Finding a format for your literacy centers can be a tricky task. It’s important to have a routine, but it should be individualized to meet your scheduling needs and the academic needs of your students. For my classroom, I really wanted a “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 bundled at a discount HERE!
1. STAMP IT OUT Literacy Center
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 and PICTURES. You can grab the Short-A version of this center below!
FREE Literacy Centers
Get this Short A Sampler Pack from my Literacy Center Start-Up Kit for FREE! It includes stamping activities, word work, phonics poems and more!
If you like it, make sure to grab the full Stamping 25-Week Literacy Bundle!
2. MAKING WORDS Literacy Center
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 “GRUNTS” and “STRUNG”), 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 try a sample of the printable version below! (There is a digital version included in the complete set with pre-made activities in Google Slides and Seesaw.)
FREE Literacy Centers
Get this Short A Sampler Pack from my Literacy Center Start-Up Kit for FREE! It includes stamping activities, word work, phonics poems and more!
There are 25 weeks worth of this center… and don’t worry! There is an answer key so you don’t have to spend time trying to figure them out!
3. WORD WORK Literacy Center
I use additional Word Work activities to help students focus on our phonics pattern of the week. I typically have students start off by looking at the shapes words, which is especially helpful for my visual learners.
I also have students engage in a Cut & Paste activity, which not only helps with spelling, but helps students develop their fine motor and spatial planning skills!
In addition, I always include a word search and other fun activities at the end to provide a little reward for all of their hard work.
You can enjoy a 5-page sampler of this center for Short A below.
FREE Literacy Centers
Get this Short A Sampler Pack from my Literacy Center Start-Up Kit for FREE! It includes stamping activities, word work, phonics poems and more!
If you enjoy it, you can grab 25 weeks (over 130 pages) of Word Work activities for your classroom HERE.
4. POETRY LITERACY CENTER
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 over 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!).
I offer an illustrated version or blank version to my students. They choose the one they prefer, and then are allowed to create a colorful border that matches the theme of the poem, and/or color in the illustration. 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 check out a FREE Short A poem below!
FREE Literacy Centers
Get this Short A Sampler Pack from my Literacy Center Start-Up Kit for FREE! It includes stamping activities, word work, phonics poems and more!
If you’d like to check out the other 30+ poems, you can grab the Entire Poetry Bundle (with a digital version included) by clicking HERE.
5. Describe It! Literacy Center
Describe It is one of those great activities that help 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.
This center is available in my Literacy Center Start-Up Kit! This product not only includes ALL OF THE OTHER PRODUCTS LISTED ABOVE, but it also includes:
- 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!
Oh my goodness I love these ideas!! I will for sure be using in my classroom, thank you for sharing!
You’re so very welcome, Megan!
These are such wonderful ideas! Thank you!
Thank you for your ideas
I can’t find Describe It! with the cube by itself.
Hi Julia,
The Describe It center is a bonus center in my Literacy Center Start-Up Kit. It is not actually available on its own.