Winter Literacy Centers

Well, I am home today with strep throat.  NEVER EVER had it before and it's not anything I ever hope to have again!  I'm using my time wisely and getting caught up posting all the cool learning activities we have been doing since coming back from Christmas Break.

We have been doing Literacy Work Stations since the end of November.  We started out with two students in a work station and slowly added stations until everyone was working with a partner.  I used that time to do some reteaching and begin my DRA testing for small reading groups.  All activities cover familiar skills that the students have previously covered in class.  I change my activities out monthly.

Here are the new activities my students have been enjoying since returning from break.  Many of these ideas I have gotten from other blogs and for the life of me can't remember where.  When I find out where they are from, I will certainly give them credit!

 

Listening Center

Write the Room.  This month, words are on snowflakes posted around the room.  They are catching a "blizzard of words".

Beginning sound snowmen.  They "catch" a snowman, decide the beginning letter is then color over that letter on their recording sheet.  We had a similar one in December with the Gingerbread Man and they loved it!

http://mrsleeskinderkids.blogspot.com/2010/12/gingerbread-activities-and-centers.html

Playing card Addition.  The students draw two cards, count the symbols then record their math sentence.  One of those "procurred" activities".

Stamp and Write.  We had a LONG discussion about how to use these materials appropriately.  I've had problems with this station in the past.  So far, so good!

Magic Snow sight word bottles.  There are tiny penguins in the bottle with sight words written on them inside the bottle filled with salt.  Students search for words then record them on the sheet.

Build a Word Snowman.  My students have taken a sudden interest in building words so I created this for them.  There is a CVC picture on the snowman's belly.  They build the word using letter tiles then write their word on the recording sheet and draw a quick picture of the word beside it. 

Run, run, as fast as you can...you can't catch me! I'm the Gingerbread Man!

What a week!  Monday and Tuesday we were busy practicing for our Christmas musical, "Forty Winks 'til Christmas".  It was amazing!

We then jumped head first into our Gingerbread Man theme.  First, our Gingerbread house that goes over my and Mrs. Renfro's rooms and greets our students and visitors each day.

Our Art Center project for the week

During the week, we read several different versions of the Gingerbread Man and made a comparison chart that focused on our state standard of identifying story elements characters, setting and problem/events.  I modeled mine after one I saw on http://babblingabby.blogspot.com.
We used the stories to practice retelling (see the Retelling TV post) and to discuss the idea of setting.  The students pretended they were the Gingerbread Man and wrote about where they would run.

 Some of our Draw A Rhyme gingerbread men

One of our phonemic awareness review activities that went in our literacy work stations--syllable counting with buttons.

 

As our Fun Friday activity, the students decorated gingerbread man cookies then we graphed where we took the first bite.

 

As with everything else, there was so much more we wanted to do with this theme.  So.....we're going to continue it another week!  YEAH!!!

First lions....then tigers...now bears? OH MY!

We started our bear theme this week.  I haven't done this theme in ages and we are having a ball!

To begin, we made a schema (background knowledge) chart.  Not only does it help the students kick start their thinking, it also is a great way for me to do some pre-assessment and see where my kiddos are at and what they know (either right or wrong).  We try to do these charts every time we start a new unit.  I gave them a few minutes of think time, then asked each student to tell me something they knew.  Every student was responsible for giving an answer and if they said someone already told me what they were thinking, we kissed their brain then came up with something else. As you can see, they knew a lot!

Then we read Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson. I haven't ever read this book before and I LOVE IT!  It lends itself so well to several comprehension strategies and extention activities.

After reading, I led the students in a discussion about real bears and storybook bears and talked about their similarities and differences.  We created this Venn diagram to show our learning.

Several years ago I took a year's sabatical and worked for the state of Missouri as a STARR (Select Teachers As Regional Resources) teacher and gave in-services to school districts in my area.  As part of my training, I was lucky enough to work with the WONDERFUL John Antonetti--I highly recommend him.  He told us everyone 'does' Venns.  You have to make sure you are doing it right!  In order to maximize a Venn diagram's power, the differences need to be categorized.  For example, one of my students began with the idea that storybook bears talk.  I then asked how real bears communicate and recorded their thoughts.  By categorizing the differences, students are really truly comparing and contrasting!

Our comprehension strategy for this month is retelling.  We referenced Bear Feels Sick again and using a trifold piece of paper (one of my favorite ways to do a quick retell), the students drew something from the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  

One of the strategies that this book worked well for was making text to self connections.  Everyone's been sick at some point, right?  The students reflected on a time they were sick and how they felt.  They drew a picture in their journals of their connection.  Some added their own stories as well!

(It says "I puked"!  :) )

This is a game I made to review rhyming.  The original game was from a Mailbox magazine several years ago called "Ribbit, Splash!".  I've since then made several versions using seasonal pictures for the wands.  The wands are simply a craft stick with the picture on one side and a large button magnet on the other.  Students use the wand to turn over two pictures.  If they rhyme, they keep the cards.  If not, they turn them back over and pass on the wand.  After we played this in class, it went into one of our literacy workstations.