Teach Me Mommy

Playful and easy activities with the aim to teach

  • Kids Activities
    • Teach my Baby
    • Teach my Toddler
    • Teach my Preschooler
    • Teach me Fine Motor Skills
    • Teach me Literacy/Numeracy
    • Teach me Rhymes
    • Teach me Sensory
    • Teach me Science
  • Holidays
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Easter
    • Christmas
    • Birthdays
  • Gifts
  • DIY
    • Busy Bags
    • Keepsakes
    • Toys
  • Recipes
    • Food Recipes
      • South African Recipes
    • Play Recipes
  • SHOP

Classroom Management: Group Rotation

August 21, 2014 by Nadia van Zyl 2 Comments

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

In a class with 24 learners, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of which child did what activities. What I have found to help is working with a group rotation system.

20140821-153053.jpg

I use four groups, named after shapes, with 6 learners in a group. Each group has a table, where they eat and do certain work. Each child has his/her own chair with a chair bag. In the chair bag they keep their pencil cases, colouring books and aprons.

20140821-154638.jpg

During the morning discussion ring they sit in rows on the carpet, according to the group sign(big shapes on card board). These are rotated each day, so each group gets a turn to be in front.

When we do our 4 stations: including crafts, playdough, sensory bin, educational, they rotate in their groups. For instance, the Squares will be at the craft station first. When they are all done, we move the sign to the next station, and all the signs get moved, so all the kids know where to go: according to their group sign. And teacher knows that all the learners did go through all the station, because when you give them free choice of where to work, you will find that certain children(boys) will only want to play!

20140821-155438.jpg

Certain activities call for whole class teaching, but I prefer working in smaller groups where possible. Tidy up time works also better when working in groups, since the last group at a certain station must tidy up that station, so the “work” is divided up, and what even works better is to make tidy-up time then a competition between the groups!

During lunch time each child gets a turn to be the leader that sets the table: counting how many friends there are, hand out the cutlery etc. (sneaking in some math and social skills)

For our weekly gross motor period outside we also rotate in groups between 4 different stations, specifically planned to develop 4 different gross motor skills. Each group gets 10 minutes at a station, and the last few minutes they can choose where to play.

I try and group the learners like this:
– equal in gender(or more or less)
– according to language(since we are a biligual school with English and Afrikaans kids)
– splitting up best friends(this way they are more obiedient, believe it or not!)
– sometimes according to abilities, although I do not like to “label” learners so I try and stay away from that(kids are darn clever and catch on quickly which group is the “slowest”.) Also, the stronger kids tend to “help” the others in a group of mixed abilities, so making use of peer guidence is sometimes more effective.

This is, in short, how group rotation helps me to manage my classroom. I am curious to how other preschool teachers manage their classes. Do leave me a comment if you will.

>

Related Posts

  • 6 Gross Motor Activities for Large Groups

    Gross motor activities are a vital part of a preschool…

  • Our Week: Sports Theme

    This week we talked about Sports. Different types of sports,…

  • Our Week: Pollution Theme

    This past 4-day week(we had a public holiday Heritage Day)…

Feel free to share!

1 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Filed Under: default, Our classroom Tagged With: classroom, management, preschool

« Our Week: People who help us Theme 2
Our Week: Farming 1 »

Trackbacks

  1. 6 Gross Motor Activities for Large Groups - Teach Me Mommy says:
    April 4, 2015 at 10:00 am

    […] When the weather was not ideal to be outside, we made a gross motor station in class: jumping 10 times on the trampoline, walking the balancing plank, doing roly poly’s, jumping in the hula hoops. (This was with a group of 5/6 at a time, using my Group Rotation Method.) […]

    Reply
  2. Easy Crafts for Preschoolers - Teach Me Mommy says:
    February 24, 2016 at 3:59 pm

    […] (Read about how I managed my class with Group Rotation.) […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome!

Hi! I'm Nadia! A teacher and a mommy of two, who loves to be creative and share easy activities you can do at home with your kids too! Read More…

Visit our TpT Store

TpT store logo

Connect with us!

Social_Media_Icons_CtrlAltDesign_V2-04  Social_Media_Icons_CtrlAltDesign_V2-27Social_Media_Icons_CtrlAltDesign_V2-19  Social_Media_Icons_CtrlAltDesign_V2_PinterestSocial_Media_Icons_CtrlAltDesign_V2-29

Categories

More

  • About us/Contact
    • Contact
  • Disclosure & Privacy Policy
  • Freebies
  • SHOP
  • Sign-up to our Newsletter
  • Thanks

Freebies Sign-Up

Copyright © 2023 · Delightful theme by Restored 316