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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

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Before students can identify parts of a story, they must have a general understanding of what these elements mean, such as characters and settings. Notes with visuals can be taken where they define the elements and provide examples.

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Provide the young students with videos where the story elements are explained in a different voice with moving visuals.

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Story Elements Part 1: Characters, Setting, and Events | English For Kids | Mind Blooming

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After defining the story elements, allow students to share with a partner what it means in their own words. This will benefit students by allowing a different aspect of the same concept.

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Show the students the title page of the story, most of the time the characters are pictured here. Ask them who they think the story will be about, followed by referring to them as being the characters. Repeat with the setting. All learners can benefit from doing this.

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Scientists, just like readers, make predictions all the time. Help your child begin to see the connection between what she does as a reader and what she can do as a scientist. Here are two simple ways you can encourage your child to put her prediction skills to work as a scientist.

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Allow students to come up with their own meaning in their native language and describe it to you. This gives them a chance of understanding the concept in terms they better know. They will be looking for the same elements as the class, only now they know what to look for.

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CECE Early Childhood Videos at Eastern CT State U.

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Supporting English Language Learners in the Preschool Classroom

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Dualingo is a program provided to us by the district where students who are learning a new language learn through a variety of games and activities. It helps with translating as well as has the option to choose the focus lesson for that day or week.

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Duolingo is the world's most popular way to learn a language. It's 100% free, fun and science-based. Practice online on duolingo.com or on the apps!

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Allow students to choose thier best learning styles. They can demonstrate knowledge by acting out the story and characters or drawing a picture of the story.

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Join the Counseling Center on April 8, 2024 from 5:30 until 8pm in the Market Place for Celebration of the Light Within You.

Welcome new and returning students!

If you wish to receive accommodations, you will need to self-disclose to us by calling to make an intake appointment with one of the directors - 508.999.8711. Please submit documentation before your appointment, if possible. You can email documentation to access_success@umassd.edu or fax (508-910-6691). If you have any questions regarding documentation, please see our documentation guidelines.

Remember, if you are a returning student, you also will need to schedule an appointment with one of our directors to notify your new professors of accommodations and to review our student agreement.

Equity for all

The Office of Student Accessibility Services, oversees the University's compliance with the legal mandates expressed in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 for students with documented disabilities.

The Office of Student Accessibility Services works with faculty, staff, and students to ensure that appropriate academic adjustments are made that allow all students equity inside the classroom. Students who have documented disabilities on our campus are afforded a variety of services to accommodate their individual needs. UMass Dartmouth strives to ensure complete access to University academic programs.

Simply schedule an appointment with us to discuss your unique needs. The Office of Student Accessibility Services is located in Pine Dale Hall, Room 7136. When you arrive at Pine Dale Hall please use the call box and dial ext. 8711 and a staff member will meet you at the entrance to open the door.

Helpful flyers

Free apps for online learning, productivity, and stress reduction

Studying

Chegg Prep - flashcards created to prepare for all types of subject matter

StudyBlue - has study materials for all different courses

Cram - flashcards to prepare for all types of subject matter and multiple choice tests.

Time management

Flora - tracks your focus time

Flipd - shows how long you've spent on apps, sleeping, studying, etc.

Productive - helps user create their daily routine, provides feedback

Note-taking

Microsoft OneNote - easily integrates with your UMassD account

Agenda - tracks your note taking over time, allows easy addition of photos and outside info

Notebook - organizes your notes into different notebooks

Relaxation

Calm - meditation app that also has music to help you fall asleep

Aura - after assessing your mood, provides you with personalized life coaching and stories to reduce anxiety

Insight Timer - meditation app that creates playlists for anxiety, sleep, stress, and productivity

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Office of Student Accessibility Services

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Join the Counseling Center on April 8, 2024 from 5:30 until 8pm in the Market Place for Celebration of the Light Within You. If you wish to receive accommodations, you will need to self-disclose to us by calling to make an intake appointment with one of the directors - 508.999.8711.

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This center can be focused on the discussion of characters and drawing them out on a poster board. Students have to describe, in a few words, their characteristics. Repeat for the setting on a separate poster paper. All students participate and benefit, including special needs and ELL.

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Daily 5 Basics- How I do Reading Centers

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Each student chooses a character or main idea of the story read and reenacts it. If student strength is not in this area, they can listen to the rest of the students and form a couple of summative sentences.

