Center Board

About this tool

Centers run on one question asked thirty times an hour: "where do I go?" Center Board answers it from the projector. Stations sit as big illustrated cards — Listening, Math Table, Teacher Time — and every team's animal card is docked right under its station. When you tap Rotate, the cards physically slide one station over with a warm chime and a spoken "time to rotate," so a five-year-old watches their fox walk to the writing table. No spreadsheet grid, no legend to decode: it works like the pocket chart on your wall, but it moves.

The round timer is the calm kind: a small coral wedge empties beside the Rotate button, whispers "one minute — clean-up time" near the end, and then simply makes the button glow. It never rotates the room on its own — you might be mid-sentence with your guided-reading group, so the transition always waits for your tap. A substitute can run the whole block from the board alone: "Round 2 of 4" sits above the stations, and each station can carry a one-line note like "listen to the story, then draw your favorite part."

The board plugs into your other tools: pull today's teams straight from Name Sticks with one tap — same animals, same colors, kids' names on the cards — and give any station a LessonCraftStudio link, so the tablet basket at the listening center opens exactly the activity you chose, by QR card or a copied link. Drag any team card between stations when two friends need distance; the rotation keeps working around your change. Boards save per class, and each morning starts fresh at round one with your setup intact.

How to use it in class

• Set up your stations — pick from twelve illustrated center icons, rename them your way, and add an optional note or voice-level badge.
• Bring in your teams: import today's groups from Name Sticks or add animal teams right on the board.
• Start the round timer (5–20 minutes). The wedge empties calmly; at one minute the clean-up cue plays.
• When the Rotate button glows, finish your sentence, then tap it — the cards slide one station over with a chime.
• Give a station a LessonCraft link and print its QR card so the tablet station opens exactly what you planned.

Classroom ideas

• Daily 5 rotations: literacy stations with the teacher table as one stop — you see your striving readers while the board runs the room.
• The substitute plan: save the board, leave "Round 2 of 4" on screen, and the note on each station card says what to do there.
• Tablet listening center: tape the printed QR card to the table — kids scan and land exactly on this week's listening activity.
• Uneven weeks: three teams on five stations just means two stations rest each round — every team still visits everything.
• Fair transitions: kids watch their own animal card travel, so "where do I go?" answers itself without a single reminder.