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  Teachers Resource Force

Teachers Resource Force
​The Blog

Fun centre station signs for the secondary classroom!

20/8/2017

4 Comments

 
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Do you currently use stations in your classroom? I have started to use them more over the past couple of years and am loving the collaboration and movement that the students are experiencing, but I have just been laying resources out on the desk and it was bothering me that it wasn't immediately obvious where each station was! Hence for this school year I have upgraded my system and I've made these adorable station signs! I'm going to share with you how I made them as well as some suggestions for other ways you can use these signs in your lessons too!​
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​First of all let's talk about how you can make your own! You can get the popular Tolsby frames from IKEA. (Or if you're more like me and prefer a home delivery, hehe, you can find them on Amazon too!) These affiliate links take you straight to the frames: 
​
  • Click here for USA Amazon Tolsby Frames
  • ​Click here for UK Amazon Tolsby Frames

They're great as they are however the colours are a bit limited (my IKEA only had white ones) so I chose to decorate my mine to jazz them up a bit and suit my classroom style. Keep reading to learn how you can do these too!
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​1) If you want yours to be a different colour, you're going to need to spray paint them! I chose a spray paint that was designed for plastics so it didn't disintegrate on me! I found that one can was just enough to give all 6 frames 2 coats each, although I probably wasted a lot due to the very windy weather we were having in England; most of my paint drifted away into the air... #sorryatmosphere

​At first I sprayed the base and the frame separately but then I found it a bit of a tight squeeze screwing it back together once the paint had dried, so for the rest of them I sprayed them as a one whole unit and it worked just fine!
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​2) That alone might look good and you can just leave it there, but if like me you want your stations colour coded but don't want to spend £40 on a range of different spray paints, then you can decorate a little further with some washi tape! ​The "regular" washi tape is thick enough to cover the whole sides of these, but as I had gone through the effort of spray painting them I didn't want to cover them up completely.
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​I found this lovely thin washi tape on Amazon and I totally fell in love with them! Look how pretty they are:
Washi tape! @resourceforce
They are so gorgeous and actually come with 10 in a pack! If you want to get hold of these too then here are the Amazon affiliate links for you:
​
  • ​Click here for Amazon USA thin rainbow washi tape
  • ​Click here for Amazon UK thin rainbow washi tape
3) I chose to just put the washi tape just across the top and bottom of the frames, but you could also do the sides too!

Now something to note about this tape, it is completely gorgeous but it's also quite thin, and considering the dark base they were going onto,  I decided to double up to get a richer pop of colour!

​You can see the difference in the photo on the right: the top bar has 2 layers and the bottom only has one:​
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​4) Then once you're done decorating, you can put whatever signs you like in the frames! I have chosen to have one side which has the station numbers that I will probably keep at all times, and on the other I am free to swap around depending on the lesson I am teaching! Here are some ideas you could use for your lessons:
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
So aside from using these frames to identify station or group numbers, you could also use them to:

  • ​State the lesson's learning objective
  • Identify keywords for the lesson
  • Show the names of the members in each group
  • Provide a clear to do list for the lesson
  • Give extension work or support for differentiation
  • Explain an exit ticket task for students to summarise their learning

​
​Now, it may not be realistic to change these up for every single lesson, but there might be topics you are teaching over a period of time which would be appropriate to  leave in the frames a little longer.

They really do give that splash of colour and also promote more independence in your students.
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
​5) If you want some ready made signs, you can download these station signs here. The text is fully editable and you will get 5 different watercolour themes in 6 different colours with options for station / group names / numbers for one side and anything else you want to add on the other!
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Fun center station signs for the secondary classroom! @resourceforce
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable leave a comment below or share it out!
Using stations and centres in the classroom is an excellent way to encourage independent learning and collaboration in your lessons. Having the cute signs makes organisation more effective an ultimately makes everyone really happy!

How do you currently use centres or stations in your classroom? Leave a comment below!
Free resource library for secondary teachers @resourceforce



4 Comments
Dana
12/12/2017 05:23:49 pm

I really like how you used these frames! I downloaded your signs, but some of the fonts were not fully embedded. Can you share what fonts you used and where you found them?

Thanks

Reply
Katie @ Teachers Resource Force link
14/12/2017 08:07:07 pm

Hi Dana! Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the fonts! You can try redownloading from TpT as I tried something else, but if not you can just click in a text box and you will see the name of the font at the top (where you usually select fonts from!) I hope that helps,
Katie

Reply
Kati
18/7/2018 04:09:01 am

I love these! Did you find you needed to sand the frames for the paint to adhere? How did they hold up with use?

Reply
Teachers Resource Force link
29/7/2018 12:43:15 pm

Hello Kati! I know everyone says to sand surfaces first, but I can never be bothered with that so I just went all in without any prep and they turned out great and have held up a whole year so far!! Hope that helps!

Reply

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