Zero the Hero

Zero the Hero made his appearance on the 100th Day of School.  He brought us donuts to celebrate!  Every 10th day of school he would bring us treats that were in the shape of zeros.

Zero the Hero came to visit us!

Zero the Hero brought us treats that were in the shape of zeros!!!  He puts them in a bag with a big zero on it. 

Permanent ELA Center Activities

I explained in a previous post rules for implementing center activities.  One of my rules is I have center activities that never change but the skill will change.  The following are examples of my ELA activities that I teach the kids how to do once and they are good for the rest of the year.  Therefore, I am not wasting time teaching them how to do the activity.  This leaves more time for them to practice the skill. 


If you notice all activities start with something they can manipulate.  The follow-up activity is more of an assessment/accountability tool.

Word Work Center- These are Phonics Puzzles that reinforce the new phonics skill we are learning that week.  These puzzles show S blends.  The student matches the word with the picture.  It is self-correcting b/c the puzzles will match.  I made 4 sets of the same puzzle.  Since I will have no more than 4 students in a center at one time.  In case the students mix-up the puzzle pieces, I label them with numbers on the back.  All #1 pieces go in the #1 bag etc.

Word Work Center-  This is a follow-up to the Phonics Puzzles.  When the students complete the Phonics Puzzle, they write the provided sentences in their journal and insert the correct word.  The should be familiar with the words, since they are the same ones that were on the Phonics Puzzles. 

Word Work Center-  This is a broader shot of the Phonics Sentences.  The students have a Word Bank of their phonics words on the dinosaur.

Listening Center- The Rhyming Puzzle pieces are similar to the Phonics Puzzles.  The only difference is the Rhyming ones only have pictures on them.  I make 4 sets of the puzzles and organize them with the numbers just like the Phonics Puzzles.  The follow-up activity is a Rhyming assignment which reinforces the same words the students were exposed to in the puzzles.  

Reading Center-  These are Sight Word Sentence Puzzles.  The puzzle pieces focus on the new sight words and phonics skills being taught that week.  When the students put the sentence together they record it on a recording sheet.  There are 8 puzzles, each one is different.  This activity is explained on a previous post.

One Hundred Day Activities

The following are some activities my students did to celebrate the 100th day.

I made a class set (24 total) of 100s puzzles.  Print puzzle on cardstock, laminate and cut into puzzle pieces.  Each puzzle has 13 pieces with letters on the back that correspond to its bag.  If the puzzle has the letter "A" on the back it goes with bag "A" etc.  All the puzzles are cut differently.  It is a contest to see who finishes it first.

I purchased 4 sets of 25 piece puzzles.  (100 piece puzzles will take them way too long to complete and they will lose interest.)  The puzzles are from School Aids.

I printed a blank 100s chart.  I purchased finger stamps at School Aids.  Students created patterns with these stamps.    I stored the finger stamps in ice cube trays that were purchased at Dollar Tree, 2 for $1.  I love using ice cube trays to store stamps that didn't come in a handy container.

My Rules when Implementing Centers

Yes, I know that the "educational political correctness" is Literacy Workstation, but I am still going to call them centers.  It saves time to say and I am all about being efficient ; )

The Following is my Center Theory 

My rules when implementing centers.

1. Have the students do the same center activity every week, but change the skill focus.  Teaching how to do an activity is a waste of time.  Students need to spend more time practicing the skill.  These center activities that never change, I call my "MUST DO" activities.  This means it is the first thing they must do in the center.
2. Every station has a "MUST DO" activity and a "FUN NEVER-ENDING" activity.  The never ending activity is meant as a reward and motivator for them to finish the "must do" activity.  These never change and are differentiated.  Examples of possible never-ending activities would be: letter stamps, spelling scrabble (I explained this in a previous post), reading in the library, play dough letter stamps, writing etc.  A student will never finish a never-ending center or it is designed to take a long time to complete.  This eliminates the problem of students not having anything to do during centers.  Their work is never done. 
3. I try to give my students at least two activity choices when they have finished their "must do" activity.  One choice will be the "never-ending" activity and the other one maybe an activity that reinforces a past skill.  These activities are new and therefore, exciting for the students (since it is something different), so I model it whole group, on Monday, before putting it in the center for that week.
4. I post simple directions in the center.  I number each direction, so they know what to do first and last.
5. I have two center rotations.  At the end of each center rotation, the students put their heads down and I walk around to "inspect" the center supplies.  This takes 1-2 min.  However, I feel it is a necessity if you want your supplies to be intact and everlasting.    
6. I am super organized when it comes to putting my center activities in their tubs.  I have taught my students to place the flat things on the bottom of the tub.  Putting supplies in a tub may seem like an easy task, however, spacial awareness must be taught.  They need to understand that if you place something in diagonal it will get bent and that if it is awkward in shape, you might want to put it on top of the flat supplies.  Teaching how to respect the supplies of the classroom goes a long way. 

