Centers

 

I think the apple tress that we made with our fingerprints turned out really great and they look good on our cabinets.  Sorry about the poor quality in my photos.  I started taking more pics with my phone.  I so need to find my digital camera.  I have an older one that I usually keep at school, but I haven't been the best organized person at home lately.  I wanted to show you some of the centers we are working on this week.  This week is our fire safety week so my math and literacy centers fit the theme.

This is our Clip It! Tens Frames with fire trucks.  Once students clip the clothespin on the answer, all they have to do is flip it over to check.

This is our Trace, Build, Write activity.  Each student has a work mat. They select a letter card and place it on the mat.  Next, they trace the letter on the card.  Then they use pipe cleaners, links, Wikki sticks, or play dough to build the letter.  Finally, they write the letter on the line.  This week we are using pipe cleaners.  I think it's important to switch it up from time to time.

 

Here is the same activity but with numbers.  Students select a number card.  Then build the number and finally they write the number.

 

 

This is our Clip It! Alphabet Cards.  Students select a card and they clip a clothes pin on the beginning sound.  Once they are finished, they flip the card over and look for the dot that I marked on the back to see if they have the correct answer.

 

 

This is Clip It! Rhyming words.  The students look at the picture and clip yes or no.  Then they flip the card over and look for the self-correcting dot.  These cards can also be used with the whole class to play quiz-quiz trade.  We love playing quiz-quiz trade!

 

Here is the center that didn't get cut out this week, but I plan on using it next week.  This is Clip It! Beginning Sounds.  The students decide if the pictures begin with the same sound and clip yes or no with a clothespin.  They will flip the card over to look for the self-correcting dot on the back that I write with a Sharpie.  This also can be played as a whole class quiz-quiz trade.

 

If you like the centers that you have seen, they can be purchased in my TPT or TN store.  They are from my Firefighter Math and Literacy Center Fun pack.

 

 

It's 99 pages of fun!  It has 5 literacy and 5 math centers.  Just click on one of the pictures to take you to my store.  The first pick with take you to Teachers Pay Teachers and the last two will take you to Teachers Notebook.

 

Come back tomorrow for a freebie!

 

 

Fire Truck Craftivity Freebie and a Little About my Reading Block

Isn't this such a cute fire truck?  This week we have been talking about fire safety so we made a fire truck craftivity.  We used pipe cleaners to make the ladder and we talked about the shapes that we used to make the trucks.  After we built our trucks, I let the students get creative and add details to their pictures.  We have been talking about details in our writings and drawings all year, and how details help someone better understand the story we are trying to tell.  If you click the picture above, you can get the patterns to make this fire truck with your own class.

I have been reading a lot about what other people do during their reading block this week so I thought I would share a little bit about my own schedule.

7:50-8:10 Students arrive and work on morning work
8:10-8:55 Whole Group Reading Instruction

At 8:10 I play the Good Morning song from Greg and Steve.  When students hear this song, they start cleaning things up and they put their work (finished or not) in my finished work basket and sit on the carpet.  Everyone is singing while we clean up and prepare to start reading.

Once everyone is on the carpet, I project a page on the SmartBoard that has a mix of about 10-15 letters with some that repeat.  We go through those letters.  As I point to the letters and click my little castanets, the students name the letter after the click.  Then we start over on the same chart of letters with the students telling me the sounds. 

Our next chart that I put up, is a list of sight words.  There may be a few repeats of the same word.  When I point to and make the click sound, students tell me the word.  I provide a small pause for think time between each word.  The list usually has 10-15 words with some repeat words.  My word and letter list changes every morning so we get repeated practice and review.

After we review the letters and the words, I segment a word like /p/ /o/ /t/ and the students must give me the word.  They would say "pot."  I do about 10 words this way every morning.  Then I give the students 10 words to segment together for me.  They must give me a sound for every finger I raise on my hand.

After all that practice and review which takes about 10 minutes, we begin to talk about our vocabulary for the day and we talk about pictures related to our vocabulary.  We use Reading Street if you're curious.  I call on a student or two to put a Post-It with the vocabulary word on the picture which is on a flip chart.  We sing our weekly song that has the vocabulary words with some kind of motion when they hear the days two words (thumbs up, hand on head).  Then we read and discuss our story.  Sometimes we have an activity to go with the story too.

8:55-9:40 We do guided reading and our reading groups.  I have 4 groups.  One group works with me, one group works with the classroom aide, and two groups have independent activities.  We do two rotations a day so I see the entire class every two days.

9:40-10:20 We have interventions.  Students who need additional reading help get pulled by a reading specialists.  The rest of the class is with me and we do whole group activities to reinforce what we have learned.  The activities change frequently and I try to get in a short cooperative learning activity like quiz-quiz-trade or a partner syllable or word sort.  This is also the time that we may do pocket chart activities or a word building activity.

10:20-10:50 We do Saxon Phonics.  It doesn't always take the whole time so we may get in another learning activity too.

That is a basic outline of how my morning goes.  We have lunch at 10:55! 


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