Literacy Centers and the Common Core

I also love using post its…especially on our story map.  My little friends draw a picture or write on the post it and then stick it on the right spot on our story map.  Afterward, you can always refer back to the story map with your students and discuss the text. Next year, I think I’m going to create a Story Map that is more specifically for Informational Text for my little friends to use as well.

I also make sure to include comfy options- pillows, carpets etc, make reading that much more enjoyable for students. And of course, magnifying glasses or any little object that will keep students engaged while reading is a worthwhile thing to include as party of your center materials.

Foundational skills are a major part of our centers for the entire year because really the concepts addressed within the CCSS in this section are so important to develop little readers. FCRR has lots of center options, including the ABC Arcs shown below. I also use our magnetic letters and board to practice any type of skill. Bingo chips also make finding letters exciting. 🙂

If you have them, iPads, are so wonderful for keeping kids engaged. I usually include some sort of hands on activity within the iPad centers so they are doing something first and then following up on the iPad- making words, searching for vowels, etc. Puzzles are also great for little learners- I have a variety of puzzles that cover so many different topics that we have gone over and my friends love using them.

Again…I try to make centers fun! I love using our colorful buckets for any sort of sorting centers- I use sorts ALL the time with my friends. We focus on digraphs, blends, sight words, word families, etc in the sorts- I generally always follow the same format with my sorts, so each time I’m just focusing on what type of words they will be looking for rather than managing how the center is run. Also, my phonemic awareness basket is full of all sorts of materials so that I can switch up what we are using often, but keep the content we are covering consistent.

Of course this depends on the grade level you teach, but with CCSS Writing Standards, basically students need to be writing different types of texts and incorporating a variety of details.  This starts with labels for early kindergarten and moving on to actual sentence/story writing as they progress.

One of the keys here for me is that students are practicing writing every.single.day (just like reading!). To keep this exciting for my students, I just include a variety of materials, such as- labeling pictures, writing on white boards, using fun scrapbook paper, responding to prompts, responding to pictures and using sight words to make sentences.

Thanks to Hazel Owl, Lovin’ Lit & Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah Designs for all the fun graphics!

One of my goals for this upcoming school year is to make sure I am addressing the CCSS Standards within Speaking & Listening and Language. There are a lot of important points within those standards, so I’ll be working on incorporating those daily next year!