Smartly Organized Classroom Stations

I love to watch my students work together in learning stations or groups. When I design my room in July for the beginning of the year set-up, I try to incorporate my five stations.  Having the station places ready to go is a great incentive to use them frequently during the school year when time is a huge factor.

This year my stations have the nautical theme.  Many of them are just benches where two or three students can sit and work together on a task.

These  benches are made with materials I basically had around the house--two milk crates, boards from my boys old bunk beds and  nautical themed beach towels from Wal-Mart.  I don't attach the towels because sometimes we take them off when we are using the benches as tables. 

A table is always needed for one or two stations which can be for messy or larger materials.

The favorite station site is the comfy library couch!  

I keep my students' classroom numbers in a magnetic spice holder from World Market.

It is so easy to pick the station groups at random and keep them on the board for easy rotation.

I can't wait to plan fun and exciting station adventures for my new students.  I noticed at recess last year that many of my new crew loved insects.  So, I developed an insect unit this summer that will fit their needs and work very well  in our 5 classroom stations. 

How do you encourage collaborative learning in your classroom?

Amy