Alphabet Avenue

 
See Alphabet Avenue for suggestions and downloads for this center. I would include an assortment of alphabet charts, alphabet books to read, sorts for letter attributes (circles, sticks, colors, lower case and capitals, etc.) and a wide variety of letter fonts so that children begin to take a critical look at the way letters are formed.

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ABC Center Menu (color)
(BW)
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As a reading teacher, I didn't have this type of center. However, when I taught third through fifth grades, I always had a vast supply of materials that students could access for responses to stories and poems, and for enhancing their book commercials, book covers, and language arts projects. This included cardboard and fabric for polished pieces that were extra special, wallpaper sample books, construction paper, pinking shears and other specialty scissors, brads, a stapler and staples, and much, much more. Many of my more creative students loved looking at my teacher resource books for ideas for book projects and some even came back to look through them in middle school! 

This is a good center to use when putting on a play or puppet show, flannel board presentation. The students enjoy using materials like these to express their creativity.

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Birthday Boulevard 

 
This portable center activity is for the birthday boy or girl. Gather picture books that address birthday celebrations and place them in a colorful backpack for the family to read together at home. Add a class journal so that the child can document his/her birthday with pictures, photographs and a short narrative to share with the class in the author's chair. You may use a birthday form for them to fill out. Include a birthday card and a personal message and send the backpack home for an interactive center. Be sure to include instructions for the parents and plan for summer birthdays. Your students will look forward to the day they get to take the backpack home.

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My Birthday Writing Paper

Suggestions for Center

Blocks

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Book Boulevard 

 
Provide a wide variety of books for browsing, some familiar and some new. Place your recently shared reading books and/or big books, add some pointers for your first or second graders and listen for eager reader's voices that might sound a bit like yours!

Comfortable seating  and ambience are important in a classroom library area. (How often do we sit at a table or desk to read our favorite novels?!) I like to include bean bag chairs, pillows, lamps, carpets and colorfully displayed books. Teaching Resource Center has "comfort critters." Mine is a six foot long caterpillar! 

Be sure to include an assortment of genre or author studies, magazines, and books that address whatever theme you are studying. Bookcases, baskets, bins and boxes all work well for storing and displaying your materials! 

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Center Directions

Buddy Reading

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Computer Corner

 
A computer corner can be used for several purposes. Keep your goals and standards in mind when designing tasks for this center. You may want your students to work on their keyboarding skills, a Power Point or HyperStudio presentation (for older students), play an interactive reading or math game, or research material for a science or social studies report. Biographical studies can also be pursued via the internet.

My first grade team uses the computer corner with Scholastic Interactive Readers. The CDs require the students to reread their current book and do several lessons to improve their skills.

Computer Corner

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Cooking Court

or

Cook's Corner

 
Here's another one of those that I have not observed in a first grade classroom (I had a cooking center every week when I taught kindergarten). However, I do recall our first graders doing non-cooking food activities that involved following directions and  sequencing, and I believe the tasks were related to a theme. For instance, during a spider unit, they made critters with Chinese noodles, chocolate and . . . I don't know what else. Anyone have any classroom friendly recipes they want to share? Send your recipe to me at  carl1404@msn.com and I'll place it at this site with credit to the contributor!

Here are some of the things that one first grade teacher had at her cooking center:

   Fruit Kabobs for patterning

   Apple turkeys at Thanksgiving

   Ants on a log during insect unit

   Jelly on a Cracker with mini book

The students had to read the directions and make the item. Before they could eat, they had to write an explanation of how they made the treat. This was good for following directions, sequencing and retelling.

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Dictionary Drive

 
This center may be used for reading and alphabetizing word/picture cards. Students can also construct, add to and illustrate their own personal picture dictionaries.

Environmental Print

This center is good at the beginning of the year for early/emergent readers and to build their confidence at being able to recognize words from their environment. I was able to order environmental drawings from RESOURCES for READING at 1-800-ART-READ. Some of the drawings are of logos that your children will recognize and the others are of common, everyday items. These are especially good for second language learners. 

Flannel board

 
Students may use flannel board pictures for retelling old favorites.

They may sequencing story pictures or alphabetize words.

Thanks to Pepper Paden, a Reading Specialist and Title I teacher, for this set of task board signs.

Graphing Grove

 
At this center, you may choose from any number of tasks, depending upon the grade level and the ability to work independently. You can put out an assortment of items, foods, etc. and have students sort and graph. They should also write "true" statements that summarize the results of the graph. One of our technological teachers has her first graders think of a question for their classmates, conduct a survey and then produce a simple graph in Excel to share with their classmates. The teacher puts the graph into her class website for parents to see. Amazing, huh?! 

