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Hi everyone!  I am learning to use Padlet in my master's class and I thought it would be fun to start a place where we could share ideas for Reading stations and centers for first graders. 

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Hi everyone!  I am learning to use Padlet in my master's class and I thought it would be fun to start a place where we could share ideas for Reading stations and centers for first graders. 

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Drop us a quick note, file or video!

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For this one my students write their words in white crayon. Then they students use a marker to scribble over the crayon and reveal the magic word!

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A fun way to remind or introduce the different kinds of punctuation.

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LL Cool J - "Punctuation" Music Video (The Electric Company)

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These Fluency mats are good for a warm up during guided time with the High Frequency Words.

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Try these cards for some fun practice!

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Check out this blog for some fun ideas!

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Finding a format for your literacy centers can be a tricky task. It's important to have routine, but it should be individualized to meet your scheduling needs and the academic needs of your students. For my classroom, I really wanted an "buffet" of options that I could choose from to best meet the needs of my students. Here are some of my favorite centers, all of which you can find on sale at my store {HERE}

What student doesn't love stamping? I love using this center to build sight word recognition as well as their ability to manipulate onset and rime (on the backside). I always make sure to have a set of directions available at each center that uses BOTH WORDS & PICTURES. You can grab the Short-A {FREEBIE} of this center over at my TpT Store.

If you like it, make sure to grab the full 25-Week Bundle {HERE}!

Making Words is a great station that is naturally differentiated. There is always a bonus word that uses all of the letters (above's bonus word was "STAGES"), but students are not always expected to find it. Many students work on finding CVC words, manipulating the ending sound and vowel to make new words, or manipulating the beginning sound to create rhymes. You can find it {HERE} at my TpT store or by clicking on the image below.

There are 25 weeks worth of this center on sale today and tomorrow... and don't worry! There is an answer key so you don't have to spend time trying to figure them out!

I use Word Work Packets to help students focus on our phonics pattern of the week. In the image above, the student is working on distinguishing between the sounds of "Soft G" and "Hard G". The packet starts off by asking students to look at the shapes words, which is especially helpful for my visual learners.

It also includes a Cut & Paste activity, which not only helps with spelling, but helps students develop their fine motor and spatial planning skills!

There is always a word search included at the end to provide a little incentive to complete the pages that come before. You can check out the Short E {FREEBIE} of this center over at my TpT Store.

If you like it, make sure to grab the full 25-Week Bundle {HERE} or by clicking on the image below!

I have also included the "Making Words" center from above in this bundle, so make sure that you don't go purchasing both!

Honestly, I was sick and tired of phonics poems that made absolutely NO SENSE! You know the ones I'm talking about... and I'm sure your students don't get excited for them either! So....

Last summer I wrote 30 original poems to go along with 25 different phonics patterns (and of course, they coincide with the other 25-Week products listed above!) We first read the poem together at the beginning of the week when I introduce our weekly phonics pattern. Then, it becomes a center! Students have their individual copies, which they glue into their poetry journals. With a highlighter, they mark as many examples of the weekly phonics pattern they can find (I make sure to include A LOT!). They are allowed to create a colorful border that matches the theme of the poem. Finally, they are asked to re-read the poem to themselves or to a friend to build fluency. If they finish early, I always ask them to go through their previous poems and practice reading them aloud.

You can grab all 30 poems {HERE} or by clicking on the image below.

Describe It is one of those great activities that helps you integrate science into your literacy centers. Every week I put a different random object in our "Describe It Jar". Students are asked to use different adjectives to describe the object. I make sure to accompany this center with my "Describing Words Cube"

There are 5 categories of adjectives: Texture, Color, Brightness, Shape and Size. Each category has several adjectives listed below to help students organize their ideas, familiarize themselves with new vocabulary, as well as assist them when they get stuck!

ALL Organizational Materials (Center Labels in 3 different sizes for your work boards)

Word Wall Cards to go along with ALL 25 WEEKS

Printable Directions for EACH center (as seen in the photographs above)

MORE centers that I didn't have time to write about today!

It's a great bundle, packed with over 200 pages of activities with EVERYTHING you need to get your literacy centers up and running (and keep them running) for the whole year!

Thank you for stopping by!

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5 Favorite Literacy Centers - Teaching with Jillian Starr

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Finding a format for your literacy centers can be a tricky task. It's important to have routine, but it should be individualized to meet your scheduling needs and the academic needs of your students. For my classroom, I really wanted an "buffet" of options that I could choose from to best meet the needs of my students.

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I love it when the kids can really manipulate tools and make the words to focus on the skills we are using.  Check out this page. One of my favorites is stamping on play dough!

