Newest Literacy Stations

Because of our four-day Easter weekend, we got off the schedule of starting new Literacy Stations on Mondays.  Last week it did seem strange to begin a new set of activities on Wednesday, but I think I like this new schedule:  No more staying late on Fridays to get everything set up!  I already stay until about 4:00 - 4:30 on Tuesday, so it shouldn't be a big deal.  And, I will hopefully get out the door a little earlier on Fridays!

Math Literacy.  One of my partners came up with this nifty Math activity.  It is a super cute tulip perfect for making number bonds with sums of ten.  The white discs are some byproduct of ?? that were donated.  The red discs on the leaves are two sided counters.  These are new, but I am thinking about getting out some of my old counters and drawing ladybug spots onto them.

Students will complete this record sheet as they make their number bonds.

Writing Station.  We have been working hard on writing sentences - complete with proper ending punctuation.  Students will work together to read each sentence and place the proper punctuation card at the end of each. 

Once they are finished working with the sentence cards, the kids will fill out this record sheet.  It has four of the same sentences that were on the cards, so hopefully they will be able to write the correct punctuation on the lines!  See bottom of this post for a link for a freebie of this activity.

Literacy Station.  The Kinders will use a Reading Robot to find the Sight Words hidden in this puzzle.  To make the robot, I cut out a small rectangle from a robot shaped note pad and laminated the pages, leaving the laminating film in the hole to make a window.  Yesterday I posted the link to a freebie of this activity.  In it I included a robot that you can use if you can't find these note pads.

Students will write the words that they find with their Reading Robots

 

 Reading Station.  The  mClass window has opened and our Kindergarten teaching assistant will be testing, so we wanted a pretty simple activity for this station (she usually runs this one).  Using a page found in the book below, students will color, cut out, and reassemble these month puzzles.  They will glue them onto construction paper in order.  Not shown are "cheat sheets" of the months in order and an early finishers page titled "My Birthday Month" where students can write the name of their birthday month and draw a picture of a birthday scene.

This is a really good resource for quick Literacy Centers.


Following are two links for the Punctuation Freebie.  I use two different programs when I made it.  They don't "like" to mix, so I had to save each component separately.  Sorry for the inconvenience!


https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9cU9MR1M3UVp5Vnc
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9aFFsbjY1WktUcms

Reading Robots Sight Word Puzzle

Here is the link to a Sight Word puzzle that we will be doing for our Literacy Stations.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9Tl9SU0hYLXI1SG8

Literacy Stations

Our Literacy Stations sort of got off-track with the four-day weekend.  (Now, I am not complaining about a four-day weekend, but it does create a strange schedule...)  We began new Literacy Stations on Wednesday of this week, and will probably not be able to get back onto our "New Stations on Monday" routine.  Oh, well... the kids don't seem to mind if the new activities begin some other day than Monday. 

Writing Station.  Write the Room - with a twist... On the left side of the page students write the words that they know, and on the right side they write words that they see everyday in the room, but don't know what they say.  Once their list is completed, they can read their words to a friend.  They can also ask a friend to help them figure out what the unknown words are.  Of course, a clipboard, star glasses and a sparkly pencil make this activity more fun!

Literacy/Word Work Station.  The kids are having fun playing Oh No! (see freebie in an earlier post).  The little book is for recording unknown words.  (Kind of a theme with our word activites this week.)  The star didn't copy well, so I have made one in black & white.  Click on the link below to print a new cover.

Reading Station.  The Kinders have been having so much fun with this activity, which was created by one of my wonderful teaching partners.  This is similar to a mad-lib, where sentences are filled in with words printed onto color-caded cards to make silly sentences.

Math Literacy.  My other wonderful teaching partner came up with this activity to practice making numbers using towers of ten cubes, and single cubes.  This has proven to be a pretty difficult concept for a number of children.  After working with the cubes, they complete the page below.

Click here for a black and white version of the Star Words Practice Book.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9LWhXaHliZVJYbzQ

Under the Sea!

Last week we learned all about the ocean and its amazing animals.  Our reading series, Treasures, does a nice job of incorporating science themes into its weekly lessons.  I like to expand on those themes whenever possible - Kinders love science!  We looked at and read books (many students checked out "ocean" books on library day!), and explored the Internet to find photos of critters that live under the sea.

