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

 

2014 Camping Classroom...Stations

Our summer school theme is Camping! First, we are camping with dinosaurs. Kids love dinosaurs! I am linking with Doodle Bugs Teaching:

The students have a variety of objectives to work on so we are splitting into small groups and calling it the "Station Rotation". Note: This is my morning session, a MUCH smaller group compared to the afternoon session.

The chart helps the students be more independent, I ring the bell when it is time to switch. Initially I was going to use pictures to represent all the stations, but realized this would be much simpler! 

This chart is my guide, so I don't have to think so hard!

The stations are marked with matching construction paper.

Here are  the stations:

Blue

motor and sensory skills

The rug is from a thrift store and the pins are made from water bottles with gravel to weight them slightly.

I really really want a ball pit ! I think the kids would get a lot of good from it.

Red (the picnic table)

math skills and games

Green (the tree)

reading and writing skills

Yellow

free choice reading

There are still some bugs to work out of the system, but the first week went pretty well.

Later,

Paula