Apple Centers and Sight Word Winners

Wow! Thanks for all of the great ideas for sight words!  If you haven’t read all of the ideas, but sure to go back {here} and read the comments!

Here are the THREE winners of my new sight word pack! I used random.org to pick the winners for me! Be sure to e-mail me at growingkinders@gmail.com

*MrsCantwell*

*Donna Barrett*

*Jennifer Cailor*

This week has been a bit crazy for me with our parent/teacher goal setting conferences so I am finally getting a post up with my centers for the week.

I’ve had some questions about how I run my centers, so here goes…I *tried* a daily 3 approach, but ….

1. I felt too rushed

2. With 25 kids in the room, the transitions were long and tough.  I know with practice it will be begin to go smoother, but I guess I’m not that patient. ;)

3. I missed my writer’s workshop. A LOT. <---that was the kicker for me.

So, I went back to what has always worked for me, with one minor change.  I am now doing 8 centers instead of 5.

This is what my rotation chart looks like.  Nothing fancy, here folks! Plain and simple does the trick!

I use this chart for both math and literacy centers. The cards that are on the far right are the kiddos that are receiving some sort of intervention during our literacy center time.  So, for literacy centers, the children are working in partners.  This REALLY helps to keep the noise level down!  I do place the intervention kids in groups for 2 reasons – 1. they will need to be in a group for  math centers, and 2. if their intervention teacher is not at school that day, they will be able to slide right into a group. (We are very lucky, and have an amazing staff that works together to give kids what they need!)

The children do one literacy center each day.  Since there are 8 centers, it will take us 8 days to do this.  We do literacy centers in the morning and math centers in the afternoon.  The kids that were at intervention groups for the morning slide right into their group for math centers.  If you’ve peeked at my plans, you’ll see that I do literacy centers Monday-Thursday, and math centers Tuesday-Friday.  This frees up one math session on Monday for a more in-depth lesson, and one literacy session on Friday for a project or game or something fun! I’m really enjoying having that extra day to squeeze in some fun activities!

So, here’s a peek of what was in my drawers this week and last:

First up, math:

This one is an activity that I made a few years ago.  If I could find it on my school computer, I would share it with you, but I can’t seem to locate it!

This is another page that I can’t find on my computer ;(, But I have a similar one in my It’s Fall Y’all pack!

Sorry, this one is upside down in the drawer! This was great for the kids to practice forming their numbers! (Apples Math & Literacy)

Kids LOVED the dice domes! (I ordered these on Amazon). (Apples Math & Literacy)

We are doing AMAZING with ten frames! (Apples Math & Literacy)

This is another fun game from Cara’s What’s your Number? pack!

This is a write the room activity for literacy centers.  The children LOVE writing the room! (Apples Math & Literacy)

This game is from Julie Lee’s apple pack.

Sight word roll and write! (It’s Fall Y’all)

We love spinners! Beginning sound spin and cover (Apples Math & Literacy)

At this center, the children pulled a card out and found the matching lower case letter and stamped it on an apple! (Apples Math & Literacy)

We also LOVED working with our friends’ names! At this center, we sorted the names by the first letter.

We also explored ABC apps with our ipads this week and listened to an apple book at our listening center. During math centers, the children played a game using the Lakeshore math listening centers (no longer available!)

If you’re working on apples and are interested in any of these activities you can find them here:

 

I’m working on some fun new math and literacy centers for fall too! I’m done with the literacy part, just need to get cracking on the math centers!  Stay tuned!