Make lesson planning easier by designating recurring types of activities for centers/stations

EASIER LESSON PLANNING? YES, PLEASE! Every teacher faces the challenge of time-planning & prepping lessons can be a real time suck, for sure. As I've moved away from whole group for much of class time, utilizing centers/ stations and/or activity boards/baskets has been extremely helpful BUT can be time consuming as well, especially on the front end of having everything ready for the rotation/ selection.

TO MAKE THIS EASIER, I co-opt the meal planning hack of having RECURRING TYPES of activities in the rotation- think Taco Tuesdays, you always know you are going to have tacos on Tuesdays which makes meal planning less stressful. Same idea with centers planning.

I CURRENTLY HAVE SEVEN CENTERS OR CHOICE BASKETS that are part of any weekly rotation, based on seating-you could have less, this just works for my space. I have identified FOUR of those as recurring types or topics for activities-Read Aloud, Los números/colores, Las emociones, and La identidad. The remaining three stations are entirely theme based, so change as needed.

I CHOSE THE FOUR TOPICS intentionally-colors, numbers, and emotions are all key content vocabulary and lend themselves really well across themes, SEL, and community work, which makes them fantastic work horses. Read alouds are a great way to get books in front of kids when I don't have time to READ ALL THE BOOKS that I want to! I especially love ones read by the author themselves (click here for lots I've saved on Pinterest!) but if I can't find one read by the author, I create a video of myself reading the book. La identidad refers to activities connected to my identity wall, ABAR work, and building belonging. For example, using @TheWokeSpanishTeacher Windows, Mirrors & Doors Resource, I prompt kids to find one image on the identity wall that is a mirror (something like them) and a window (something that is different than them). Could be people color (check out my Our hands, My hands resource!), or a celebration you engage in (or not), a language you speak, etc. Kids then use a class Ipad to take a photo of the two images they've found and/or share their choices with a classmate.