What's your biggest challenge with math and literacy centers? Does it take too much time to plan the activities? Or maybe it takes too long to set up new centers every week. Having a monthly learning center strategy is the key to making it easy on yourself.
What is the best learning center strategy for elementary classrooms?
You'll see lots of different opinions on this topic. Some teachers swear by The Daily Five. Other teachers will tell you weekly centers are the way to go. I've tried many different options but my favorite (and the one I stuck to for years) was a monthly learning center strategy.
When I first started using math and literacy centers in my classroom it felt like a never-ending battle. Trying to plan different games and activities for a bunch of different centers every week was so much work! Then, once I finally figured out what to put at my centers, I had to gather all the materials and set it all up!
And I was trying to do that every week. I was getting burned out quickly and I didn't want that to happen. I knew the value of learning centers and I really wanted to have them in my classroom.
There had to be a better way.
And that's when it hit me. I decided I would only change out my centers once a month. That's 9 or 10 days out of the entire school year. I knew I could handle that!
What are the benefits of a monthly learning centers strategy?
There are many benefits to having monthly learning centers rather than weekly or daily.
1. Monthly learning centers save you time.
Is time holding you back from having learning centers in your room? Do you feel like you simply don't have enough time to plan, create and set up centers every week? Well, you're probably correct!
Teachers have so much on their plates these days. Writing lesson plans, running copies, grading papers, collecting data, attending meetings, planning for differentiation…the list goes on and on. Add planning for weekly math and literacy centers to the mix and you feel like you're going to explode!
When you use monthly learning centers it becomes much easier and more manageable. Changing centers once a month is only 9-10 times a year. Every teacher has time for that!
2. You can have seasonal themes with monthly centers.
If you're an elementary teacher you probably love the seasons and holidays. You'd love to incorporate more of that into your lesson plans but often there just isn't the time. Your day is taken up with phonics, phonemic awareness, math, and writing. There isn't a whole lot of room left for seasonal and holiday activities.
When you only change your learning centers once a month you can give them a theme! Your September centers can have a fun back-to-school theme. October centers can have a spooky Halloween theme. December centers can have cute themes like gingerbread and candy canes. There are so many possibilities for monthly learning centers!
3. You can use seasonal props with monthly centers.
Take a stroll through your local Dollar Tree on any given day and you'll see so many cute seasonal and holiday props. Those adorable little plastic pumpkins or Easter eggs are just begging to be used at your centers!
You can fill your cart for under $20 and have enough seasonal props to make your monthly learning centers stand out for the entire year!
4. You'll have more room for storage.
If you only change your classroom learning centers once a month you'll have less stuff to store! I had plastic storage boxes for my centers and was able to store everything I needed for each monthly center in those boxes. I could easily stack them up in a closet in my room, leaving me more space in cupboards and drawers for other materials I needed.
Click here to grab these free monthly learning center labels.
5. Less time is needed for the explanation of centers.
When you only change your learning centers once a month you won't have to spend much time explaining learning centers to students. I took one afternoon at the end of each month to show my students the new games and activities at each center. It took me about 20 minutes to go around the classroom and show everything to the students. Once I explained everything to the kids they were good to go for a month!
6. Students are more engaged with monthly themed learning centers.
If you really want your students to be engaged and excited about going to learning centers each day, add seasonal props to your games. Addition suddenly becomes fun when you're using real leaves and acorns as counters!
7. Setup is quick and easy.
Changing out your monthly learning centers can be quick and easy. I chose one Friday at the end of each month to change my math and literacy centers. First, I gathered all of the materials from the prior month and stacked them on a table. I had a gallon-size ziplock back for each center and I stored all the worksheet masters in those bags. After making sure that all the game pieces were with the appropriate games I could put everything together for the entire month in one large plastic storage container.
I could gather all the old center materials and put out the new month in one 40-minute planning period each month. No more staying after school for hours each Friday night getting centers ready for the next week! If you want to save time monthly centers are the perfect learning center strategy!
Ready to make the switch to monthly learning centers?
If you're ready to ditch the learning centers overwhelm and switch to monthly math and literacy centers, I'm here for you! This bundle of learning centers has everything you need to create seasonal monthly centers your students will love.
You'll get 10 new center activities for each month – 5 math and 5 literacy activities. Just enough to keep your students engaged and on task, but not too much that it's overwhelming. Each game is perfectly timed for what you'll be teaching at that time of the year in first grade.
Once you have your math and literacy centers made for each month, you can store them away for next year. No more searching for the perfect activities year after year. It's one and done. Your future self will thank you when you're walking out the door on time each day!
If you're ready to transform your learning center routine, click here to take a closer look at everything included in this year-long bundle.
Want to learn more? Click below to check out these posts for tips and advice for using learning centers in the classroom.
Save these teacher success tips for later!
Take a minute to save these tips to your favorite learning centers Pinterest board so you can remember them later!
