Literacy Centers

I'm stopping by for a quick post about how I run my Literacy Centers. I have between 25-30 minutes for Literacy Centers towards the end of the day. Since the time is so short, my kiddos only visit one center a day. I have five centers set up, so by the end of the week, they have visited all five {fingers crossed…some loves forget what they've already done and do a center twice in a week…sigh}. They keep all their papers in a folder and turn them in at the end of the week.

Here are my centers…

Word Work

I have a table set up that my kiddos go to for this center. Here I give them a choice of two activities that they must do with their spelling words each week. After they finish an activity, they may write their words on white boards or build their words on a cookie sheet using magnetic alphabet letters. The key for me is to have everything at their center that they may need. This way they do not have to get up once they get to their station {well, except for Xtra Math…I'll get to that in a minute}. Here is a closer look at the word work activities that they must complete.

You can find these activities, and some more, in my little shop for FREE!

Work on Writing

I have another table set up for this center. Here my kiddos grab their monthly writing journal and get to writin'. I let them write about whatever they want because I usually give them topics to write about during our writing block and I wanted them to have this opportunity to let their creative juices flow. I do give them writing prompts, picture cards, word cards, writing mats, etc… just in case they are stuck. Again, they have everything they need for this center at the table {dictionaries, sight word dictionaries, pencils}. 

You can find these monthly journal covers and lined papers here.

Picture of the Day

I use the amazing Jen Jones Picture of the Day pack! My kiddos love it! I project the picture on my SMARTBoard and give them a recording sheet and they go to town making their observations and inferences.

Reading

This center is set up in my reading corner. I have a basket of books that I check out from the Media Center, or if they're lucky {HA!}, I let my kiddos pick one book a piece to check out for our reading center. When they do this, I make sure to remind them to choose good fit books! That includes picking books to meet our purpose for this center, which is to respond to reading. This means the books need to be sort of short because they only have 25-30 minutes at this center. The reading booklets are from the fab Amy Lemons.

Guided Reading

This is my meet with the teacher center. I pull one group a day back to my table and we usually read a book from our reading series Good Habits Great Readers and do an activity to go along with the book. This week, we have been working on main idea and details in nonfiction text.

Back to Xtra Math… I love, love, love {Did I mention love?!} Xtra Math. It really helps my kiddos develop their math fact fluency. Better yet, each kid can do it at their own pace. I have this going as a sixth center I guess you can say, but since it goes pretty quick, I let my kids leave their center when it is their turn on Xtra Math and then they return to their center when they are finished. My kids have done really well with discreetly telling the next person it is their turn {it really helped that Xtra Math has a video to show them how to do this}. The only center my kids cannot leave is Guided Reading. If you haven't checked out Xtra Math, do it!! I don't think you'll be disappointed! 

Well… I think that about covers it. There is my Literacy Centers in a nutshell.

and oh yeah… TGI almost Friday. That full moon thing this week just wasn't doing it for me!