Using Stations to Motivate and Engage Jessica Garner jessica.garner@ucps.k12.nc.us

Rationale Why use stations in the elementary classroom? Engagement 21st century skills

John Wilson, Executive Director, NEA “To relegate today’s students to rows of desks, a teacher at the front of the classroom espousing content, and a textbook with paper and pencil is to guarantee that our students will be left with the lowest skills and the lowest-paying jobs."

Rationale Why use stations in the elementary classroom? Engagement 21st century skills Classroom management Gardner’s multiple intelligences 15 minutes to here

Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Verbal-linguistic Intrapersonal Interpersonal Naturalist Bodily-Kinesthetic Musical-Rhythmic Visual-Spatial Logical-Mathematical

Think about the senses… Sight Touch Taste Hear Smell What activities can you do to arouse each of these senses?

Think about subject matter… Language arts Reading Writing Spelling Math Science Social Studies What can you do to incorporate each of these into your stations?

Think about 21st century skills… Communication Collaboration Cultural competence Technology

Smooth transitions Group ahead of time! Clearly label tables with numbers/colors Use clear, concise directions Lower grades – recording or picture Upper grades – recording or written out Have 2 or 3 good transition signals Clean up Begin to move to next station Be at next station

Let’s Practice! 6 stations - Fall: Use counting bears to create number sentences – create as many as you can. Counting bears Chart paper Markers Listen to this story clip (Audacity or on CD) and add your own ending. Each student records at least 1 sentence. Laptop with clip ready to play – Windows Media Player Microphone and audacity open Pass around papers with story and add to it. Change papers every minute. Papers with a story starter Timer Dice game – Make sentences from words on cubes. You get points for using them. Keep score. 3 dice with subjects, verbs, predicates Score card Scrabble board – list as many words as you can that have to do with fall. Sentence “Pumpkins are a part of fall!” Drawing – Draw a scene that reminds you of fall. Construction paper

Station #1 Math Sentences At this station, you will be using the counting bears to make number sentences. After you have made arranged the bears in groups, write a math sentence with them on the chart paper. Each student in the group should work on at least 1 number sentence.

Station #2 Add an ending Listen to the clip of the story. Allow all group members 2 minutes to think about a possible ending. Then, allow each person 30 seconds to add his/her ending to the story using Audacity.

Station #3 Community Members Work together as a group to think about community members.

Station #4 Scrabble Using the Scrabble board provided, take turns writing words from the phrase: “Pumpkins are part of fall.” All words must connect, as in Scrabble. Keep score on the scorecard provided.

Station #5 Taste and Texture Write down observations about texture and graph your favorite.

Brainstorming Session! Get together with your grade level. Brainstorm different types of stations that you could do in your classrooms. Try to think about using technology… We’ll spend 5 minutes per topic: Language Arts Math Social Studies Science RECORD YOUR IDEAS ON CHART PAPER!

Time to share…

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