Literacy Centers/ Guided Groups

I began my literacy centers on the second week of school. My looping students are experts with this.
 I would normally begin on the third or even fourth week. During those weeks I would have introduced a few centers a day and make sure students understand the process in the movement  and the work I expect at each center.  
Let me explain my old way first:
In first grade I did my centers as "free" choice  (not really- but the kids thought so:). I had 12 centers in one week, crazy right? This worked wonders in my class. First, I made the literacy centers based on the lessons for that week. So, based on Journey's, Lesson 1 had it's own set of centers.. etc. Centers ranged from independent reading, art, writing, word work, pocket chart (words of the week), read around the room, magnet letters, games( related to phonics), listening center, poetry center, buddy reading, journal writing. Not seat work as a center!
Why? Well, throughout the years when I had center rotations like everyone else does: teacher, seat work and some sort of center, my lowest group would always have issues completing seat work and centers. They always had millions of questions, they couldn't help each other (hence the low group), and they would interrupt me at guided reading or someone else at other areas. And yes, I tried to partner them up; tried "ask three before me"... never worked. So, I decided to pair my center groups based on mixed levels. However, before they go to centers they had 10-15 minutes to complete their seat work at their seats, with my guidance. Then we would all start centers and I would call different groups from what ever activities they had.
So, lets say Group 1 had low, middle, high, low average students together. If I called the high group for guided reading, my low kids still had someone "high" to help them at centers. NO MORE "WHAT DO I DO AT THIS CENTER, MRS. DELATORRE?!" and I could teach my guided group with hardly any interruptions. Now, this took time to plan, lots of thoughtful work went into every center making sure students weren't just doing busy work.
This year, I am doing it a bit different or maybe the same way I tried to avoid for almost 8 years. Why go back to the old ways? First of all, my students are all( mostly all) at grade level, and we all seem to understand how centers work in our class. Second, my new teammates in second grade don't seem to like much of the many center ideas. So, I'm sort of on my own when it comes to the planning. Since 12 centers are a bit extreme for my planning, we started with just 7 this year.
Here is a picture of my centers this year:

I made those on word. I created the surf boards with the colors on paint. The chart serves it purpose and it's helpful for the way I'm having them do their centers.
We have three rotations: Teacher, Centers (2 times).  (You can see it on my google documents.) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz1Ql80v9lTqU3lMZEJhZkw5Z0U/edit?usp=sharing
Seat work is before we go to our rotations. It still works for me this way and I can keep track of who is finishing their work. I can give immediate feedback on the lessons' classwork. This year computer is doubled. I decided to do it this way so they had enough time to log in and complete i-ready lessons. The day the computers do not work they have some free choice activities to complete. In reality I have to plan for only 6 centers :); half of what I had last year!  Also, most of the centers stay the same; or I have to do little planning. Here is a sample of the chart I created for this year.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz1Ql80v9lTqZk9lanNxdXNfaXM/edit?usp=sharing This helps them, and myself, keep track of their work.  
Thanks for reading,
What do you do for your center rotations? How do you group your lowest students?

Classroom Pictures

Finally, I've been able to download some pictures of my room! It's been a crazy beginning of a year (looping is a breeze), but reality is that changing grades is not. The difference is big and second grade has a demanding curriculum with the "New" Florida State Standards (formerly Common Core Standards) Well, anyways.... as I get used to the change I have to make sure my classroom looked different for my buddies... here are some pics. What do you  think?

 

My calendar is not as interactive as it used to be in first. I find we don't have time to introduce many things. So, I have a calendar person (helper) who changes the calendar daily. He/she changes the number of the day. The students complete their morning binder related to the calendar. I love the binder... I don't have to make copies and they love working with erasable markers.  The lovely helper chart plus calendar are from www.surfinthroughsecond.com . I did add the tree and other monkey pics on top of her animal pics to keep my monkey theme (I've had this theme for more than 8 years!).  The little tags you see on the dog poster are also from Corinna Gandara's TPT store.  These are a hit! They love getting their beads every time the get COWABONGA. Now, the dog sort of goes with my theme; surfing monkeys/ animals/kids, I love dogs... I have a beagle. So, in my head, I guess it all makes sense, lol.

This is my Common Board  as we call it here in our school. It has the behavior which is part of the tags awards. They go up or down depending on behavior. I used to have bucket full of bananas. It was cute and worked well as well. They would loose bananas or get them back. It complemented my Bucket fillers activity you see below the board. I truly love this activity and we do it every now and then. This class knows it well and we did it a lot last year. This year we haven't found the time to write notes to each other. I have to make that a priority this week. Do you know the Bucket filler's activity? It's a wonderful heart filling activity to do with your class all year; go here to  research a bit about it http://www.bucketfillers101.com/faqs.php 

This is the back of my room. We have two white boards which I find a little unnecessary. So, I use it as a bulleting board. In first grade, I used it as a word wall with magnetic words. It worked great. This year I have to post kids benchmark tests. Here you see the two charts I will use until I find something more appealing to the eye. The surfboards are for my A.R. wall. Although, I changed it and added waves to the right of the picture. I will re-post soon with that. Did I tell you my class buddies are avid readers! We won the A.R. (Accelerated reader)  challenge last year with more than 3,000 points which meant we read more than 6,000 books; and  yes they were first graders! I'm so proud of my kiddos. Wonder why I looped? :) I will share more about my program of sending books home in another post.

This is our class library! I 'm excited about it. The reason I'm excited is because in our school this side of the room was made for the teachers' desk. I decided to move the desk out of the way and placed it on another side of the room, and this little nook became my new library space. The bulleting board will showcase an author every month plus the reading skill of the week. This month is for the author Cynthia Rylant- Henry and Mugde Books. The monkey is Charlie our Mascot. :) Oh, and the fans are not a part of the decoration; this year my room has ac problems :(.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my classroom. More pics will follow.  Thanks, Lymari