I can't say how much I love the kindergartners learning math through center rotations. I guess whenever I heard of centers, I imagined house keeping, reading area, etc. Not a purposefully planned subject specific area. I never thought of 4 tables, each with their own objective to be considered centers. After the whole group lesson (approximently 10 minutes) the students begin the rotation. For the most part the children behaved well and followed directions.
The only flaw I see in this system is who is helping the struggling students? If the student is at one of the 2 tables without an instructor, who intervenes and helps when there are problems? I can easily see a student slipping through the centers without getting the help he needs. If I were to implement this math center rotation in my future classroom I would want time at the end to give some extra support to those who need it.
In our Lemov reading, I really like Technique 20. Exit tickets or slips are an easy way to get a feel for how your class is doing. I have always liked the idea, but have not seen it done in the young classrooms. I wonder if its a good idea for older elementary students, but only a good theory for the younger ones? I am sure it could be done, maybe I just have not seen it yet. It would be interesting to know how many kindergarten or first grade classrooms use this system.
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What about using an exit ticket for the math centers??!! That way you could see which children might be struggling and help them later with a little bit of extra instruction. Are the math centers the same each day?? Do they switch out weekly or monthly? If the same centers were in the classroom all week, you could definitely use exit tickets to identify where the children need the extra help and then rotate the teacher into that station!
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