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!
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:
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!
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!
| 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! |  |
 | 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. |  |
I found this lovely thin washi tape on Amazon and I totally fell in love with them! Look how pretty they are:
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:
| 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: |  |
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:
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. |  |
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!
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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!
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!