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Kindergarten learning centers are one of my favorite components in my classroom. Math and literacy centers have and always will be an essential part of my kindergarten classroom because I know how important hands-on learning is with five and six-year-olds. Sometimes I think we are so inundated with what we need to teach them that we forget how they need to learn! The benefits of using math and literacy centers are not just for the students, but you the teacher, as well. Once you get the hang of incorporating centers into your classroom, you will see how smoothly they can run!

Getting Started with Centers

The hardest part about introducing centers in your classroom, or any new classroom activity for that matter, is figuring out how to manage it all. The benefits of center time in your classroom is amazing, but can be a little intimidating at first. Here are a few things to think about before getting started:

How many students do you want in each center? I personally like to have 2 students per center to they can help each other. If you have a large group of students, try 4 per center and provide 2 copies of the activity your students are working on.

How long should each center be? The shorter, the better. Give your students enough time to get through an activity, but remember they will be working independently so we don't want them to lose interest after too much time. I run my centers 12-15 minutes and clean up time is included in each rotation.

How many centers should I have going at once? Depending on how many students you have, you can decide how many centers you need to keep the rotations running smoothly. You can read about the literacy centers I use in this post.

How do my students know which center to go to? This is completely up to you since you know your class best. You can decide whether you want your students to choose their center each day or not. I personally like to have more structure when sending my students to centers. We use a pocket chart with a number to corresponds to each center and the students pictures next to each number. When it's time to rotate, I just move the numbers down and my students know where to go next.

What should the teacher be doing during centers? When you first introduce centers, I suggest not having anything else do to. This is a great time to walk around and make sure your students understand how centers work and be available to help them when needed. After a few weeks, this is the perfect time to pull small groups for extra help. You can have the teacher table listed as another number so your students know when it's time to go to you, or you can pull students from centers as you see fit.

Setting up learning centers can be a lot of work and definitely take some creativity and planning. With everything else on your plate, it can be hard to muster up those creative juices, but don't get discouraged! It can take several years to get your centers where you want them to be, and know that you can switch things up anytime you see that it's not working anymore. A good way to start is by prepping a few centers each month and soon your collection will grow.

Why are Kindergarten Learning Centers Important?

I've already mentioned how much I love using centers in my room, so I wanted to share why I think they are so important!

Learning centers give kindergarteners a sense of satisfaction. They are presented with a task, they follow the steps to complete the task. They are able to take the activity from start to finish and complete it.

Kindergarten learning centers provide children with confidence. The activities you place in the learning centers are math and literacy concepts that have been previously taught. Your students are able to complete the centers independently and you can watch their confidence soar!

Learning centers teach children to be independent. Little learners can become dependent on teacher assistance. Centers allow students an appropriate level of challenge so they can work independently to reach a solution.

In addition to promoting independence, learning centers gives the teacher time to work with small groups and give extra attention to students in a smaller capacity. With the large numbers of students in our classrooms, any small group instruction you can provide is gold!

Tips for Creating Great Learning Centers

One of the hardest things about setting up learning centers is finding appropriate, engaging centers that allow your students to work independently, stay on task, and stay engaged. The last thing we need is our students to be wasting their time not able to complete the center, or not learning anything from it. Here are some tips to remember when creating centers:

Learning centers need to be changed often to keep your students engaged and on task. The skills can stay the same, but the presentation should be changed. Your students can practice sight words all year long, but they will get bored using the same sight word center all year long.

Play-based learning is always going to work best! Building words with blocks, dramatic play, using tweezers, etc.

Make sure the activities you provide are differentiated and the appropriate level for your students.

Use fun and engaging colors and clip art when possible.

Keep the activities short so your students can complete a center in the time frame allotted. I find keeping centers at 12-15 minutes works best.

Centers for Your Classroom

Over the years, I have created several math and literacy centers for my students to use throughout the year. They are themed to keep engagement up and usually follow whatever concept we are learning that month. This is also a great way to integrate your science and social studies standards into your math and literacy blocks!

You can find these ready to go Math and Literacy Kindergarten Centers in my shop. They will help get you through the year without having to stress over planning what you'll do for centers each month. They are also aligned with common core standards and differentiated for student abilities so you know your students will get the most out of their center time.

I created these centers to be play-based since I know that's how kindergartners learn best. Just remember to include the centers that can be done independently. The concepts should be a review, not new learning.

