Literacy Centers

[LeAnne]

I need some creative literacy centers to start off the new year with! I feel that my students get very bored with the same centers week after week. However, I can't come up with enough to change them out! HELP!

I have a magnetic letter center, silly story writing center, making words, read to a buddy center, Roll it-Say it- Keep it game, and write the room. Does anyone have any easy, creative centers to share? Thanks in advance!

 

[Celesta]

I went today and bought TAKE IT TO YOUR SEAT book. The store had tons and so does amazon.com (I order 2 from there). It looks great and I feel good about it. Check it out!

 

[Jackie2]

overhead

Do you have an overhead that your children could pracitce writing spelling words/sentences on? My students love use mine.

What about a listening center? Don't forget to have the students draw a picture of their favorite part and write a sentence or two about it.

Do you have a pocketchart available? You could write a short story for the students to arrange in order. They can then draw a picture from the story, write the sentences, or add on to the story.

 

[vateacher]

We have sticker stories, stamp stories, squiggle stories (read the book "The Squiggle" to them first though). They turn their stamp, sticker or squiggle into a picture and then write about it.

My students also have a word wall center. They have to write their words for the week and use them in a sentence. I also cut out, mount and laminate pictures from magazines and let them pick one to write a story about.

My read the room/ write the room center takes the challenge word of the week and asks students to find and record words around the room that start with each letter in the challenge word. SO for example, if the challenge word that week is "animals" they have to find a word for a, n, i, m, a, l and s. The trick thoguh is they must be able to read those words. So we talkabout how chances are words on the globe are not a good idea but words on the word wall and name chart are.

Lastly, my students have a "make a book" center. I have them make mini books pertinent to our word study or content area focus. There are many mini books from scholastic. I like the book "25 read and write mini books that teach word families" as well as "25 emergent reader mini books". There's another one which I can't find the title to right now (it's at school) but anyhow you get the picture. good luck!

 

[roadrunner]

Literacy Center Ideas

I have created a felt corner. I make felt pieces that coincide with poems and stories. I demo the poem with felt for a week and do activities for working with words, spelling, etc.. then let the students read the poem or story in the corner and use felt pieces for retelling. It is a lot of work to get started, but the kids love it! I used the back of a book shelf for my felt board. I bought a huge piece of felt and tacked it to the bookshelf with thumb tacks.

 

[MissLisa1]

Make-A-Book resource

A great source for the make-a-book center is:
http://www.readinga-z.com/
books are indexed by reading level and by specific phonic sounds decoding practice. There are assessments and lesson plans offered as well as blackline and colored versions of the books. All sorts of goodies for a pretty reasonable usage fee.

 

[Old Lady]

first grade teacher in CAnton,Ohio

My kids love leapfrog books and using our word tiles to create sentences and words. I use a computer station to enhance my literacy centers. Starfall.com has great interactive activities at a variety of reading levels.

My students love Junior scrabble. This allows them to create words and learn how to socialize educationally.

 

[Gel2981]

One of the neatest centers that I have this year has been one that we made using plastic letters (we have some without magnets but the magnets would be oK). I put all 26 of the letters in a feely box (a butter tub inside a bright colored sock). The students draw out one letter at a time. They have a sheet (on a clipboard) that has two headings: Letter Word. They write the letter they drew out and then write a word that starts with that letter. We made the sheets ourselves at school and just ran copies that go in a basket along with the clipboards and feely boxes. Some of my students that are not comfortable with the word they want to write, draw a picture of something beginning with that sound.