 
Since I saw many different grade levels during my work day, I had a variety of writing tools for my students to work with at this corner. This included white boards, eraser and pens, Magna Doodles, chalkboards, pencil and paper, marking pens, sand trays, Wikki Stix, stencils and more (not all out at the same time: too many options). At the beginning of the year I gave emergent writers the opportunity to write focus letters on a large sheet of butcher paper in a variety of sizes and colors. Brain research shows that children need flexible practice, often writing with the whole arm in motion, horizontally (at the table) and vertically (on the large white board or butcher paper mounted on the wall or cabinet).

Our first grade teachers used this to practice  writing high frequency words in many different forms and sizes. See Teacher Trail for pencil possibilities and tantalizing tools.

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Handwriting Activity Sheet

Writers at Work

Housekeeping

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Letter Lane

 
Suggestions to follow.

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Postcard

Listening Lane 

After listening to many squabbles from small groups about turning the volume up or down, I decided to purchase several inexpensive tape players and earphones so that each child was responsible for the controls. Since I only had two students to a center, this was manageable. I placed the tape player, earphones, tape and book in a gallon sized freezer bag. 

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Magnetic letters stick to many surfaces that make readily available centers in out of the way corners of the classroom. For example, I had several metal cabinets, a small refrigerator, the white board, cookie sheets, and serving trays that make this center an easy one to set up. You can have the children sort letters and/or build words. Tasks may be similar to those in Word Way. However, children appreciate the opportunity to have open ended centers, so I often allowed them to explore with the letters and record their results or read them to a friend.

Math Mall

 
Suggestions to follow.

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Mystery Mountain

 
This center is an excellent place to put your "Problem of the Day" for practicing problem solving and using thinking skills. Evan-Moor has several sets that I like to use:

Daily Problem Solving Math (one for each season for Grades 1-2 and Grades 2-3).

Each of these sets have 11" x 17" charts with an illustrated math problem that follows a seasonal theme. They are good practice in using what I like to "math language."

Thinking Skills for Grades 1-2, Grades 3-4 and For Grades 5-6.

Each of these sets have 44 illustrated charts and accompanying student pages that encourage children to think critically and logically.

They have another set for upper grades called Math Brainbusters for Graders 3-4 and Grades 5-6.

 
Place each child's name in a three-ring pencil case along with the letter tiles or magnetic letters with which to build the name. Children can match pictures of their classmates with their printed names, place the names in alphabetical order, and put together teacher created puzzles of the child's name. Research shows that young children quickly learn to recognize the names of their friends, so it is appropriate to use names as anchors for learning consonant sounds and for emergent writing.

Check Linda Dorn's Apprenticeship in Literacy for extensive ideas for a Names Corner.

More suggestions and web links:

It's the Name of the Game

Suggestions for Center

Names Nook Menu

Origami Corner

 
When our first graders  were studying Japan, the teachers put out an origami center. The students had to follow directions to create their origami.

Overhead Projector

 
I liked to use cut up poetry transparencies so the children can rebuild the poem and read it from the white board. I have seen teachers place the whole poem on the overhead projector and students are required to use whiteboard markers to highlight the rhyming pairs (different colors for each pair).

Transparent letter tiles or magnetic letters may be used to build the words of the week, spelling words, or word family words.

There are commercial games available that use transparent sheets for reading activities. 

Painting Place

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Most of our K-3 classrooms have fifteen or twenty colorful pocket charts (in many shapes and sizes) that are used for a variety of purposes: poem of the week, vocabulary, chants, charts, sequencing, sentence building, sorting pictures and words, etc. However, Pocket Place is an area set aside for a specific task for differentiated instruction.  

One of my favorite uses is for my largest pocket chart. My groups love to play Junior Jeopardy, a game that is suggested in Words Their Way. To save time and energy for the teachers on my staff and in my university classes, I have created print ready cards for different spellings for each vowel. (For instance: ay, ai, a-e, a, etc.) Each game comes with directions, clues and cards and a cheat sheet with all of the answers for the teacher! These games are available on the Word Way page of this website.

Interactive pocket charts:
   Bunny in a flower pot
   Valentine Hearts
The children follow the directions and make an art project. If they don't read and follow the directions, the project often doesn't work out.

Storing sentence strips is easier than it was when I first started using centers in the sixties (I'm showing my age!) There are commercially produced sentence strip containers with dividers or you may use wall paper paste trays that are placed below the pocket chart for easy access.

This is an excellent place to reinforce story sequence. Children can reconstruct stories, songs or poems that were introduced during shared reading and then reread them with a pointer. For nonreaders or emergent readers, use rebus stories.

 
Gather a large assortment of publishing materials, including writing tools (colored pens, pencils, markers), a variety of writing paper, stationery, postcards and envelopes (colors, sizes, and shapes), blank books, journals, dictionaries, writing prompts, editing posters, charts describing what good writers do, checklists, and construction paper for covers. You may also want to include samples of good writing, rubrics, and picture book samples of  letter writing, journals, and postcards (see writing bibliography).

Work in progress needs to have a designated spot and so does work that is ready to be checked by the teacher for publication on the computer.

Organization and storage of materials is critical to the success of Publishing Place. Children need to know exactly where to put things. Labeled trays and bins are helpful.

