Winter Center Activities

Word Work is the easiest center for me to set up.  I prepped these centers 5 years ago and I store them by month in a 2 gallon zip-lock bag.  My monthly word work centers build upon each other so when I pull out the new centers for the month, they require very little to no explanation. Students already know exactly what to do and what my expectations are!

Now, just because these centers are titled 'Word Work Centers' does not mean they can only be used at that center! Some of these activities are great in guided reading groups, as early finishers, or even in morning tubs! 

Syllables are a skill that I am still working on with my kids. They tend to stretch the word out too much and try to create extra syllables.  We actually did this activity together in reading group before I left it out for independent center work.

As most of you know, magnetic letters are always a hit in my room and this word family center was no different. I looked up to check on my kiddos and loved how they used dry erase markers for all of the letter a's without me giving them that idea. Made me smile :)

We are definitely doing a lot of CVC work lately and sorted our word family CVC words in our pocket chart as well.

 Then kids had to cut and paste their words onto their activity sheet.  I have an activity sheet option for every center in my word work pack; however, they are totally optional. Sometimes I use them and sometimes I don't!

We worked on really stretching the CVC word in order to hear that middle sound. My kids are doing fantastic with this!

 In 'Penguin Pairs' students had to match the rhyming penguins together and then choose four to record on their activity sheet. 

 I also used these same penguin rhyming cards to play a couple of rhyming games during my guided reading groups.  My students love playing games with me and totally forget that they are learning! We played 'slap the rhyme' together--I put half of the cards all of the reading group table and the other half I kept in my hands.  I would turn one card over for the group to see and they had to 'slap' the rhyming match when they found it on the table.  We had lots of laughs with that one!

I left this center out at the magnetic letter center just to kind of see how my students would do. Let me tell you...they are just amazing! My kids did so great listening to the beginning blends! There was also a 'helper' card left at the center in case they got stuck on any.

 We are always working on sight words in our room and my kids had a blast with this 'Sight Word Party' dice game.  They like predicting the sight word winner too (at the top of their page). I can hear them cheering on their sight word that they predicted throughout the entire center time, haha.

Again, we are reallllly working on those CVC words.  In this center students sorted their words by real/nonsense words.

Then they recorded some of their words on their activity sheet and used one of their real words in a sentence.

The last two centers I am going to share are both building sentences centers. In the first one students sort their cards based on the picture at the top. Then, with those cards, they have to unscramble the sentence.  I always reinforce that the capital letter goes first and the punctuation goes last.  This really helps those kids that may struggle with this center.

The second center that focuses on building sentences is a little different.  I didn't chop my words apart too much, so you can cut yours up and make this more difficult if you wanted.  There are two sentences starters, 'Here is my...' and 'Will you...with me?' Then, students use their picture cards to complete the sentences.

 When they are done they grab a pointer and read their sentences, checking to make sure that they all make sense. If they do, they pick four sentences to record.

Whew! Lots of activities going on in our classroom this week! All of the centers in this post can be found in my January Word Work pack. 

If you need more centers for winter you can check out my Winter Literacy Centers pack for similar activities!

Don't forget to PIN these centers with the image below!

Happy Monday!!

SaveSave