Do you have a small classroom? No problem! Here are a few tips to help you create literacy stations for a small classroom.
Recently I received an email from someone who was looking for suggestions for her small classroom. She wanted to use a few of my permanent literacy stations, but she was in a small classroom. Her was space was at a premium… so, I was determined to come up with a solution.
Small Classroom Solutions: Writing Station
This is what my writing station looks like. It takes up a fair amount of wall space.
I reduced the size of the cards (more on how to do that in a bit) and used a display board to mount the cards.
I attached the ribbon with a hot glue gun. I think I only burned myself twice… #noskills #allthumbs
This board could be placed on a table during stations time, then folded and put away when stations are over.
Small Classroom Solution: Pocket Chart
We have a predictable sentence pocket chart. This is a station that we have going all year. It grows in complexity as the year continues… so for me, this is essential! Students use this chart to create sentences… then they write them.
So if you have a small classroom, your wall space may be limited. So again, I reduced the size of the cards (hang tight for a little tutorial on this) and printed them out. I have had this desktop pocket chart forEVER. HERE is a similar one.
How to reduce the cards
It was actually pretty simple. These are from the Writing Station.
And these are from the predictable sentence station.
Here is how I did it! This is a screenshot of my computer. Instead of printing a full size, I just printed “Multiple.” 1 by 2 worked perfectly. NOTE: After you print the pages you want, go in and select the full size again. Otherwise your next print job will be 2 to a page as well.
If you need more of an adjustment you can also change the print size.
That is about as techie as I can get folks. Be amazed! ha!
I hope you found a few solutions for your small classroom!
You can see all of the Writing Station units HERE.
You can see all of the Predictable Sentence Stations HERE.
Missy Windom says
June 6 at 5:49 amThat is exactly what I did for my writing center! I reduced the size of the cards and used two small table top pocket charts for the cards. It worked great!
Deedee says
June 6 at 6:09 amThat is great to hear!!! Where there is a will, there is a way!
Paige says
June 6 at 12:46 pmLove the desktop pocket chart! A great way to save valuable wall space. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Deedee says
June 6 at 12:52 pmYou are welcome! I love them. I sometimes forget about them though!
Jenny Rogers says
June 7 at 6:56 amWhat a great idea to put the writing center on a display board. I’m at a year-round school and move classrooms a couple of times a year, so this would be a great way to store it and move it without having to take it down. Will definitely be doing this for the upcoming year. Thanks!
Deedee says
June 7 at 7:26 amI would love to see a picture of it once you have it up!
If you think of it, send it my way! [email protected]
Jamie VanDongen says
June 11 at 10:59 amDo you have the kiddos take the cards off the wall to write? I used a large hanging chart for my cards and the kiddos would take them out to write and whenever the would try to put it away, I felt like my hanging chart was falling off the wall multiple times during the week. Any tips or ideas??
Thanks!
Deedee says
June 11 at 7:59 pmNo, my class did not remove the cards. I showed them how to use the simple page summary and they could carry that to their desk if they wanted. That seemed to work perfectly!
Sandi MacDougall says
July 7 at 3:48 amThanks for sharing, Deedee.
Lesley says
August 10 at 12:24 pmWhere did you get the desk caddy that you used to sort and store your writing center supplies?
Deedee says
August 10 at 12:28 pmI think I got it from the Scholastic Catalog with points. Here is a link to one I saw at Lakeshore that is similar.
Classroom Carry-All
Jamie Hodges says
August 30 at 3:23 pmCan I email you privately with some questions? I purchased the year long bundle. I need some tips.
Deedee says
August 30 at 4:04 pmAbsolutely! [email protected]
Niki says
February 4 at 7:11 pmHow many days/week do your students have the writing center? Do you swap the writing center with the predictable sentence station, or do they have both each center day? BTW Love your stuff!!
Deedee says
February 6 at 5:23 pmHi there! Students generally go to the writing station once a week and the predictable sentence station once a week. Because there are so many options at that center, I tend to only have to change them out once a month.
Thank you so much!
Lisa says
May 28 at 6:35 amHow do they only go once a week?
What are your other centers?
We have centers everyday during my guided reading time.
Deedee says
May 28 at 7:51 pmHi Lisa, I did centers every day. Sorry if that was confusing. Yes! Centers every day and YES guided reading every day.