Managing Student Groups/Centers Freebie

This year I'm using more centers and cooperative groups than ever before and quickly realized I needed a new management system. I had previously used a typed sheet of paper with color-coded groups. It was too small for students to see from across the room and took me time to retype and print a new group list each week. Thus, my Knight Board was born! It matches our school mascot and the fairytale themed clip art is just too cute.

velcro and ribbon... so easy!

Now I have colored groups across the top for reading (red group, green group, orange group, blue group). I can also pull all of my knights, princesses, dragons, or swords as a group. The names are printed in three different colors, so I can also pull the red, blue, or green students that way. For smaller groups of four, I can pull students across the board.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret though and this is the best part for me... I use the clip art and font colors to "code" my students so I can quickly group them for different mixed-ability purposes. I know to mix up the clip art and font colors for mixed-ability, mixed-temperment groups. I literally shuffle the stack and randomly assign students to create balanced groups. I can also allow for student choice by telling students they need partner up a dragon with a knight, etc.

To attach them to the wall, I stapled strips of wide ribbon straight down the wall. Then I attached Velcro to the ribbon and the tags so I can easily rearrange them as needed.  

 If you're another Knight school or just like the fairytale tags, you can grab a free copy here for desk nameplates or a group wall like mine.