Training Your Students using Literacy Centers

This is my most often question...how to set up literacy centers. So much time and preparation goes into setting up your guided reading program. So this will be a series of posts. I am going to start today with centers and how to teach students how to use them. Creating a reading program that is interactive and hands on is SO important! Students should be actively engaged in the learning process!

This takes so much time! First and foremost, I NEVER put an activity in a center that the students have not been taught how to use. Just because it's a cute, or really useful, doesn't mean it will effective in the students learning if they are not using it correctly. Teaching with stations can be very difficult, because you have to be able to hold the students accountable. Students should be completing the activity correctly, or it's just a waste of time :/

First step, introduce centers in small group teacher instruction first. For example, I am using my Corn Maze Rhyme Time. This game includes over 28 cards to it. So when I first introduce it, I am only using 8-10 cards. I arrange 8-10 cards out on the table. We read the words together, then the students take turns picking the rhymes out of the display. Once we've practiced this a few times, I will put it in a center and the student can then to the activity with a partner or independently. This game comes from my Fall-Literacy-and-Math-Center-Mega-Packet21-Centers-

Then, the student makes a stack with the cards they have chosen. At the end of the game, everyone reads their cards to me to and we discuss how they rhyme.  We do not do the response sheet that goes with this activity, but I do explain to them how to use it. 

Speaking of my Fall-Literacy-and-Math-Center-Mega-Packet21-Centers-..this packet is JAMMED packed! It has 13 literacy centers and 4 math centers. A whopping 147 pages and less than .10 cents a page! Super deal!  I also broke the packet up into smaller units to meet the needs of all of my customers. 

It includes:

Harvest Theme: (Can use throughout fall)

Noun/ Verb Word Sort

Noun Words Sort (Person, Place or Thing) 

ABC Order

Rhyme Time

Sentence Scramble

Halloween:

Noun Word Sort

ABC Order

Rhyme Time

Sentence Scramble

   

Thanksgiving

Noun ,Verb, Adjective Word Sort

ABC Order

Rhyme Time

Sentence Scramble

Math Centers:

Hay Ride Time

Fall into place Value

Collecting Coins

Fall into double facts

Be sure to go check this packet out on  TpT!