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Hey friends. Welcome back to the Firstieland Podcast. I’m your host, Molly Schwab, and today I’m wondering, what’s your biggest challenge when it comes to literacy centers? Is it the planning of the activities? Is it keeping kids on task while you’re working in small groups, or maybe it’s just the time it takes to change out the materials at your centers?

These are some of the topics that we’re going to tackle today on the podcast as we talk about the best learning center strategies for first grade. So let’s get started.

If you ask teachers about how they run their literacy centers, you’re going to get lots of different opinions. Some teachers swear by the Daily Five. Other teachers are going to tell you weekly centers are the way to go. Some teachers talk about Must Do, May Do, and others are going to tell you monthly centers are the way to go.

I’ve tried some of these different options, but before I tell you what worked best for me, let’s just talk about what all [00:01:00] of these are and what they mean.

So first of all, the Daily Five has been around for quite a while. It’s based on a book written by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, and it basically tells you that your centers should be based on five components that kids will interact with every day, which are read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, word work, and writing.

This is a relatively easy way to set up your centers with fairly low prep for the teacher, and I think it can work in first grade with some modifications. I used parts of this method in my centers, but honestly, the problem for me was the read to self and read to someone areas. You really have to work up to this in first grade because most kids come to you as non-readers, and it takes a long time before kids can read independently for any length of time.

But the thing about literacy centers is that you really shouldn’t start them on the first day of school because you have to teach kids how to work [00:02:00] independently and how to use the centers appropriately. So while you’re working on this, you can have kids practice building up their stamina to read to themselves for a while.

The goal is to get kids to be able to work or read independently for 15 to 20 minutes. And even though kids can work at a word work center or even a writing center for 15 to 20 minutes, getting them to read to themselves for that long or read with another person for that long is really challenging, and that might not happen until midway through the year. So for that reason, the Daily Five never really worked for me.

Another method that some teachers use is called the Must Do, May Do method. Basically, what that means is that teachers will structure the time so that there are certain activities that kids have to do during center time. And then, if time allows, there are things that kids may do after they finish the required work.

Typically, to set this up, teachers might make some kind of rotation chart that shows what the kids must do first, and that might be one [00:03:00] or two things. Then they’ll have the optional May Do activities on the chart that kids can pick from afterward.

For instance, for the Must Do activities, you might have things like a phonics page, or maybe they have some unfinished work that they need to complete before they can go to a May Do activity. Maybe you want them to read a decodable book and answer some comprehension questions. Really, the Must Do all depends on what you’re currently working on in class and what each child needs to work on.

Then the May Do activities are usually more hands-on, things like playing a phonics game, listening to a book on tape, or going to the writing center.

I think the thing I like about Must Do, May Do centers is that teachers are differentiating the Must Do activities. Some teachers have a folder for every child, and that’s where their Must Do activity for the day is placed. Those folders are differentiated to meet the needs of each child in your classroom.

And I think it’s so important to differentiate for kids so that they can work on their own level. But because it’s differentiated, it’s very hard to have the Must Do activity be anything other than a worksheet. If every child has their own Must Do folder, it’s basically a worksheet that they’re doing, and I don’t love that for center time.

For me, I always felt that center time should be all about practice and feel a little more like play to the kids, because then they want to do it. They actually look forward to it. I suspect kids who have a Must Do folder may dread that part of center time, and it might lead to more doodling and daydreaming instead of actually working.

But that’s just my opinion, and I could be wrong because I never really used this method in my classroom. I know there are lots of teachers who use this method and love it. And you don’t have to have a Must Do folder. Maybe your Must Do activity is reading a book or playing a phonics game.

If you pair kids up by ability, you could have the Must Do activity be a partner [00:05:00] game, which would feel more fun to the kids. They’d still be differentiated and practicing a skill, but it would feel more like play and be more enjoyable.

So maybe in that case, you could have a stash of phonics games, with games ranging from alphabet recognition to CVC words to blends or digraphs or whatever. Then the Must Do activity would be directed toward whatever game you wanted them to play that day.

There are lots of different ways to do a Must Do, May Do system, and it might work for you.

For me, I ended up doing a combination of these methods. The one thing that was most important to me was the time I was spending with kids in my small groups. I knew for certain that those 15 to 20 minutes with me were going to be quality instruction.

But the age-old question is, what’s the rest of the class doing during that time? And no matter what you do, it’s never going to be perfect because they are six-year-old kids, and the only thing kids really want to do is [00:06:00] play.

