Create center spaces using rugs, curtains, posters or hanging beads. Keep quiet centers away from noisier, busier centers. Break up students into groups of three or four. Choose a color code for each group, and construct a simple chart on poster board illustrating which centers the groups go to each day. To keep track of the flow, make “tickets” out of oak tag for students, with check off boxes designating each center. When students complete a center, they mark the center box on their ticket with a stamp.
Stock your literacy center with magnetic letters and letter stencils for alphabet recognition activities. Choose a letter of the day and instruct students to find that letter in nursery rhymes posted on chart paper. Kindergarteners learn counting skills through manipulative blocks in the math center. Prepare worksheets for number-writing practice. Select a quiet corner as a listening center furnished with books on tape. Supply a creative play center with costumes and props to allow children to imagine cooking or working in an office. Build fine motor skills with an art center stocked with clay, paints and sewing materials.
Explain to your students that they each belong to a color-coded group, and that they will stamp their own tickets as they attend each center. Tour the centers as a class, demonstrating the activities in each one. Emphasize that center time is independent, non-teacher time. Students should understand that you expect them to behave independently and to problem-solve on their own if possible.
Instruct students that they will spend 5 minutes in each center at first, and you will set a timer to alert them when they need to rotate to the next center. Set a kitchen timer for 4 minutes for the first week of center time. When the timer goes off, students will have 1 minute to clean up their center. Also, allow transition time between centers. Gradually work up to 10 to 12 minutes at each center. Remind students to stamp the center box on their tags when each center is complete.