The only extra supplies you will need are things that are already in your classroom (blocks, dice, tiny manipulatives, play-doh, etc.) These Math and Literacy Centers are not just a time-saver for you, they're packed with activities that kindergarten learners will truly enjoy.
Click Here to Preview My Themed Math and Literacy Kindergarten Centers
Each month includes about 10 centers which breaks down to just $1 a center! If you're interested in the entire bundle, you will get an additional 25% off. Check out each month here!
Click Here to Preview My Anytime Math and Literacy Kindergarten Centers
This bundle is a compilation of my favorite learning themes (construction, weather, community helpers, space, etc.) that can be used ANY TIME of the year!

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Kindergarten Learning Centers - Miss Kindergarten

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Kindergarten learning centers are one of my favorite components in my classroom. Math and literacy centers have and always will be an essential part of my kindergarten classroom because I know how important hands-on learning is with five and six-year-olds.

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This center includes my aide, or the teacher themselves. Students are to talk about each character and the setting and what it would be like if the setting changed. They are to find the main ideas and discuss with the teacher in more general conversation. This will likely improve ELL vocabulary, even if they simply listen.

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Let's tackle those kindergarten centers! It's time to swap out your centers and you either respond in one of two ways:
"YAY! I just love swapping out centers. I mean it takes a few hours, a cramped hand, 2 reams of cardstock and 1 ink cartridge but hey it's okay!"
Or, you respond with,
"AHH! Has it really already been two weeks? I wonder if the kids will mind using the pumpkin centers in December?"
I mean either response is completely OK. I guess you could say I fall somewhere between the two. Swapping centers out is a lot of fun but equally stressful! We have so many levels to cover. Then, there's the question, "To theme or not to them?" My sister and I asked ourselves this EXACT question before the school year started! She is homeschooling this year and decided to not have a "themed" year therefore her centers really didn't need to be themed. I wanted to offer her centers that were outright SIMPLE. Then, it popped in my head, "Hey I bet there are other busy teachers that would love a set of SIMPLE centers, too!"

That is when my centers were born. Oftentimes, when we think about the word basic we think of something lacking substance or that it's missing something. However, in the teaching world basic to me equals to SANITY! As teachers it's really hard to balance between what our kids NEED and what they NEED. I mean do they need themed centers I swap out every two weeks? Well, maybe not but themed centers are FUN and engaging! Then we go back to the essential needs. I need to provide them with centers that will be rigorous aka not boring. I also need to provide them with centers that will still be FUN and not fun as in throwing confetti, but fun as they WANT to do them and ENJOY them.

The BASIC centers are all of that wrapped up: rigorous, academic, fun and engaging!

The basic center bundle offers 5 systematic centers: write the room, sort by skill, spin and record, match-ups and game boards! Within each of these 5 systematic centers comes 30 included activities. These activities cover the same set of skills throughout. For example, if your students are working on CVC words you can choose activities from the write the room, sort by skill, spin and record, match-ups and game boards packets and have a full set of centers for your students. Let's say your kids are then ready for digraphs! You will simply pull the digraph version of each and your students will not need to be taught how to play the center because they just learned the concept during the CVC centers.

This reduces that time of teaching and reteaching completely! You are now able to swap the skill and keep on trucking along! You will be able to use these centers as a supplement to your whole-group lesson and/or as an independent center option. The centers all come in two versions: color and ink saving black/white. Each center also comes with a recording sheet! If you choose to utilize these center recording mats for more than one use, then you'll want to laminate them or place them into a dry-erase sleeve. Students can use a dry-erase marker or plastic manipulative to indicate their answers.

* NO THEMES so you can use them throughout the year.
* Color AND Black/White versions included.
* Center stays the same- skills change/build in rigor through the year.

The basic literacy centers cover15 skills over all 5 center packets! Below you can see the skills covered!

#1: Alphabet
#2: Rhyming
#3: Beginning sounds
#4: CVC Words
#5: Syllables
#6: Onset and Rime
#7: Initial Sounds
#8 Medial Sounds
#9: Ending Sounds
#10: Long Vowels
#11: Digraphs
#12: Initial Blends
#13: Vowel Pairs
#14: R Controlled
Write the room #15: CVCC Words

Up first is the Write the Room packet! This packet offers 30 write the room activities! Each activity has the paired recording sheets! The kiddos LOVE write the room because they have the opportunity be up and exploring!

All of the cards have the matching write the room number on them! This helps if the cards are misplaced and you can pair them to the recording sheet!

The Write the Room activities store easily in a binder with sheet protectors! Simply place the recording sheets into the sheet protectors and slide the cards in! You can also choose to print the black and white versions onto colored paper!

