Make centers for groups of five or less. There should be enough learning centers in your classroom to allow each group to have less than five members. Unfortunately, there is only one of you, so the fewer students in each group, the less likely your class will get out of hand.
Move your stations against the walls so there is a space in the middle of the room. You will probably have to rearrange your classroom before your students arrive. Push the chairs and desks to the edges of the room. This will make it less congested, and safer if there is an emergency.
Face the chairs or the focal point of each center to the wall. When your students are at their respective stations, you want them involved in their own activity. Making each center face the wall reduces the amount of distraction from other stations around the room. Set your students up for success immediately.
Strategically place active stations by other active stations and quiet stations by each other as well. The more active stations will probably be a slight distraction to the students engaged in other activities. If you group the active stations together, however, you will minimize the distraction to the students involved in quiet centers.
Select your learning center groups. Before you class enters the room, place name tags on each desk or learning center. Pre-plan who will work with whom. Be absolutely certain to evenly disperse the well behaved and the not so well behaved students around the room.