Placement of this center should allow for visibility and easy access to the classroom names chart, alphabet chart and the word wall. 

What do they write about? Children may write responses to stories, retellings and/or summaries, or copy changes of old favorites. This is also a good place for writing and publishing personal narratives.

Directions

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Five W's Chart

Flip Book for Retelling

My Little Book of Words for
Special Spelling

My Little Book of Words for Writing

Puzzle Place 

 
This is a good place for alphabet jigsaw puzzles for younger students and word search puzzles for older students. Again, I like to have a variety to hold student interest and I would suggest large floor puzzles as well as table sized puzzles. After completing  an alphabet puzzle, allow students to use a pointer to "read" the puzzle, touching each letter as they recite the alphabet.

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Read the Room
or 
Write the Room

Provide a wide variety of colorful pointers for children to use while reading text that is displayed around the room. They may reread familiar student generated books, environmental labels, word walls, ABC charts, and pocket chart displays.

I like to hold students accountable for their time in this rather informal activity. I provide a "Write the Room" form for them to record and illustrate  words read from the classroom environment.  When they come to their reading group, they read the words to the group/teacher.

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If you have a poem of the week, poetry anthologies, or work with Mother Goose, place the poems in the Rhyming Road center. Add a pointer or two and let them practice what is now "familiar" reading. 

Copy the poems on sentence strips and have students place them in the proper sequence before rereading. 

Combine the overhead projector and the rhyming center in a portable center. Make two transparencies of the same poem. Use one on the overhead in conjunction with the white board. Students can highlight and read rhyming words on the board. Cut the second transparency into strips for children to sequence and read from the white board. Store strips in a labeled three-ring pencil case that fits in a binder along with the transparency of the poem in its entirety.  I usually put out one poem to avoid mix ups, but this solves storage and management issues.

Options: poetry charts, poetry cards, poetry books, class books of poems, and poem of the week to illustrate and add to individual anthologies.

Sand Table

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Students are required to learn how to do observational writing in science. I love what one of my first grade teachers, Carol Filloon, did with this one. During one period of study, she had a different pet brought in each week by a student (it could be the classroom pet). Two students equipped with clipboards and recording sheets parked themselves in front of the cage or aquarium to observe and record. It was wonderful! The teacher provided related books for students who were interested in looking into their topic a little bit further. Of course, this was not the only way she used this center, but it was one that was well remembered by all who saw it happening!

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There are many different ways to create your own sentence building center, but I took the easy way out: buying ones that are ready made. 

Suggestions include:
     ©Lakeshore's Sentence Building Pocket Chart, which is color coded for success. This is an example of completing cloze sentences, filling in the blanks and using context clues. I add student names to the nouns pack.
    ©Lakeshore's Make a Super Sentence Flip Boards. Students can build hundreds of sentences with these color coded sentence parts. Each kit comes with three different boards and a teacher's guide. Children love to use these because they so often come up with something so preposterous that it gives them the giggles. I particularly like this kit for second language learners who need to learn about sentence structure. 

Word stamps are available for children to stamp and illustrate sentences.

A commercial product, Tub-O-Words and More Tub-O-Words has high frequency words and punctuation marks for building sentences. (I also use them for sorting by parts of speech or orthographic features, syllables, etc.)

Build a Sentence

Sing a Super Sentence

Sequencing Corner

 
This is the place to put sequencing activities that you create or buy. It will reinforce comprehension of stories, sequencing lines in a memorized poem, science concepts, etc. If you look at Evan-Moor's Alternatives to Worksheets, you can find hands-on ideas for crafty presentations of first, next, then and finally for retelling.

Sewing Center 

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Shopping City

Shopping City is a great place to use your environmental print and to allow beginning writers to use their knowledge of sounds and letters to create "shopping lists." Provide a shopping cart (available at many stores), grocery items (nonperishable plastic and paper, of course), catalogs, and wish lists for recording the items your students would like to buy.

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Suggestions

Shopping List

Social Studies Street

 
Good use for Daily Geography. Once you have finished several days lessons with the students and modeled how you want it completed and reported, the students can go on their own. Also good to use with Rookie Reader map and globe books or books about different countries.

Students enjoy working with the globe and maps. This is also a great way to get those social studies standards in that you don't have enough time for!

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Sort Street

 
Sorts, sorts, and more sorts! Use Words Their Way and All Sorts of Sorts for ideas for developmental word and picture sorts, reproduce the appropriate pages on vellum, and laminate for use. I store mine in labeled three-hole pencil cases for easy access in a notebook. Full color picture and word sorts are available in Word Way. These sorts address a variety of orthographic features, grammar (nouns and verbs) and other skills that I have found lacking in some of my students. I'm picky and prefer pictures in color and that's why I have developed my own. Enjoy!

This particular activity teaches students to look for patterns and to make connections. Brain research suggests that we can learn through analogy: What do already know that will help us with this new word?

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Spelling Space