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K-3 Centers
Centers take up a large percentage of
instructional time in most primary classrooms. It is important that your centers are both meaningful and engaging.
How do we accomplish that task?
To make centers meaningful and engaging:
Use instructional materials in centers
As cute as those games are at the teacher store... your centers will not be successful if you simply get a lot of "stuff", explain the directions once to your students, and then put it in a center. Ditto for those file folder games you spent hours cutting and laminating.
Instead, use the materials and activities you are using in your teaching. Adapt activities you are doing as a whole group and reintroduce them as a center activity.
Practice authentic reading and writing tasks
Sure, it might be cute to have students write to prompts like if you were an animal what animal would you be... but it would be much more meaningful and engaging to have students write a letter to a classmate, or make a birthday card for their mom. If we want our students to develop into life long readers and writers we need to instill in them from a young age that there are real and important reasons for reading and writing. Along those lines, rethink how often you have students filling out graphic organizers or using strategy worksheets in the classroom library. Think about it. What do you do after you have read a good book? Run to fill out a venn diagram? Of course not! You call your sister or best friend and say, "Hey! I read this great book, you should pick it up." Have your students talk to each other about what they are reading! If they must write in response to reading, have them write book recommendations or reviews.
Centers in my 1st Grade Classroom
Latest page update: made by stephaniebartell
, Jul 10 2007, 12:42 PM EDT
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Keyword tags:
K-3
literacy centers
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