How To Plan, Implement, & Run Stations in K-2

I feel like every year I try to revamp my stations to make them easier and more meaningful. This year I moved across the country and decided to just roll with whatever they had in place. I would have a 30–40-minute small group block and have students do 1 worksheet and then a specific game or app. They could then do make-up work or read in our classroom library. I didn’t love this and felt like it was hard to hold kids accountable and know who needs the extra support.

How To Start Stations

Rewind to the beginning of the year. Most teachers can’t just start week 1 or 2 with stations. If you can I want your SECRETS!! I start the second day of school with reading stamina. I have THIS graph that I hang up and use this Google slideshow to teach what stamina is and why we need it.

I AM SO STRICT at first with this. The first time someone gets up, makes noises, reads aloud, or is off task we stop the timer. I NEVER say who it was or allow students to call them out. We are all working on different things and that might be the best they can do.

If you have a student that is intentionally ruining this, I will ignore it and when the students get to do stations, they will have to continue to do stamina until they can reach the goal. I never want to penalize other students for something they don’t do.

I am not going to lie this will take some time. Some days you might make it a minute and some it might be seconds, but that’s okay. This is a crucial part of being successful with stations, so students won’t come up to you 5 million times during your small group time. Most years it takes me 2-3 weeks of doing it every day and reflecting as a class on how we can improve. I have students give each other suggestions on what can help us stay focused.

INCENTIVES

5 Minutes:

When students reach 5 minutes, I let them switch out their books. At the beginning of the year, I had books from our reading series that have about 10 stories in 1. This is all they get to look at during stamina until they get to 5 minutes, then each day they can pick their own books from our classroom library. This year I think I am going to put caution tape around the library area to get them excited about it!

10 Minutes:

Getting to 10 minutes is HUGE! I let students pick their own spots. They can sit anywhere they want, even under the tables! They LOVE this!

15 Minutes:

We start stations the next day. I make the stations very Fun for the rest of the week after they earn it.

Station Work Accountability

Now we are ready for stations after the fun week. Each student will have a colored folder that is just for STATION work. Our school asks for a million different color folders so I will be picking yellow this year. They will keep their work in this folder all week long. If they finish their station, they will put it on the Finished side and if they don’t finish, they will put it on the Not Finished side. I use these FREE stickers for their folder.

On Thursday I will have them take ALL the papers out of their yellow folder even if they aren’t done and staple them. I just have them line up and they come up and I staple and put them in a basket. After school, I go through and see who was able to complete all the work, most of it, and none of it. If students are rushing and doing sloppy work I give them a Speeding Ticket.

I keep a checklist to help me track any patterns for conferences and report card times. All the work goes home on Friday and anything that wasn’t completed is homework that is due the following Friday.

Stations

My stations are 45 minutes long. I am doing 3 rounds of reading groups so every student will be able to have a group. That means that every student will have 30 minutes of stations because they will be with me for 15 minutes. You will need 15 minutes’ worth of work.

I use the previous week’s skill because I feel like station time is practice time and I can’t have them do independent work if we haven’t practiced enough together first. Typically, at the beginning of the year, I will have one worksheet then they will look in their folder to do their not done. If they are finished, they will do the app of the week. If they do not want to use the app they can always read wherever they would like.

Tips & Tricks

• Teach students what to do if they forgot or need help- I have the saying ask 3 before me, but I change it each year to however many students I have in my class. This year mine said ask 16 before me. LOL! We have a lot of conversations about trying strategies first before asking. IF they don’t know they can start by asking someone who is done with the station or a friend in their group. If it is an emergency or a technical problem, they can come to me.
• When you can’t be disturbed during testing or running record time. I have used a stop sign, stop light, and lantern, but the thing that has worked the most is wearing a princess crown. I know, right this seems silly, but it has worked like a charm because it is different. Don’t be like me and walk around school forgetting you were wearing it! YIKES!
• You have students that are below grade level and can’t do the work. This year I have had a basked and I will run off handwriting practice pages that go with our weekly skill, fine motor activities, alphabet practice, math page, or writing numbers. This has been a huge help this year in students feeling successful. I let all the students know that there are extra practice pages that anyone can do when they are done. I let my special friends know that if they are having a hard time, they can get a page out of the basket.
• I use Classroom Screen to display what to do and it also has some fun features like a countdown, video ( I play instrumental music), and work symbols. Here is a post about it if you are interested in using it.

Small Groups

This is the most important time of our day and starting the year right with lots of routines, building stamina, and making it easy is what has worked in the past for me. If you want to know how I plan my small groups here is the post about it.

Every teacher is different and going to like things in a certain way. Hopefully you found something that you can implement during your small group time. These have worked for me for several years, but you must do a lot of work upfront to be consistent with procedures and routines to set your students and yourself up for success. It is worth it, I promise!