It's Literacy Centre Time!

Yippee!

I am officially on March Break!

That means one WHOLE week off!

I am planning to get a little work done, though!

I'd like to finish up my Spring Literacy and Math Unit

I started and I'm going to fit in a little time to do some special requests...Write the Room Easter and Write the Room Year Long Sight Words.

In the mean time, I am hoping to answer a few questions about my Literacy and Math Centres...so here goes!

If you missed my post last year on my Literacy Centre job board, in which I have included the link to get your free copy of my centre cards, you can see that post by clicking on the picture.  I believe that I explained how my rotations work on that post but please let me know if you have any questions.

(Note: This picture is from my teaching partner's class from  last year when I was on my maternity leave.  I will update this soon with a picture from my class)

Here's a few of my Literacy Centres.  Some are permanently placed around the room and changed every 2 weeks (Pocket Chart, Sand Search, Imagination Board, Writing Centre, Felt Board).  Others are housed in bins and put out at tables for the kids to work on.

Here are the kids working on retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar at the felt board.  This set is from Lakeshore...and it's amazing!

This is my Imagination Board...it's also from Lakeshore.  It's a double-sided magnetic white board.  On one side I have the students match sounds, opposites, etc. and on the other they are creating pictures using the large magnetic shapes.

Here at the Poems bin the students can use wikki sticks to circle or underline letters/words that they know.  These are poems/songs that we have been working on for a few weeks.

This is the Word Work bin.  Students are using magnifying glasses to search for hidden objects in "I Spy ABC" books.

This is the Write the Room Centre.  My students are using the Community Helpers Write the Room activity found in my TpT store as we are learning all about Community Helpers.  Students get a clipboard and search the room for the hidden theme words and record them on the worksheet.

Here is the Magnetic Letters centre.  I like to put out the sight words we are focusing on for the month and some other activity (this one is simply matching the lower case letters and/or matching upper case to lower case).

In case you missed my earlier post, you can get your free alphabet strips here.

This is a picture of my pocket chart.  This week the students are sorting lower case letters into three categories: short, tall and long.  A little challenging!

 This is my Playdough Centre.  I have the students put out the bin at a table. I don't have a room that is large enough to have a permanent table set up for playdough...wish I did!  There are lots of cookie cutters and tools for the students.  I also have them use my Playdough Mats to practice "rolling" the letter formation and spelling simple words.

Here is the Listening Centre.  My colleague a few years ago showed me this trick...store your book(s) in a plastic magazine file that attaches to the wall.  So simple and easy and the books don't get destroyed!  I also label my CD player with #1 and #2 so that the students know which buttons to press to start and stop the CD.  There is a gold sticker on the volume knob too!

My Computer Center.  We started learning how to log in on our own - the students are really getting it!  Yah!  I keep their log in names and passwords in the blue basket.

The Games bin is probably one of the most popular centres.  All of the students love playing games.  This game is one I recently bought through the Scholastic book order.  The kids have to make CVC words on the bees.  Cute!

This is the Writing Centre.  The top picture shows the table and paper bin.  The bottom picture shows a large red container where students keep their Writing Centre books and any themed paper.

If you would like a free copy of the themed posters, be sure to check out a previous post of mine here.

I will be making more of these posters during my week off!

More freebies to come!

I also have a few other centres that I don't have pictures of...puzzles, blocks, house, puppets and sand.  These centres don't change that much throughout the year.

Phew!  That was a l-o-n-g post!  I was hoping to show you a few of my math centres but I guess it will have to wait until later on this weekend.

Before I go....I "met" such a sweet teacher-blogger recently.  Lori has a new blog, Teaching With Love and Laughter, which is adorable!
Lori has TONNES of pictures (her classroom is so cute!) and freebies too!
Be sure to visit and follow Lori's blog.  Tell her I sent you! :)

Happy Friday (night!).