My thinking this has to do with two things: a student who arrived about 13 weeks ago(He has trouble making choices and I am all about choices. He does his Daily Five choices in the same order every time. He gets upset when he has to make a new choice.) and the need to differentiate for my lower students as the curriculum gets harder (we are piloting the Common Core this year and it has been an adventure. A few of my students are still working on numbers between 1-10 but most of them are working above 10. The two groups have very different needs.)
So, I may be switching to a more Debbie Diller way: have two or three kids work together on centers. I will re-number my math tubs (used to be all small group work and they could choose what to work on) and use a pocket chart to assign which centers they will go to. I think I am even going to assign kids to work in the same place each day (they can bring their center to that spot). I have a Special Ed teacher and an assistant in my room at math time so we will be able to walk around and help different groups of kids.
I have thought of the sixteen differentiated centers. I will post a list for you when I finalize them.
I will be able to have them rotate to the computers as one center.
The other half of the math time, I plan to use to do whole group problem solving and journals. I got some great ideas from KindergartenKindergarten for geometry explorations that I want to try.
We only have 42 days left in school. Some of the days are taken up with Field Day, STEM day, the zoo is coming, we go to the library for our final field trip, we have an art day, we have a celebration with our parents and we have a Fun in the Sun day, AND we have to test all the little darlings! So the kids may get through all the centers once, maybe twice. So I will set up the centers, explain the new system, and off we go.
1 comments:
You're so not crazy! It sounds like you're making a plan that works for you and your kinders! This year I am implementing guided math and it has made all the difference this year. And differentiation has been key. Hopefully the picture icons will help your new kinder also be better prepared for if there is change in the activities you set out. Keep us updated!
-Leslie @KindergartenWorks
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