The primary goal in setting up the Kindergarten classroom is to provide a language - and print- rich environment where students can explore all kinds of text (oral, print, picture, electronic, artistic, numeric, etc.), hands-on materials and manipulatives, and ideas and understandings. Students need spaces to work independently, in partners or small groups, and to meet together as an entire class. They also need spaces to store their clothes and their work. To facilitate student choice and self-direction in learning, materials need to be easily accessible to students. And to facilitate ownership and responsibility, they also have to be organized in ways that students can also clean up and put their materials away independently. Having areas designated as "centres" for certain activities often works well for primary students. Some of the more popular and common areas/centres in Kindergarten classroom include:

• tipi, tent, or other cultural play space
• reading or library area
• meeting area
• writing or author centre, or "office"
• math centre
• art area
• dramatic play
• water/sand table
• blocks
• listening centre (books on tape or CD; music; oral storytelling)
• computer

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Not all centres have to be in use at all times, and others may be added when needed. Exploration of content area themes may lead to all kinds of new possibilities for centres!

Teachers may choose to have open exploration and free choice during centre time, or they may decide to ensure that students complete specific tasks at certain centres at some points during the week. Usually, specific tasks are of a short term nature, reflecting a specific learning outcome connected to the theme or content being studied. These might include such things as retelling an Elder's story with puppets, building a pattern with beads, matching student names and pictures, sequencing a story with picture prompts, drawing about an experience, or "reading" a familiar emergent text to a parent volunteer.

Planning for Centres

Students come to school with unique experiences and knowledge about working as part of a larger group. It is unfair (and impractical) to expect them to be proficient at working together and to be able to work and sustain interest in a task independently with no previous instruction in these skills. Before expecting Kindergarteners to move into independent choice time at centres, it is prudent to build in the time to teach routines and expectations. Routines give students a dependable structure in which they are free to engage in new learning and explore the exciting possibilities in the classroom.

Teachers need to decide what routines will be useful in creating a consistent learning environment for the students. Students can also help in developing management routines within the classroom. Such routines may include (but are not limited to)

• entering routines (say "Hello" or "Good Morning", take off outdoor clothes and hang up, find indoor shoes and put them on, put name card in pocket chart, etc.)
• classroom routines (how to use an "inside voice" and "walking feet", how to get someone's attention, how to ask for help, what to do when finished a task, steps in resolving a dispute,...)
• whole group instruction routines (sitting "criss-cross-applesauce", hands and feet to self, waiting quietly, showing respect, sharing ideas, etc.
• routines with visitors (showing respect to Elders, watching, waiting patiently, taking a turn...)
• centre or choice time routines (how many students in one area, acceptable noise levels, changing areas, cleaning up, appropriate use of materials,...)
• bathroom routines (how often, how many at a time, flushing, handwashing, etc.)
• recess routines (appropriate play, entering and exiting the school, using the bathroom, coming in when the bell rings, etc.)
• hometime routines (backpack packing, getting dressed, "checking out" with the teacher)

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If a centre requires specific rules of has a particular task associated with it, then it is important to introduce the rules, teach and practice them with the students, and monitor their use for the first few days to determine if further instruction is necessary.

If possible, it is preferable to separate the noisier areas (sand/water play, blocks) from those where students would prefer a more quiet environment (reading, writing). It is also a good idea to try to keep things than can spill or are messy (paints, food, water/sand) away from the library space and the computers. Several classroom sample plans are including in the Appendix section at the end of this document.

Managing Activity Centres

A block of time should be scheduled daily for students to choose activity centres in which they wish to become involved. It is not necessary to schedule children into centres or to set up a system of rotation, because structuring their play this way tends to deprive them of the opportunity to plan and orgranize their learning.

What, then, can teachers do to help children who seem to float aimlessly from centre to centre or who visit the same centre day after day and whose play seems to be stagnant?

Firstly, teachers can provide varied, subject-integrated activities that are changed frequently at every centre. This way, if a child has a favourite centre. she/he can spend a lot of time there and still experience many different learning apportunities. Also, a new addition to a centre may suddenly spark the interest of the child who wanders.

Secondly, teachers can limit the number of children who can utilize a centre at one time. Children will feel attracted to and be more comfortable in areas where they have room to manoeuvre.

Thirdly, during group assembly, teachers can make children aware of new materials that have been added to centres, thus stimulating their interest.

Fourthly, teachers can organzie a system that helps children to plan own learning (e.g., personal charts).

Fiftly, and most importantly, teachers need to observe children carefully and document their activities in order to determine the best way to enable and extend the play experiences of each individual child. Sometimes students may have physical or emotional challenges the need to be dealt with and sometimes hey merely require a gentle word of encouragement. If teachers feel that, after much effort, they are not seeing progress, they should confer with the principal and the parents/caregivers. In some situations, the assistance of other professionals such as doctors or child psychologists may be required.

Following are some suggested ways in which teachers can keep track of children's visits to activity centres

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• On a wall in an activity centre, place a chart which shows the children's names and days of the week, up to one month. Place a check mark inthe appropriate space when a child becomes involved in the centre. (See Sample 1.)
• In an exercise book, write the children's names down the left-hand side and list the areas (by initials) across the top. Leave space at the far right for comments each week. (See Sample 2.)
• More detailed records of children's activities can be kept on dated file cards, adhesivebacked notes or in binders. Anecdotes, observations and questions written down at the time they occured or at the end of the day provide a basis for instructional planning.

"My Monster Is Dirty" by James http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/kindergarten/kindman.htm1 Top of page