Just put it here….

I have a few things that have helped me with my Literacy Centers this year. I have these book boxes (ice cube trays from Wal-mart). The boxes house their little readers, a pencil pouch that holds their individual sight word cards, and a diary they use for independent writing. The sight words are just sight words ran front to back (sight words on front and a student assigned # on the back). The kids love playing sight word games with a partner and the # on the back helps the cards get returned to the cprrect pouch if it ever gets lost. They are laminated and given out as each student passes an assement. I hope to re-use these cards next year (which is why I laminated them). So far, the cards have helped up well.

I have also used a seperate set of shelves that holds their work from centers. I was noticing that several students were not getting finished with their response sheets, art or even their "write the room" activity while doing centers. They would have to take home incomplete work or we would have to find a place for them to put their unfinished art until they could get back to it. Then, if they took home the unfinished sheet, they would have to start over when they came back to that center another day. Now, if they have work that did not get finished in centers, they find their name on the side and leave it there until they go back to that center later in the week. They have to wait until they go back to that particular center, or they can finish it at other times of the day if they get a chance. This has helped me not stress over finding stuff that they can complete in a 15 minute time frame. They can take their time and fill in the entire sheet. They like not having to rush too.

Last, but not least, I have been trying to sort my center activities. I was originally trying to keep things together by themes, but there were so many activities that could be used in several themes and when I finally came across the theme box and found an activity, I would think about all the other weeks I could have really used this particular game or activity. Now, I have started filing 1 paper copy of the activity (whether it is a picture of the activity, a worksheet, or a copy of the game box's lid) into a hanging file labeled "ABC Center", or "Writing Center" and so on... This has been great. I keep all my games on a shelf and if I come across the copy of the game's box lid in one of the particular file folders, I know the game is on the shelf and not filed in some box with a theme.

Fun week learning Symbols of America

We've been busy all week learning about the symbols of America. It's been neat seeing how the kids are beginning to understand and actually appreciate things about America. They sound so sweet and sincere when they try to put it into their own words. The unit is from Mrs. Jump's Class and we have loved it. Here is 1 picture doing the measuring with the Satue of Liberty's foot. I have some with our drawings and our data. I will post them tomorrow.

Shamrock Sounds

I made 2 separate printables with a St. Patrick's Day theme in mind. One for begining sounds and the other for vowel sounds. These are to be used with the large letter stamps. I saw this on Mrs. Lee's Kinderarten blog. This is obviously my first attempt to upload using Google docs. and I am still trying to figure it out. Hope it works!! :)