How I Begin Student Rotations
In my first grade class, we do a lot of rotations in a day. We do both reading and math rotations and, as you can imagine, that requires a handful of classroom management, modelling, and expectations for the students.
Since we do so much rotational work, it is important to me that I start things straight away at the beginning of the year so that this becomes our ‘norm.’ Yes, we start on the very FIRST day of school!
And by start, I mean we start to understand how we rotate, where to find our jobs, and how to know what we will do at each rotation.
On the first day, our rotations are simple. We will do a Stamp, Write, & Draw activity, colour in our Helping Hand(our daily classroom helper), a First Day of School Seesaw activity, and a Lego building center. The jobs students have are not challenging, but the point of starting on the first day is getting used to what is going to come.
Each student gets a name tag label in the morning with an emoji on it. The emoji represents their group for our rotations. Just as we would with reading or math rotations, students can look at the board to see which task they are working on.
Here is what I have displayed on the board. It is simple for students to understand their task, especially with the exact visuals of what they will be working on. Each rotations is about 15 minutes long which is generally enough time to finish all these tasks.
What am I doing on the first day? Well, on the first day we do not have any small group instruction over at teacher table but I am going around trying to spend time with each student in the class to get to know them a bit better. Often students will need help initially getting into Seesaw, so the first few minutes of each rotation, I sit on the carpet with the group and help them get set up.
Okay, that’s great, but what about after the first day?
Well, we slowly start to build up our rotations until we introduce Teacher Table. Each day that tasks differ, but we are still rotating. Often, we are doing work with letter sounds, directed drawings (for that fine motor), and completing activities on Seesaw.
Before officially starting Teacher Table (which is usually within the second week of school, but it depends on the class. Sometimes classes need the extra time with me being available and making sure they know what their jobs are. There is no point in starting Teacher Table if students cannot work independently on the tasks they have to complete), I pull students individually to Teacher Table during their rotation time. I use this one on one time together to get to know the students a bit better. I do an inventory on the types of things and topics they are interested in and I will do quick assessments with letter sounds (this will become good information to me later on when I begin grouping students for our proper Small Group Reading Instruction).
Links:
HELPING HAND – The helping hand is a FAVOURITE in my class. At the beginning of the year we decorate our hands. In my class we change the helping hand daily (though weekly totally works too!). The Helping Hand does it all. Line leader, plugging in the iPads, run mail to the office, etc.
SEESAW ACTIVITY – Seesaw is my very favourite tool. It is a must have and a go to for activities! That being said, it must be a first day of school rotation! Seesaw is something that my students use almost daily, so putting into our first day rotations is important!
STAMP, WRITE, DRAW – This activity is free in my shop. It is an excellent first week activity for sure. I like to see if students can stamp the letters of their name in order, how their printing is, and their ability to draw! These are also great pages to do either monthly, one each term, or once at the beginning of the year and again at the end of the year. Students are able to see their growth!
ROTATION BOARD – This is the rotation board that I use all throughout the year for our Reading Rotations. I like to keep things consistent, so this is what I also use on the first day. Though the rotations might not be “proper” reading rotations, viewing the board and understanding how to read it is an important part of our routine. This document has blank templates so that you can add any rotations and call them whatever you’d like!
There you have it, friends! That’s a quick look into our First Day of School Rotations. This is a great way to start our routines and procedures in Grade One – right from the beginning!