Directions are posted at each center.  Notice I use words and pictures.  These direction never change but the skills do in the "must do" activity.  The "must do" activity will be #1.

Directions are posted at each center.  Notice I use words and pictures.  These direction never change but the skills do in the "must do" activity.  The "must do" activity will be #1.

Example of a "never-ending" center activity.  These letter dough stampers were purchased at Lakeshore.

Example of a "never-ending" center activity.  These letter dough stampers were purchased at Lakeshore.

Example of a "never-ending" center activity.  You can print these mats from Alphabete Avenue.  This activity is great for the beginning of the year.

This is an example of a "never-ending" center activity.  I love these stamps because they have the lines underneath each letter.  So, the students do not accidently stamp them upside-down.  I purchased them from School Aids.

100th Day of School Hat

Students sport these fine hats in honor of the 100th day of school.  Each green strip has ten stickers on it.

100th Day of School Necklace

Here is an example of a student's 100th day of school necklace.  It is made out of fruit loops.  Students were encouraged to make patterns with the colors, as well as, make sections of 10 by using the dividers to separate the groups.

Weekly Star Student!

Let the second-half of the school year begin!  I try to change-up classroom incentives to keep my kiddos interested.  I started selecting a "Star Student".  This student is chosen for exhibiting great behavior.  As a reward they get to display the following sign on their chair (with their name) and get to use the special star cup.  The star cup holds star pencils (with star grippers), twistable crayons, scissors and a glue stick.  This cup is placed on top of their desk.  It is almost like their little trophy.  =)

From LakeShore

Make-shift pencil holder is a coozie from Hobby Lobby (.99), foam stars from Hobby Lobby (couple dollars)

Math Teacher Resources

These books deserve a post.  They are developmentally appropriate and child friendly.  I do not like worksheets that you have to explain.  These are great for assessments.  I am sure this company makes more.

This is my favorite.  I like it because it has a lot of cut and paste graphs.  Since we focus on graphing at the beginning of the year, it lets them practice their fine motor skills.

This books helps with number sense and place value.

Phonics Activity

This is a great phonics resource.  It has lots of work mat reproducibles.  All you need is to copy and laminate.  It does come with reproducible letter tiles, but you could just buy your own.  Letter tiles are sold at any school supply store.

I make the mats self-correcting by having the answer on the back.  At the beginning of the year, the students can use the completed side to place the letter tiles over the letters.

I made a set of vowel work-mats.  I color coded them, so each student has all the vowels.

I'm Sick!!!

Sub. Tub

Last year, I had one tub with a variety of worksheets in it for substitutes to use incase I had to call in sick. However, I felt it wasn't very organized.

I changed this problem by getting a 3-drawer organizer and labeling them: ELA, Math, Science/Social Studies.

Next to my Sub Tub, I have my classroom schedule, list of students, explanation of rules/procedures and 3 days worth of student work packets (incase my students need to be split-up into different classes, if a sub does not show-up).

On top of my Sub Tub, I have a basket filled with incentives (behavior tickets for the Treasure Chest drawer held on Friday and stickers) and a red bag with first aid supplies (band aids, contact solution-for teacher use).

Counting by 5s and 10s

At the beginning of the year, we learn about what skip counting means.  I demonstrate this by having the students trace, cut out their hands and glue them on construction paper.


I laminate them, so I can write numbers on the hands (for counting by fives) and construction paper (for counting by tens).


In addition, you can circle pairs of fingers to demonstrate counting by two.

I leave this up all year to remind them about skip counting.

Calling on Students

To change-up the routine of calling on students with their hands raised, I draw sticks with their assigned student number on them.  The students get excited when I pull these out because it is almost a game to them; if they will be picked or not.  I got these sticks from LakeShore Learning.  I have also seen them at School Aids.

Center Activity Storage

I store all my centers under my desk in gray tubs that I purchased from Wal-Mart.  I store the individual activities in large envelopes or ziplock bags.  (Unfortunately, not everything can fit in the tubs.  I store things like large foam dice, piggy banks, bowling games etc. in my file cabinet.)

I write the skill that the activities are in the tub cover.