Who doesn't LOVE game boards? This packet covers the same 15 skills and contains 45 game boards! This packet is designed to offer a fun and engaging way to practice literacy skills. You will be able to use these game board centers as a supplement to your whole-group lesson and/or as an independent center option.

Below you can see the alphabet game board and a rhyming game board! All of the necessary game board cards come with the packet!

How fun right? The kiddos turn over a card and move to a picture that is the same beginning sound.

This game board includes an area for the kiddos to practice writing the word as well. For this game board, the students roll, move to a CVC word picture and then write that word!

Syllable practice! For this game board the students spin and move to the next picture with matching syllables!

The game board is for letter name practice! The top board, students roll a cube and cover that many of the letter. For example, if they roll a 6 then they cover 6 C's. The bottom board they will roll, move that many spaces and state the letter.

Now let's talk MATCH-UPS! Match-ups to me a way for the kiddos to apply the skill in a self-checking way! The same 15 skills are covered in this packet as well and there are 30 match-ups included. Each match-up has a recording sheet as well!

Just like the other centers, these too are easy to prep! The match-ups all include the number as well so you don't have to worry about mixed up cards!

You can see that the students are able to record their answers as they complete the match-ups!

Let's talk about the sorts! Now when we think of the sorts we want to know that these are TRUE and FALSE tasks! I LOVE these because they require the kiddos to really think critically! These also cover the same 15 skills woot and there are 59 sorts!

Each packet contains a table of contents page for quick reference!

The sorts include the "sorting mat," sorting cards and follow-up practice sheet!

Students will sort the cards by true (thumbs up) or false (thumbs down).

Last but not least let's talk spin and record! These are super fun and engaging for the kiddos! The all enjoy SPINNERS! For the spinner itself you can use a pencil and paperclip or spinners!
To prep the centers, simply print the skill sheets and place them into a sheet protector. The students can also use counters to cover their answers. If you are not wanting to reuse the sheets, students can use dabbers or markers to note the answers.

These centers can be written on directly or you can place them into a sheet protector so they can be used over and over again!

If you are placing them into a sheet protector then you can use counters or snap cubes to indicate the answers!

Remember that the idea behind these centers is that if you are working on a skill (let's say initial sounds), you can grab the initial sound centers from each packet, print them, prep and GO! You then have ten centers to cover that skill! After that skill is master then you store those ten centers and move onto the next skills! Because these centers are so simple to prep you can also have varying levels/skills printed and offer kiddos the skills/centers at their level!

Below is a video of me explaining how one skill is covered over all 5 center packets!

You can view the individual packets below!
BASIC Literacy Centers: Write the Room BASIC Literacy Centers: Sort-Its BASIC Literacy Centers: Spin and Record BASIC Literacy Centers: Match-Ups BASIC Literacy Centers: Game Boards
If you are interested in the bundle you can save big! Click HERE or the image below!

Now let's talk Basic MATH centers! The math centers follow the same process as the lit centers! The math bundle contains-> write the room, sort-its, match-ups, game boards and spin & records! The math bundle covers these 15 skills:

#1: Counting sets within 10 & 20
#2: Subitizing
#3: 2d shapes and 3d shapes
#4: Before and after counting
#5: Identify patterns
#6: Nonstandard measurement
#7: Comparing sets and numbers
#8: Missing number in sequence
#9: Combos within 10
#10: Number bonds
#11: Place value
#12: Ordering numbers
#13: Addition
#14: Subtraction
#15: Time and Money

Up first is the Write the Room packet! This packet offers 30 write the room activities! Each activity has the paired recording sheets! The kiddos LOVE write the room because they have the opportunity be up and exploring!

All of the cards have the matching write the room number on them! This helps if the cards are misplaced and you can pair them to the recording sheet!

There are differentiated versions included within the packets as well! For example, some offer numbers to 10 and 20 so you can lower the difficulty!

Instead of having the kids record directly onto the recording sheet, you can place it into a sheet protector!

If you running the literacy write the room and math write the room, you can print on colored paper so the kiddos aren't confused!

There are 42 game boards included for the math BASIC centers! They cover the same 15 skills mentioned above! This packet is designed to offer a fun and engaging way to practice math skills. You will be able to use these game board centers as a supplement to your whole-group lesson and/or as an independent center option.

The game boards are fun and have the instructions listed on the game mats!

The students will apply the skills in a fun way that differs from the other center packets!

Number mazes!

This game mat has students spin, write the number and count on the additional numbers in the counting sequence!

