Here is a picture of my weekly centers.
Math- I made these apple trees my first year teaching.
Students count the apples in the tree and match it to their tree trunk.
Writing- practice writing I, a, go, see, and can sight words
Reading- find the letters in the picture. This is from my An Apple to Play unit… my class really liked this one! I had several students do it twice because they wanted to.
Phonics- We sorted letters big and small and vowels and consonances. This also came from my An Apple to Play unit.
Unit- We played with this map mini bulletin board set on the table. It was fun! We also colored a globe picture to show land and water.
Here is another brief explanation of how I run my centers.
Each week I have 6 “work” centers. Each student MUST complete or try to
complete 2 “work” centers a day on M, T, and W. After they do their “work”
they can go to a play center. By Thursday and Friday, almost all the
centers are done. I go around and help those students who didn’t do it
correctly the first time, who need extra help, or who couldn’t finish
the work before. I also use this time to assess students.
complete 2 “work” centers a day on M, T, and W. After they do their “work”
they can go to a play center. By Thursday and Friday, almost all the
centers are done. I go around and help those students who didn’t do it
correctly the first time, who need extra help, or who couldn’t finish
the work before. I also use this time to assess students.
Since each “work” center is at a table in my room, I color code them. When
the blue work center gets cleaned up, we put a fun center there like
play dough. I use the same clips for the blue table regardless of work
or fun, since that is where the work was and the play dough is now.
The first week I do only fun centers at only the 6 tables so my kids
learn how to get a clip and go to that table. I also teach them to trade
the clips out. We do work centers the second week of school.
What other questions about how I run my centers?
Love your centers. Does your school have a certain reading program that tells you what centers you should have or do you have the freedom of picking your own? How long is your center time each day?
GREAT questions. We do not use a reading program and we have center freedom. I pick (and make) all my centers based on my students needs. I do centers for at least 30 minutes a day. I want students to get to play and work each day.
First I want to say I love your blog and your tpt store. This is my first year in Kindergarten and your sites have been so helpful. Here's my question, do you switch your centers out weekly and are they all in baskets you take to the student tables or are they in specific locations in the room? Thanks for all you do and share. God Bless!