Wall of Words

Word Wall

As we learn a new word, it is added to the wall.  This is my wall for ELA words.  I printed the words out, pasted them on red index cards and then laminated them.  

The ABCs are from Mardels.  I added a blue dot to the vowels.  The letter "Y" gets 1/2 a blue dot, since it is sometimes a vowel.

Pictured: Word Wall, Listening Center, Directions for the Listening Center, Computer Center, Dividers for the Computers (I got the foam boards from the Dollar Tree and spray painted them.  This helps with behavior.

Pictured: Close-up of words, notice the blue dots for the vowels

Math Center Tubs

I use the same Center Rotation Chart for Math as ELA.  


The only difference is I will not use the COLOR groups for math so much.  (Remember the COLOR group is the homogeneous group-students with the same abilities, students with similar needs).  


WHY?  With math...the abilities of my students vary with each skill we learn.  So, it is harder to group them because one may understand tally marks, and not addition, but they may understand time etc.  The groups would change everyday.  To fix this dilemma, I will pull random students from each group or I could just pull the whole NUMBER group to the small group table.  It all depends on their needs for that particular day.

Here are pictures of our classroom math area.  On one side of our rolling storage shelves, we have our math tubs.  On the other side, we have our math manipulatives.

ELA Center Tubs

Here is where my students get their ELA Center tubs.  The leader will take the tub to a specific location in the room.

*Pictured Above: Center Crowns, "Think Tub", Center Tubs, Center  Mailboxes)*

Tub with a Sad Face= This is called the "Think Tub".  When a student is not following directions during center time, they must complete an ELA worksheet instead of having the privilege of working on a center activity.  When they finish the sheet, they put it on my desk and return to their center.  Students do not ask me if they can go back to centers (b/c I will be in a small group), they know to do it on their own.
Blue tub that says, "Center Crowns"= This is where we store the crowns for the leaders.  From 9am-10am we have a whole group reading lesson.  At 10am, I pass out crowns to students who were doing an amazing job participating and following direction during that time.  One student will receive a crown for each NUMBER group.  The job of the leader is to get the center tub, pass out supplies and put center tub away.  In addition, they need to monitor the progress and behavior of their group.
Black tubs with pictured labels= Pictured are four of the five center tubs.  Centers: Library, Word Work, Spelling, Reading, Listening (not shown-this tub is in the center location already), and Computers (no tub needed)

Last year, the students kept a"Center Folder" to hold all their center work.  I did not like that because I had to rummage through the desk to get it, work that had glue on it would get all over and the folder would get torn-up quickly.

This year I tried something different and love it!  I got two letter mailboxes from Office Depot.  I numbered the slots, so I wouldn't have to rename the slots every year.  The students put completed center work in their mailbox.  

Flower Pens!

I felt like every time I started the timer to DIBEL a student, I was racing to find a pen.  By putting a basket of FLOWER PENS on my small group table, I always have a pen!

Flower Pens are awesome because you never walk away with them.  Plus, they give the whole area a home-like touch.

How do you make Flower Pens?

1. Get fake flower, green floral tape, pen, hot glue gun, rubber cement (Hobby Lobby)
2. Cut the fake flower so all you have is the top and a small portion of the stem.  You will need this small portion of the stem to attach the flower onto the pen.
3. Position the flower at the top part of the pen and wrap the green floral tape around the flower stem and the pen.  Go over many times for support.  Wrap the green floral tape around the whole pen.  It should be tight.  Leave the ink part showing.
4. For extra durability, I hot glue the top part, where the Flower and Pen meet and the bottom part, where the green floral tape ends.
5. For extra extra durability, I take Rubber Cement and lightly glaze the green floral tape which has been spun around the pen.
6. The green tape will be sticky for awhile, but it will eventually dry.
7. Start writing with your new Flower Pen!

Supplies for Small Group

Supplies I Use in Small Group

These supplies are stored in the canvas bags hanging by Command Hooks on the wall.  I switched over to the hanging bags (over plastic storage drawers) because it was off the floor and out of the way.  

All those canvas bags came in one package at Hobby Lobby.

This bag holds dry erase markers.

This bag holds our Puppet Erasers (You can get them at the Dollar Tree)

This is how you use a Puppet Eraser.  It is perfect for cleaning dry erase boards and the kids love them.  =)

Since I progress monitor at my small group table, I store my progress monitoring books here.

I keep an ABC chart, Blends and Digraphs Chart, Hand Clappers (working with syllables-Dollar Tree) and Pointers (From ReallyGoodStuff or Party City during Halloween season).  We use these fingers to point to the words when we read.