Classroom Management

Happy Wednesday! So I have been out of the classroom since school ended and I'm going though withdrawal :( . Anyway, as I reminisce on the glory days (with some challenging ones along with it), I thought I'd share this Classroom Management idea I came up with during school. After Circle Time the group separates and goes to different centers for Center Time. Before they can leave the Circle Time rug they have to make a decision on where they want to go. Sometimes it's hard for children to make decisions on their own, especially when they are used to someone telling them what to do, so, I thought a visual of the different centers would be helpful. I made this Center Time Board for the preschoolers.

I made little gingerbread men shaped people and wrote their names. The red ones are the Jumpstart members. (I worked with Jumpstart and our uniform was a red Jumpstart shirt.) Before they could go to the center of their choice they had to place their gingerbread man next to the center on the board. If they chose to change centers during Center Time they had to move their man again. This helps keep track of where each child should be and helps manage how many children are at each center so it doesn't get too hectic. (Dramatic Area and Art were really popular in my classroom. We made a rule that there are only suppose to be four kids at Dramatic Area at a time and 4-6 at the other centers.)

I used a poster board and lots of index cards. I drew and colored everything on the index cards, cut everything out and then glued it onto the board. The gingerbread men have Velcro on the back of them and near the centers are about 5 Velcro spaces.