.

(stations have matching visual-see previous post)

 

Visuals are crucial!

 

Velcro helps us be flexible!

 

Groups are assigned....3 to 4 in each. (hopefully no more)

 

and given a necklace to help remember which group they belong to

 

 

Groups are divided into

starfish

turtles

jellyfish

 

3 groups....3 adults....each of us wears a necklace also and travels with our group.

 

In the past, adults have been assigned a station and stayed there.

 

Traveling with the group works better....if kids need help transitioning someone is right there.

 

I ring the bell when it is time to move.

 

We change around their groups because someone always wants to be something different...

("awwwww....I wanted to be a turtle.")

 

This way I can say

" You will be a turtle tomorrow."

 

 

by the way, the necklace pictures are stickers from the awesome

Oriental Trading.com

 

 

 

That's it for now!

 

 

Later,

 

 

 

Paula

 

Five for Friday...ESY classroom

Linking with Doodle Bugs Teaching! Join us here!

 

 

It has been a busy couple of weeks. We started Summer School AKA Extended School Year, Alaska is on fire and there was a pretty good earthquake last week that I didn't even notice!

 

So here is a tour of our classroom for the summer session.

The theme is

 

ONE

Under the Sea

 

(group area)

 

We draped an old blue and white sheet from the ceiling, it gives the room a blue hue.

TWO

The Beach

(sensory play station)

 

THREE

The Palm Tree

(reading and writing station)

 

 

Four

 

The Light House

(math station)

 

 

FIVE

Turtle Time

( Chill out spot)

 

 

(thank you Brenda for the loan of the amazing turtle!)

 

A student can request turtle time anytime he or she is feeling a need to get away. There is a card they can pull and hand to one of the teachers. The teacher sets the timer for 3 minutes. They usually are ready to leave before the timer goes off.

They can lay under the table on the towel or can put the turtle on the floor and lay on it. Some of our friends need more time and stay until they are ready to join the group.

At first, it was used a lot! Once everyone had tried it out, they got back to work.

The rules:

1. Only one student at a time.

2. Finish your work/project afterwards.

 

I'll share more about our schedule, rotations and art projects  in the next post.

 

Later,

 

 

Paula