Classroom Holiday Resources K-6 Link-Up

Hey everyone,

I have made some updates to my Kindergarten Christmas Math and Literacy Centers.  Here's a peak...

Here's a holiday FREEBIE for you and your students- arranging numbers in numerical order on a sentence strip.

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Non-Fiction Literacy Center

First, a disclaimer, I cannot take credit for this idea.  I read a blog post by Leslie over at Kindergarten Works and my wheels started turning.  I want my students to have a love of non-fiction and as an end of the year kindergarten goal I want them to be able to write a well organized paragraph regarding a non-fiction topic.  (You may be saying, "Yeah right Kerry, the majority of my class doesn't know their letters.  And you are talking about paragraphs!!!)


So how do you take non-literate children and expect them to create anything meaningful at a non-fiction center?  Let's start with circle thinking maps.  My class has done several circle thinking maps as class through Alphabet Boot Camp.  So my students were already very familiar with creating them.  We created some class samples and talked about my grading expectations.

I have supplied the center with lots of books on particular topics; sorted into bins.  These bins will be changed out about once a month (or when I see interest in a particular topic dwindling).  With these books students are learning to look for captions or scan the text to find the words to label their pictures.  (MOST of my students are not there yet.)  

 For students in need of more support, I have also included vocabulary pages (in a small binder in page protectors).  Now, everyone who is able to copy words can be successful at creating their circle map.

 I opened this center just a short 2 weeks ago and I had a kid (not even from my highest reading group) create a level 4 paper!!!!!  Can you say proud teacher???

So where do I go from here?  All the older maps will still be available for students to continue to work on; but I will be introducing new ones as the year goes on.  Here is what I am thinking my yearly timeline might look like...

For the next few months I will continue to let my students work on circle maps and help them develop stronger sentences.

December-January- In order to write a paragraph on one topic, students will need a narrower view.  I will introduce a bubble map.  With this map students will need to be able to read a book on one particular topic.  (Here I am expecting them to be early readers an be able to pull information from a simple text.)  Students will use the center of the bubble map to write their topic and then use the bubbles for details or adjectives.  From their bubble maps students can write a sentence and start writing paragraphs.

March- April- In the Spring I will introduce sequencing and the use of flow maps.  The books I put into the non-fiction center will be deliberate choices- life cycles and how things are made.  At this point, most students will be able to read and comprehend the simple texts.  Students will be able to use their flow map to write a paragraph on their chosen topic.

What are you thoughts or suggestions about this center?  What is something you do in your classroom to get your students working with non-fiction? 

  

Choice Centers

Yes, you read the title correctly, my students get to choose each day where they go for centers; literacy and math.  I started choice literacy centers about 4 years ago, about the same time I kicked off the Daily 5.

Now, I had a fair deal of trepidation when I gave up my control.  What if Johnny only wants to go to the listening center and work on sight words?????  He won't get enough phonics  or writing practice!!!!!!  I put a few things in place to make sure this was not an issue (for the most part).

1. Occasional requirements-  Every once in a while I would tell the students they had to make it to the writing center during the next 3 days.  This still gave them choice of when they were going to go, but I made sure to have that writing assignment from them by the end of the three days.
2. Training- I had to do lots of training about how to use centers effectively.  We talked about what might happen if you only went to one center all the time.  I referred to the centers like a puzzle.  You need all the pieces to be a successful reader.  
3. Student feedback- I encouraged them to talk to me about how they felt about specific centers.  "This one is too hard for me still.  I don't like this one because _____.  This one has gotten boring."  Yes, I am even happy when a kid can admit the center is boring.  They are so many ways to teach certain skills, I have no problem changing out the center.  My goal is to have them reading, and they are going to be more excited about it if they are excited about their centers.  
4. Change out centers often- If you see there is a center that no one is going to ask the kiddos why.  It may be too hard for most of them, it could be too easy, it could just be something they feel like they have done a million times.  Get to the root of why the center isn't working and make adjustments.  (Also I am a little sneaky in this area.  If the writing center is not getting enough traffic from my kiddos, I put out stamps, problem solved.  When the sight word center is at a lull I put out silly reading glasses.)  
5. Particular student requests- (This is similar to the occasional requirements but it is on an individual level.)  It usually goes something like this...(in a one on one conversation) "Johnny, I see that you could use some work with sight words.  You know your friend Bill is pretty strong there, but he could use some work in blending, which you are really good at.  Can you and Bill come up with a plan to spend your next two centers working together at sight words and the CVC center?"  The kiddos that I have done this with love it, maybe because they realize I notice their strengths and weaknesses, or because I've come up with a plan just for them.  

So that is how I maintain some control in a choice classroom. :)

Now here's the fun part; how students select centers.  As the kids were coming in from the playground and getting water we would start the process of picking centers.  In a room with a smart board this could be done with the pen on the board.  I didn't happen to have a smart board so we did ours old school; kids on my teacher laptop mouse.

There were 4 different slides- one for each center rotation.  Every day each student would come to reading group, they would have to read to self daily and also get on an ipad daily.  (I was fortunate enough to have 10 ipads).  (The ipad part is not included in the sample below.)

Here is a glimpse at the screen the students saw each day.  (My student's center choice chart had names instead of numbers).  We would click on a number from the right and move it to one of the colorful rows.  (In order top to bottom- reading group, read to self, word work, listen to reading, buddy reading, writing center).  Once all centers had been selected I played the slideshow.  It was projected nice and big on the board during each center rotation.  I could, with a quick glance, make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be.  To move to center 2 we just simply clicked the mouse once and center 2 was projected.  If you are interested in this chart it is available in my TPT store, just click on one of the images below.   

Here's an example of what this might look like in action.
reading group- students 1, 14, 17, 7 and 19, read to self- students 2, 13, 5  and 15 etc.  For buddy reading I put the two kids names' who are reading together closer together so it was an easy visual.

So there you have it!  How I keep some control in a student choice center system.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  There are definitely clear advantages to both systems.  What center rotation system do you use?  What makes it your favorite?