Have you ever tried to get a classroom full of three-year-olds to transition between tables for centers? The traffic jams during these rotations are as bad as Los Angeles at rush hour! When I taught special education preschool with 18 young children to the 3 adults in the room, I honed in on our transitions and ended up restoring 50% of our small group time to instruction and learning! (Trust me... I timed every minute of the day and tracked data for half the school year as part of my Master's Thesis!)
Here's how it works...
I simply placed center rotation signs around the room and students carried their individualized tickets to show them how to rotate through each station. I set a timer and when it rang, students grabbed their tickets out of the cups and moved to the next sign on their list. It was so easy and saved tons of time! This system worked great for my general and special education students.
By separating students into unique groups, every student visited each center during our afternoons. For example, Group 1 students moved from Pentagon > Hexagon > Octopus > Snake > Turtle. Meanwhile, Group 2 students began at Hexagon and moved down their unique tickets.
Much to my surprise...
These transition tickets also worked wonders on the busiest days of our year - parent interaction afternoons! I think a teacher's ultimate challenge in classroom management is steering the ship during class parties. First, the children's excitement is through the roof. Second, parents dive into your fishbowl watching your every move. On top of that, there's often a strange, yet unspoken game of hot potato, where both parent and teacher don't know who is in charge of redirecting the most rambunctious kiddos. Setting out these center rotation signs helped preschoolers and their parents navigate party rotations like professionals!
Are you ready to get started?
Once you print, cut, and laminate, these station tickets will be ready to go for an entire year! Purchase colored party cups at the store or wrap construction paper around small containers to place at each station. I used these tickets every day during centers and my transitions had never been so easy!
Plus... these signs improved my students' shape recognition skills by 36% in just one month!
I purposefully chose to put shapes on my signs to help students learn the trickiest names! Pentagon Penguin, Rhinoceros Rectangle, Hippo Hexagon, and Octopus Octagon became friends in our classroom! None of my preschoolers could identify and name hexagons before starting this transition system, but that changed in a hurry!
You can use these station transition tickets in so many ways!
✅ Organize center groups for your preschool class.
✅ Teach the trickiest shape names to preschool students simply by incorporating these rotation signs into your classroom.
✅ Customize your center rotations by choosing 3, 4, 5, or 6 stations.
Why should you choose this resource?
It’s the easiest system for teaching 3-year-olds how to transition during centers!
You will save so much instructional time when students know how to rotate.
It comes in multiple formats – animal shapes or colored cups.
You can customize the bookmark tickets, type student names, and add photos.
The animal shape signs help preschoolers learn the trickiest shape names.
You only have to arrange groups once and you’re ready to go for the year!
View this preview to learn more about this amazing center rotation system!
Hear about these Center Rotation Signs from educators like you!
⭐️ “These transition signs helped my preschool students learn shape names! They were also so effective at eliminating chaos during rotating centers.”
⭐️ “I love these transition tickets! They help my kiddos move from one center to the next so easily. Before we dismiss each table, the children pick up their ticket card and find the place where they will move to next.”
⭐️ “These transition tickets are AMAZING! I’ve been able to teach so much more in my small groups because students quickly rotate in between the centers.”