Under the Sea.  I made this using the "Life's a Beach" Cricut cartridge.

I LOVE this bulletin board!  The SCUBA divers are so cute - each has his/her own personality.  And, the jellies hanging in front of the bulletin board make it more dimensional.

Don't you love the hair?

The kids used water colors to paint the paper that was used for the fish and jellies.

The shiny tinsel tentacles and fish "scales" are remnants of a past prom.  (I am a prom co-sponsor so I have access to some pretty cool leftover materials!) 

After researching lots of different animals, my little divers wrote about what they saw under the sea.  We brain-stormed a list of animals, which I wrote on the board, but the kids did the rest!

This one needs a little bit of translating, but I was so impressed with the drawing - it wasn't traced, he drew the dolphin freehand!  (I see a dolphin.  It can jump high and swim fast.)

Literacy Stations

I recently snapped some pictures of a few Literacy Stations materials that have not made it to my blog.   Some were used in the first semester.  These activities are so "easy" compared to the work my Kinders are doing now!  It really is exciting to think about how much they have grown and learned since August. 

An early sorting activity.  Students took the "sandwiches" from their lunch bag and sorted them onto the appropriate "napkin."

Pictures sorted by initial sound.

"Musical Paper Plates."  The plates were arranged in a large circle on the floor.  Students were given a small picture card and walked around the circle until the music stopped.  They then had to say whether or not their picture started with the letter on the plate.  If not, they sat in the middle of the circle and the game continued.

Number of letters sort.  Using the sight words that had been learned, students read and sorted the words by the number of letters.  They then wrote the words onto the record sheet pictured below. 

"Interesting I"  Using pre-cut pieces of paper, students assembled a capital and lower case i, decorated them with stickers to make them "interesting," and traced & copied i words.  This type of booklet could be made for other letters as well:  Amazing A, Beautiful B, etc.

Word Building.  Using red consonant cards and yellow word family chunk cards, students built words.  Reading them into a whisper phone, they decided whether or not they were real words.  If the word was real, it was written onto the record sheet.

Clothesline words.  Using clothespins with vowels written onto them, students can make real and nonsense words. 

Zoom!  Make a map with streets named for your target letters.  Label little cars with word family chunks.  As students drive their cars around town, they will find new word.  Boys seem to really like this activity.

Sight Word Freebie

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!  I am enjoying a lovely four day weekend with my family. Our youngest daughter came home from college for the weekend.  We spent time together shopping and cooking.  Our married daughters, their husbands, and granddaughter all were here for Easter dinner.  Now, all is quiet at my house.  My husband is in his office getting things lined up for next week, and I just put the finishing touches on a Sight Word game that we will be using in an up-coming Literacy Station.  Click on the link below for the freebie!

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9X0E5REtnSG9SOUNvYW4tRDM3d3NQQQ

Literacy Stations for the Week of 4/2/12

Spring Break is coming to an official end - I'm doing school stuff again!  We didn't go anywhere, but I did have a nice break. (Sleeping to 7 or 8 is wonderful!)  And, thanks to a mild winter, the next two weeks are only four days long!  In light of that, this set of Literacy Stations will span the eight days - five days of stations work, and three days of something else (I'll keep you posted on the "something else").

Literacy Station.  I guess we should rename this station "Word Work" because that's really what the students do here - work on words!  In this activity they will use vowel cards to create words on these two-sided work mats.  They will then write the "real" words they make on the record sheet shown below.  (Thanks to one of my teaching partners for this activity!)

Reading Station.  Printed from The Mailbox's website, this work mat will be used as a group activity.  Students will take turns selecting a card, reading the word, and placing it onto the correct space.  Each student will write the word onto the record sheet shown below.  Once this is used as a group activity I plan to place it into a Skill Tub to be used as individual/partner practice.

Writing Station.  Our reading book's stories focus on ocean animals this week, and our writing lessons include using descriptive words.  Students will draw a detailed fish, and then write about it.

Listening Station.

 

 Math Literacy Station.  This is an activity from my Pots of Gold Skip Counting Freebie.  Students will select a number card and the designated number of coin cards.  Counting by fives they will determine how many coins there are in all, and write their findings on the record sheet.