If they’re doing something they find boring, they’re going to figure out a way to make it feel like play. You might tell them they need to complete a phonics worksheet, but the minute you turn your back, some kids are going to pretend their crayons are little people or soldiers or whatever, and they’re going to ignore the worksheet.

Not every kid is going to do that, but especially your struggling learners. And those are really the kids who need the most help. So handing them a worksheet to complete isn’t always the best option, even if it’s differentiated.

Another thing that was important to me was how much time it took to prep materials. Let’s face it, there’s never enough time. We had 40 minutes of planning time a day, and that was barely enough to write lesson plans, copy and prep whole group activities, grade papers, and write small group plans. And we all know there’s way more than that to do each week. So planning centers or changing materials daily or even [00:07:00] weekly was a lot.

So here’s what I did. I had 10 centers in my room, and that might sound like a lot, but several of them were basically no prep at all. I had a classroom library, a listening center, computers or tablets, an art center, math, word work, writing, a big book and retelling center, and a spelling center.

I tried lots of different options over the years for how I set up stations and rotations, and the best thing I came up with that worked for me for many, many years was monthly centers.

When I first started using centers, it felt like a never-ending battle. I was planning different games and activities for multiple centers every week, and it was so much work. Then once I figured out what to put at each center, I had to gather all the materials and set everything up. I was doing that every week, and honestly, I was getting burned out quickly.

I didn’t want that to happen because not only did I need to manage what the rest of my class was doing during small [00:08:00] groups, but I also wanted centers to be something kids enjoyed and learned from at the same time. I knew there had to be a better way, and that’s when I decided to change my centers only once a month.

That’s a total of nine or ten days out of the entire school year that I had to change center materials, and I knew I could handle that.

Here are the benefits of changing centers monthly.

Number one, it saves time. Teachers already have too much on their plates, lesson plans, copies, grading, data collection, meetings, differentiation. The list goes on and on. When you only change centers once a month, it’s much more manageable.

Number two, monthly centers allow for seasonal themes. My October centers had a fall theme with pumpkins, leaves, and fall books. January centers had a winter vibe. I used to scour Dollar Tree every month to find items I could use as game pieces or counters.

You can find great seasonal materials at places like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or Dollar Tree, and using these items made centers more engaging for kids. They were always excited to see the new activities at the beginning of each month.

If you want to see them, all of my monthly centers are in my TPT store, and you can find them at firstieland.com/learningcenters.

Number three, you never have to wonder what to put at your centers. There’s some upfront work, but once your centers are created, you can reuse them year after year. I planned activities based on the skills I taught each month. In first grade, you teach CVC words early in the year, and by January you’re working on digraphs and word endings.

If I still had kids working on CVC words in January, I could easily mix those activities in and differentiate as needed.

Number four, you have more room for storage and setup is quick and easy. I kept all materials for each month in one Rubbermaid under-the-bed storage box. All games, books, art projects, and CDs were stored together. At the beginning of each month, I pulled out the box and set up centers in one planning period.

Number five, I spent far less time explaining centers. Once a month, I set up centers on a Friday while kids were at specials. When they returned, I walked them through the new activities. We reviewed again on Monday, and that was it.

The skills weren’t new, just the activities. I only set centers up once a month.

I usually had four or five activities at each center, enough to keep kids busy for 15 to 20 minutes. Everything was differentiated, and each center also had materials that never changed, like math manipulatives.

That became my version of Must Do, May Do. Kids had to complete the new activities first before using manipulatives.

For rotations, I had one child at each center because group work was too noisy during small groups. With 10 centers, I could have 10 kids at centers and five or six with me. The rest were reading or completing independent work.

I didn’t meet with every child every day. Struggling readers met with me daily, on-level readers three times a week, and advanced readers once or twice a week.

Each child had a center log with pictures of all 10 centers. They checked off each center and couldn’t repeat one until they’d completed them all. That meant everyone visited each center twice a month.

Kids loved center time. Centers were engaging, they had time for quiet reading, and they practiced skills. It was a win-win.

To recap, there are many ways to manage learning centers, but monthly centers worked best for me. They save time, allow for seasonal themes, simplify planning, improve organization, and reduce explanation time.

I have several blog posts about how I ran centers, and I’ll link those in the show notes. You can also see pictures and details on my blog. And if you want to see all of my monthly learning centers, visit [00:15:00] firstieland.com/learningcenters.

Okay friends, that’s it for today. If you have questions about running centers, send me a message on Instagram @firstieland. Until next time, remember to make learning feel like play. I’ll see you next week. Thanks so much for tuning in, and be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you left a review.

You can find the show notes and links for everything mentioned in this episode at firstieland.com.
I’ll see you next week in Firstieland.