#1075. More Kindergarten Literacy Centers

Reading/Writing, level: Elementary
Posted Wed May 5 19:41:51 PDT 1999 by Elaine Magud (magud@inreach.com).
Joshua Cowell Elementary School, Manteca, Ca.
Materials Required: varied
Activity Time: varied
Concepts Taught: language development,reading and writing skills

More literacy center activites to add variety.
Letter Sort:
This center consists of :1. alphabet tiles.
I got some really cheap ones at Wal-Mart. They are made out of compressed foam and paper. You could also buy white 1 inch tiles and print the letter with a permanent marker.2. A t-graph printed on construction paper and laminated.
3. a grease pencil or dry erase pen.
Procedure: mark the t-graph with the directions for sorting letters. E.g. on one side of the t-graph mark "In my name". On the other side of the t-graph mark "not in my name". Then students take a handful of letters and sort.
Some sorting choices: letters that have curves vs. letters that are all straight. letters that have tails vs. letters that do not.
Low- just sorting Med. sorting and saying letters , hi- sorting and saying letters and sounds.

Name Game: this center has several activities using student names.
Make labels with the students names. I add a small picture copied from class photos.
Activity 1: draw two large circles on construction paper (laminate). Label them Girls -Boys. Mine have faces that look like a boy or girl. Children look at names and sort for girls and boys.
Activity 2: Syllables: Laminate a piece of poster board that has been divided into sections (approx. 4 or 5). In each section place a picture of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, clapping hands, (Math Their Way has a great hand clap icon for patterning). Students say and clap the syllables in the name and sort according to claps.
e.g. Ash - Ley is a two clap name and goes into the 2 box.
Activity 3 - on a piece of poster board draw 26 squares and label with letters of the alphabet. I labeled each rectangle with stickers and a variety of fonts. Students sort the names according to first letter.
Activity 4 - sorting names by number of letters: on poster board make a grid of rectangles. In the 1st write 1, the next 2 etc. ( I have some very long names -12 letters so my grids went from 3 to 12. ) Students then take the name labels and count the number of letters in the word and place in correct rectangle.

Chicka-chicka-boom-boom: draw or paint a coconut tree on a cookie sheet ( make sure the sheet will hold magnetic letters - some will not). I used acrylic paint and then 3 layers of clear varnish. Add magnetic letters and a copy of the book Chicka-chicka-boom-boom.

Picture-letter-word: This is very good for the beginning of the school year or for students who have had very little literacy experience. Divide a piece of poster board into 3 parts. Label the 1st one Picture and glue a picture from a magazine in that section , the next is labeled "letter", and the last "Word". I downloaded some great labels from the CA. Reading Recovery Home site. They had the alphabet letter, pictures with beginning sounds, and the words. I just stuck on construction paper and laminated. you can use pictures from magazines and newspapers, letters generated by computer, and pictures from your clip art gallery. The low level students will sort . The med. level will say the letters. The High will read the words.

Felt board: I have stories and letters for the children to use and explore. Alphabet sequencing, creating words and names, sorting letters, sequencing stories, retelling stories etc. Give them the materials and they will find a purpose.

Pocket chart activities: I am just starting to use this for centers. I have picture/word cards with rhyming words. They love to sort for the rhyme. Some will sort by picture and others will read the words.

Computer: I have Reader Rabbit, Dr. Seuss, and a couple of more literacy activities to explore on the computer.