Easy and Fast Writing Center Addition

My kiddos (and I) start getting tired at the end of the year--so I like to start adding some new additions and new choices to our center rotations to keep things exciting! 

Now that my kiddos are writing independently, letter writing is the perfect addition! They love writing letters to their friends and families, but I think they really love putting their letters into envelopes and 'mailing' their letters.

You can find my letter writing activity sheet and some other make your own cards in my writing pack on TpT, but you can also just leave blank, lined, paper for them to create their own! 

I make sure that my students know my expectations when they begin this center.  Some of these expectations include: writing at least 4 sentences and addressing the envelope. 

Then, I make the center a little bit more 'fun' by adding stickers to decorate their note and envelope, and I add this cute, little, mailbox found here.  Trust me, the mailbox is SUCH a motivator! (It's the little things.)

 Happy writing!!
Would love for you to share your writing ideas with me on the Kindergarten Smiles Facebook Page!
 

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Spring Centers [What we are up to this week]

My students LOVE the Word Work center. They are always SO engaged. This month we had a ton of different skills going on during centers.

This week we worked on building, reading and writing sentences. 

They can work on the floor or in a pocket chart, wherever they feel comfortable! After they build their sentences, they have to use a pointer to read their sentences.  I usually have 2-3 students working together in a center so they will all take turns.

When they are finished, they will complete their activity sheet. They have to color the image, build their sentence, and write the sentence correctly.

We also worked on 'Farm Families'. We have an upcoming field trip to the farm so this center was perfect timing! Students had to look at the picture on the farm animal card and determine what word family it belonged to.

When they were done sorting, they had to sound out the CVC words to record them on their activity sheet (double sided). 

We are continuing to work on differentiating between long and short vowels.  This week we sorted images based on vowel sound. Some of my students needed to use the 'check it' card to complete this activity which was ok with me.  Just lets me know that we need to keep on working!

This next center is definitely one of my favorites. It works on reading CVC words and identifying rhymes (word families) at the same time!

Students will read the sentence on the rhyming question card, then they will find a matching card that rhymes. They did AMAZING with this!!

When they are finished matching all of the rhymes, they record them on their activity sheet.

Over at magnetic letters we worked on spelling our CVC words. Never enough CVC practice!

Then a new skill we have been working on is ending punctuation. We are forgetting it too often in our writing so hopefully these centers will help! Students had to read the sentence and determine whether a question mark or a period was needed to complete it. 

Another great center going on is reading simple sentences and finding the picture to match.  I am going to work on creating an entire pack just like this center because my students loved it and it is really helping my readers! 

I only have one reading group that still needs to work on beginning sounds; however, I left this center out for all of my students to complete. When they saw it they were all excited about it, so I figured why not? Let them all work together and have some fun building Easter eggs!

We worked on rhyming again! Same skill, different words!

Then we stepped up our magnetic letter center a little bit to work on digraphs.  My students are actually doing very well with these and this center was the perfect practice.

Most of these centers can be found in my April Word Work pack HERE on TpT.  The Magnetic Letter Digraphs pack can be found HERE.

What are you guys up to this Spring? What themes do you teach?

Don't forget to PIN the image below to save these ideas for years to come!

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!!

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Fall Centers

Our Fall Centers are up and running and we are LOVING them!! 

These centers work on a variety of skills that meet the needs of all of my students.  If you have students that can complete them independently, you can leave these centers at a center for independent work. However, if you have students that cannot do these independently, then you can use the activity during your guided reading time!

We have been working on rhyming lately and this center was so much fun! All of the rhyming words are also CVC words which made it easier for my high students to do independently. I did this center at my reading group with three of the four of my groups to make sure they understood the concept and were listening to the rhyming words correctly.

This sight word center was a HIT! Even my ESE students were having a blast with it and this was one of the first times that I saw them super excited at a center--they didn't want to leave! I think they really enjoyed using different writing utensils to write their words. I am telling you...normally my ESE group doesn't even want to write! Look at how great they did!

Nouns were another skill that we started during the first month of school and my kiddos pretty much have nouns down pat! They sorted their noun cards in a pocket chart before recording them on their activity sheet.

We played another rhyming game, Rhyme Time, during reading groups. I gave each student a tongue depressor with a 'thumbs up' on one side and a 'thumbs down' on the other. 

I would flip two cards over and students would have to figure out whether the cards rhymed or not. Then, they would change their tongue depressor accordingly. We had lots of giggles during this game! It was fun!

Another center that my students worked on was Fall Sentence Scramble.  The sentences were all predictable sentences using very simple sight words that we have already worked on in class. I made sure to point out beforehand that all of the sentences should start with a capital letter and they all should end with a period.  Pointing that out to students always makes building sentences a little bit easier. I left a small pointer at this center as well for students to use as they reread the sentences to each other. 

I always leave an 'I Can' chart at the center in hopes that my students can refer to that if they aren't sure what to do next.  These 'I Can' charts also have the standard in the bottom right hand corner which makes lesson planning easy!

My Fall Centers pack includes all of the above skills and more! There are activities to work on letters, letters/beginning sounds, short vowel sounds, middle sounds in CVC words, and an activity to work on building sight words.