Organizing Literacy Centers

Hello friends! Heather here from Learning with Mrs. Langley to bring you some ideas about literacy centers today. 

Literacy centers can be organized a million different ways. Believe me. I've tried them all! The most important thing you need to remember when planning your centers is that they need to work for YOU! I have a teaching partner that runs her centers completely opposite of how I do them and we both run really effective classrooms. It all comes down to your own unique teaching style. I've read a lot of great ideas from teachers here at the Kinder Tribe this month so you have plenty to choose from. Here is one idea of how to organize your literacy centers. 

Where do I start? 
Ask yourself this question. Do I want my students to work through centers independently or do I want them to cycle through on a schedule? It depends on how you like it. I use a Daily 5 model in my room so my kiddos make their choices on their own. I put out plenty of choices and they pick. 

Every week my students have 5 choices. This week I included a Cut & Glue activity, Sound Clips, ABC Center, Spin & Dab, and Write the Room. These choices will change from time to time but for the most part they stay consistent. This helps me because I don't have to keep explaining centers each week.

Listening station is always a choice in our classroom too. I just change out the story every week and eventually I add in an accountability piece with a response sheet. Here is an example of a simple response sheet.  

I have been looking for a couple of more permanent centers to include as choices too so I did some digging this weekend. The first one that I found was a big book center. This isn't a new idea but it is new to me. Someone gave me a bunch of big books and I thought this would be a great way to incorporate them. Students visit the center and search for sight words in the books. Simple, fun, and add in a couple of pointers and it is sure to be a hit! 

The last idea I have to share is a simple write the room activity. I love using these with my kiddos but at this point I only have them recording words from around the room. Later when they are a bit quicker with the process I add in a spot for them to draw a picture of the word too. Here is an example.  

I've included these files HERE for free if you'd like to give them a try. Thank you for stopping by today!