Center Time!

Today was the 14th day of school and already my new kiddos are becoming pros at their centers. We just jumped right in on the second day of school and have been practicing every day since! I am just thrilled with how quickly my students have picked up on our rules and routines during center time-they are doing awesome! Most don't even need my help anymore to check the center board and figure out which centers they are assigned to each day.

Both my morning and afternoon classes just adore their center time each day. Last year with full day kindergarten I actually had time for 3 different center times during the day (literacy centers in the morning, math centers in the afternoon, and play centers at the end of the day). No such luck this year in half day, so even though most of my centers are literacy based, I sneak in a few other types of centers too (science, math, play centers) so they can work on those skills too!

My center time is 45 minutes long, and my students get to go to three 15-minute centers each day. I choose their centers for them, and I also assigned them each a center partner (any more than 2 kids at a center can really be a recipe for disaster). Since they have to stay at each center for 15 minutes (which feels like forever to a kindergartener) I make sure that most centers have at least 2 activities for them to choose from so it holds their attention the whole time.

Check out what we've been up to at our centers this week!

Writing Center: Students practiced their handwriting-kinders sure do love dry erase markers! 

 

Writing Center: Students played "Roll a Letter" and traced the letters they rolled on the dice (this game is from Deanna Jump & Julie Lee's School Fun Centers Pack)

 

Alphabet Center: I put a set of magnetic letters into a cloth bag, and students took turns pulling out a letter and then coloring in that letter on their paper-this simple game was a hit! (You can grab this awesome and free alphabet page from Growing in PreK)

 

Alphabet Center: Students use blocks to build letters (the cards and blocks are from Lakeshore)

 

Listening Center: Students enjoyed listening to books on tape (yep-keeping it old school in my class- no iPods or CDs to listen to-just good ole cassette tapes!)

 

Library Center: Students chose books to read from our classroom library (so thankful to have a class that loves reading this year- even my kids that don't know any letters love retelling books like Pete the Cat at this center!)

 

Playdoh Center- Students made alphabet letters out of playdoh

 

Playdoh Center: Students used playdoh stampers to stamp the missing letters on these fabulous alphabet cards made by Leslie @ Kindergarten Works (playdoh stampers are from Lakeshore)

 

Pocket Chart Center: Students matched together capital and lowercase letter flashcards (happened to spot these cute flashcards at Walgreens a few weeks ago-I love that they have the animals on them to help kids that aren't great at capital/lowercase letter matching yet)

 

Computer Center: Students played the alphabet letter games on Starfall.com

 

Science Center: Students tested different objects to see if they were magnetic or not, and then sorted pictures of the objects onto the pocket chart

 

Math Center: Students made pictures out of pattern blocks

 

Math Center: Students made numbers out of wikki stix

 

 

Puzzles and Games Center: Students played this board game from my Alphabet Games Pack. Students rolled a dice, moved that number of spaces on the game board, and told their partner the letter they landed on.

 

I'd love it if you'd check this pack of alphabet games out at my TPT store. I'd also love to give away this pack of games for free to the first 2 people to leave a comment on this post (just make sure you leave your email address in your comment!). Happy Wednesday!

 

Let me know how your first days/weeks of school have been going and if your class has any fun activities they've been enjoying during center time!