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This year has been a year of many firsts and our spelling was one of them. I have been teaching first grade for 16 years and have never been satisfied with our spelling programs. This year our team put our heads together and decided what we felt was best for our students. We wanted 8 words each week with a phonemic pattern. We used research based literature to decide the order in which we would introduce spelling and phonemic patterns. Once we mapped out the patterns, we chose our 8 words for the week. From there, I went on to create activities to go along with each set of words. We originally started out with 30 weeks but ended up with 32 when it was all said and done.

Here is a peek at the binders I used to store all of the activities.

Inside of each binder, I have folders for each week. I put my originals in the folder. I also have a clear sleeve where I put my laminated word cards and posters to go with the units.

In the front of my room, I have a focus wall. This is where I display the 8 words for the week and the poster which we chant daily to go with the phonemic pattern.

I LOVE sorts. I feel they really help the children look closely at the words and find the patterns inside each one. I include some cut and glue sorts and some written sorts.

My kids love the mix-up activities and I love the I Can Spell. The I Can Spell again focuses on the word pattern and allows the children to make more words using the same pattern.

Of course their favorite activity each week is the word search. Not only is it fun but they get to use highlighters! They LOVE highlighters.

Games are so engaging and interactive. I like to include games each week to change it up.

At the beginning of first grade, we do these altogether to learn the procedures and complete them correctly. As the year progresses, they are placed in the word work areas for the students to work on independently. This is how I display them in our word work area.

In my word work area, I also display the other set of cards included in the packets. I need the words to be easily visible to the students so they can do many of the hands-on activities we have.

To check my SPELLING BUNDLE with 32 weeks of fun, click HERE

We practice our weekly words in word work each day. We don't always do paper pencil activities so I will share a few of our favorite additional activities below. These options are not all available at the same time, I pick a few each week.

This easel and magnetic letters are out every week. They are a tad noisy but the children enjoy building their words on the easel.

We also have these boards and this amazing set of letters from Lakeshore Learning. I love that they are sorted already and that the vowels are red. This is something I pull out here and there.

I'm not even sure what you call these boards but we love to write on them and erase our work. These are also from Lakeshore. I have these out all of the time as well.

My students LOVE dry erase markers & boards. They come in great colors now and it is fun for them to write the phonemic pattern in a different color to really highlight it.

I bought these stamps for something at home and only used them once. They are perfect for Playdough letter stamping. WAAAY better than ink! I usually pull these out during the holidays when they have fun small Playdough colors out.

These little chalk boards are made for our handwriting program but we use them in word work too! Colorful chalk is fun as well.

My kiddos love smelly markers. I won these Mr. Sketch goodies at a teacher conference and immediately knew where I was going to put them. The only warning I have is that they are permanent and can make a mess on your table.

I'm not even sure where these linking letters came from but they are fun to put together.

Warning~ a tad on the noisy side.

Sand trays were introduced to me as a great tactile, hands-on activity to build sound letter fluency. The kids love working on these trays.

Have you ever painted with a q-tip? They are perfect because they are disposable and not messy at all. I let the kids use the lids to make the words using a dotted pattern. These little bottles are perfect. Plus, they are washable.

These chalkboards are perfect to do water painting as well. Work on fine motor skills and practice you words at the same time. BONUS~no mess

These boards are super fun and a cheap tool to use in word work. I bought them at Michaels many years ago. If you put them under paper and write the words with crayons, it makes the words bumpy. Then you can use your finger to go over the word, which is now bumpy, and practice spelling it.

Another fun find I received at a teacher/blogger meet up are these Kwik Stix. They are paint in a glue stick. When we use these, we use larger paper because they write pretty large. They dry fairly quickly so I can send them home that day.

The classroom I moved into had tons of these Bingo dotters. If you use large paper, students can dot out their words.

Wikki Stix are a fun way to build words. I have a surplus of these in my room because my triplets used to make things with them. As soon as they were done with them, I brought them to my classroom to use.

Highlighters are a big favorite in my room. We use them daily during class with guided instruction. When they get to use them independently during word work, it is a big bonus. Simple but effective.

Word work is a favorite in my room, one other activity that is not pictured but I must share is shaving cream. This is a great way to clean your tables too. Just put a little dab out and they go to town.

I would love to hear any ideas you may have, I'm always looking for new ones.

Thanks for checking out our Spelling/Work Work activities.

Love what you do, and do what you love.

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This year has been a year of many firsts and our spelling was one of them. I have been teaching first grade for 16 years and have never been satisfied with our spelling programs. This year our team put our heads together and decided what we felt was best for our students.