We have finished going through all the letters and are starting sight words this coming week. I have been surprised at how well the students are able to write their letters now and their names! What a huge accomplishment for them and I know they have been working hard on that, so it's exciting to see it and to have the students constantly showing me their work! We also have been sharing about ourselves through "All About Me" posters, which has shocked me with how cool all of the students (and me) think this time of sharing is! These kids love hearing about each other!!!
The last time I was on here I was talking about my literacy centers and how much fun it is to watch students during this time. I have a total of 7 centers now and I'm adding more in the next couple of weeks. I have a reading center, "big" center (where big poems and charts are), listening center, abc center, word center, computer center, and my soon-to-be guided reading center. I'm in the process of getting things ready for a phonics center, block/word games/puzzles center, sand center, and pocket chart center. I've just finished Debbie Diller's book on literacy centers and that's the format I'm following in my classroom. The more traditional centers have teachers preparing lots of materials and activities for the students, but with my centers, I have more basic things with students being able to choose activities, which is easier and fits ME! With each of my centers, I have created "I Can" posters where the students and I have come up with the things students can do at each center. I will admit, at the beginning of it, I really didn't know how it was going to all fit together and work, but it is! It requires TIME to go through each center and have students practice, and practice, and PRACTICE them! :)
The Reading Center has students reading books by reading the words, reading the pictures, and retelling the stories. I'm very satisfied with how this center is working because it has students talking about what they are reading and also writing/drawing about what they are reading. Plus, it also is nice to have bean bag chairs and stuffed animals for students to read to! And prepping...I just need to ensure that there is paper, pencils, crayons, and post-it notes there.
My "Big" Center is neat because students are able to practice pointing to words, reading familiar poems and charts (like ABC chart), and writing/drawing about the poems they are reading. Kids are so creative and come up with the best stories in their writing and drawing! I also have "cool" pointers which makes it more fun with using extra big pointers, chopsticks, pipe cleaners, and popsicle sticks.
My Listening Center is becoming more of a challenge just because of the books I have to continually check out from the library! I wish I had my own books, OR even better, IPADS for students to listen to the stories on! I've been having a few students at that center, use my one IPAD and it's worked out great...I just wish I had more! DONATIONS ACCEPTED!! :)
My ABC Center has been interesting just because it is one of my most diverse centers with all kinds of materials for students to use. I told you that I had banagrams there, but I also have traceable letters in sheet protectors for students to practice writing them, I also have wikki sticks for students to trace out on big ABC flashcards, I had ABC puzzles there, but I'm going to move that to my puzzle center, and I did have blocks and letter outlines, but I'm going to move that to my block center.
At the Word Center, students are able to move letters around to create words (and match words) on a magnetic board, they can also fill out a chart that has the word listed on it, and they need to make it with letters, and then write it out, and finally they can copy words from our word wall.
At the Computer Center, students have been doing a variety of things from working on Sesame Street website, to ABCYA, to listening to books from Tumble books. This, by far, is the students favorite center and I wish that I could provide them with more computers! ;)
At my "Soon-to-be" Guided Reading center, currently I have been working with groups on Phonics work, such as beginning sounds and rhyming words. We have been manipulating picture cards with this.
With the other centers that I will be introducing soon, I'm still tweaking them and trying to figure out how I want to actually present them. I'm not sure if I want to simply add them to my Perfect Number 7 centers, or to create new ones. I feel that if I add them, it would be overload for some students because they would simply have too many things to choose from at each center, which is why I'm leaning towards creating new centers.
With my pocket chart center, I'm really excited with having students being able to move around words, letters, and such.
My phonics center will be one of the more easier centers since I purchased from Lakeshore some pre-made center material for phonics-type work.
Now, I have already discussed with several teachers about having a sand center, and I'm really nervous at getting my head chopped off by the custodians if I spill any sand, so that leaves me still debating between having it or not. I have uppercase and lowercase molds and number and shapes molds, so you can see that I really, REALLY want to do this!!! :)
With my Word games/Puzzles/Blocks center, I still want to help students develop their motor skills while having it be more literacy-based. I have ABC puzzles, ABC games, and tons of ideas for blocks with literacy. We shall see how this will turn out though...especially with students wanting to use the materials one way, and me, wanting the students to use it a different way! I will make sure to keep you updated on how this goes in the next couple of weeks! My next post, I will be talking Math Centers...I'm also reading Debbie Diller's book on that! I'm really not sure how it will all fit in my schedule and how I want it to be done, but I will discuss that next time!
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