Ah, centers. A precious time of day in the kindergarten classroom….one of the few blocks of time where students are free to make choices, play freely, and build social and emotional skills in a real way.

In my classroom, we have center time in the morning before recess. I love to engage with the students and watch their social skills blossom throughout the year.

When I meet other kindergarten teachers, I always ask about centers. I like to gather ideas for centers, setup, management, etc. Usually, I can come away with some great information.

Occasionally, though, I meet other teachers who seem put-out by “having” to do centers. I have recently heard comments from some teachers at training who view centers as a waste of time. Some say that centers are the worst or most stressful part of their day, and some even wish they could do away with centers altogether!

My heart breaks when I hear these statements, and I always want to get to the bottom of why these teachers could possibly feel this way about what should be the best part of the day. Inevitably, I find with a bit of digging, that these teachers have centers at the very end of the day.

Now, I am sure that in certain classrooms centers are wonderful and successful in the afternoon.  However, if you are finding centers to be stressful, my first suggestion would be to move center time to earlier in the day.

I too used to have center time at the end of the day. It seemed logical enough to end the day with play. Plus, by the end of the day I didn’t want to teach anything new and the students didn’t want to learn anything new. But making the switch to morning centers has been one of the best changes I have ever made in my classroom.

Read on to find out why we do centers in the morning instead of the afternoon.

It establishes that play is important

Every time I talk to someone about centers in the morning, I inevitably hear “Oh, we use the morning for instructional time.”

This creates the idea that instructional time is the entree and centers are the dessert…something less substantial and less important. But in a play-focused classroom, centers are not dessert-they are the protein!

When we schedule centers in the morning block, we send a message to parents, students, and administration that play is a vital part of our day. It is every bit as instructional as reading, writing, or arithmetic.

Social skills are necessary for a successful life, and arguably more important than anything else we might be teaching. In my classroom, play isn’t a break from learning; it’s the most important work we do all day.

 

The Students Are Focused

Another reason teachers often give me for holding centers at the end of the day is that their class is “too tired” to focus at the end of the day, so they need to teach all subjects earlier and leave centers for the end.

The way I see it is that if students are too tired to focus on writing, reading, or math, they are definitely too tired to focus on play.

When we wait until students have lost the ability to focus before we go to centers, we set them up for failure. Play involves critical thinking, cooperation, and problem solving.

How can we expect our students to properly process the problems and conflicts that arise from engaging in play if they are unable to focus? This inevitably leads to bickering, rough play, and hitting.

Centers in the morning allows my students to learn how to cooperate, engage in conflict, work on sharing and taking turns, and solve problems because they have the mental capability to do so. If we wait until they are exhausted, conflict will be worse.

 

Play Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought

In some classrooms that I have observed, centers take place concurrently with snack or with packing up from the day. The students in these classes rush through their snack or must pack up in a hurry to be able to play.

This might encourage your students to pack up a little more quickly, but it tells your students that play is an afterthought-something you get to do only after everything else is done.

In my class, I believe that children have a right to free choice play, every single day. Play is not an afterthought. It’s not something you earn by packing up quickly. It’s not a tradeoff for snack. It is a guaranteed right.

When it’s time for centers, it’s time…we stop whatever we are doing and play, even if I did not teach a sight word, or pull my last reading group, or give a writing lesson. If core subjects aren’t afterthoughts, centers shouldn’t be either.

 

Those are my reasons for putting my centers in my morning block. I rarely have behavioral problems in centers because students are calm, focused, and view play as important. Give it a shot and see how it works for your classroom!

 

 

Posted on: September 25, 2018, by : admin