Now let's talk MATCH-UPS! Match-ups to me a way for the kiddos to apply the skill in a self-checking way! The same 15 skills are covered in this packet as well and there are 30 match-ups included. Each match-up has a recording sheet as well!

Find a Match: Have students work to sort the stack of cards into matches. All of the cards will be face up.

Memory Match-Up: Have students place the cards face down. Turn over two cards at a time to see if the two are a match. I recommend that you limit the number of cards you put out.

Puzzlin' Match: Have students play the match game as a Puzzlin' game. Leave one of the match sets as a sheet or "board". Then, cut up the other match as individual cards. Students will place the match card down onto the "board".

Another look of the "puzzlin" way to play the match-ups!

There are 30 math sorts included in the BASIC math bundle! Each sort has the pieces, game mat and matching recording sheet!

The sorts are based on a "true" and "false" critical thinking!

The Basic Math Centers: Spin and Record packet is designed to offer a fun and engaging way to practice math skills. You will be able to use these spin and record centers as a supplement to your whole-group lesson and/or as an independent center option. To prep the centers, simply print the skill sheets and place them into a sheet protector. The students can also use counters to cover their answers. If you are not wanting to reuse the sheets, students can use dabbers or markers to note the answers.

The spin and record mats store nicely in a binder!

For the spinner itself you can use a pencil and paperclip or spinners!

Remember that the idea behind these centers is that if you are working on a skill (let's say counting sounds), you can grab the counting centers from each packet, print them, prep and GO! You then have ten centers to cover that skill! After that skill is master then you store those ten centers and move onto the next skills! Because these centers are so simple to prep you can also have varying levels/skills printed and offer kiddos the skills/centers at their level!

Below is a video of me explaining how one skill is covered over all 5 center packets!

You can view the individual packets below!
BASIC Math Centers: Write the Room BASIC Math Centers: Sort-Its BASIC Math Centers: Spin and Record BASIC Math Centers: Match-Ups BASIC Math Centers: Game Boards
If you are interested in the bundle you can save big! Click HERE or the image below!

I have also recently bundled the Literacy and Math BASIC centers! Let me break it down for you below!

Literacy Bundle is (5) $6 packets = $30

Math Bundle is (5) $6 packets = $30

Snag the BUNDLED Basic Centers of Literacy and Math Centers on sale!

You can grab the bundle HERE or clicking the image below!

I hope you have a GREAT rest of your week!

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Let's tackle those kindergarten centers! It's time to swap out your centers and you either respond in one of two ways: "YAY! I just love swapping out centers. I mean it takes a few hours, a cramped hand, 2 reams of cardstock and 1 ink cartridge but hey it's okay!"

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Start by asking students to summarize what happens in the story. Then ask them the questions, who is it about? People, animals, objects? Next, where is the story taking place? In the ocean, a house, the store? Lastly, what did the characters learn in the story?

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Depending on if they can work well with others, they can either participate in centers or come up with a drawing of the story. If they prefer to work alone, they can pair up with the teacher for general conversation about the story where the same questions are asked, but more time is allowed for them to come up with the right wording.

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Small Group Rotations with Moderate/Severe Special Education Students

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This program allows for students to listen to a story being read to them, followed by a choice of a leveled quiz. Teachers are able to identify questions they desire students to answer, such as asking for characters and setting. This would be a great alternative for students who focus better listening to the story through audio with headphones, possibly be a separate center.

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Families, start reading! Educators, get it free

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Personalize their daily reading.

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Track progress.

See what books your kid likes, time spent reading and more.

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Endless books, videos and more to grow their skills and feed curiosity.

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Get inspired with the Epic blog.

Discover tips, ideas, book lists and more for educators and families.

Go to Epic Blog

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online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Families, start reading! Educators, get it free MORE FEATURES AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Personalize their daily reading. Daily age- and level-appropriate recommendations customized to their interests. Track progress. See what books your kid likes, time spent reading and more. Get content that grows with them. Quality books they'll love at every step of their reading journey.

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This can be done through summative and formal. Summative would be answering questions at the beginning, throughout the story, and after the story. Formal assessments can be conducted at the end of a week through questions about what the characters and setting are in a story, as well as asking them to recall main events in the story.

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Formative assessment

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work

help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include:

Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.

CONTACT US to talk with an Eberly colleague in person!

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Formative vs Summative Assessment - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University

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Brainpop is a popular tool that teaches students essential topics, such as story elements. It provides videos and examples through a fun robot and girl. Like Epic, it allows for quizzes to be administered: easy, medium, or hard.