Books 'R' Us
Listening Center
Computer Center
Author's Studio
Creation Station
Stop, Look and Learn Station
First Mate Interest Center
Fantabulous Friend of the Day Center
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Work Stations that Actually WORK for us!
For a detailed description of each of these Work Stations, see previous post "What's In a Name?"
Books 'R' Us
Listening Center
Computer Center
Creation Station
Stop, Look and Learn Station
First Mate Interest Center
Fantabulous Friend of the Day Center
Books 'R' Us
Listening Center
Computer Center
Creation Station
Stop, Look and Learn Station
First Mate Interest Center
Fantabulous Friend of the Day Center
Monday, May 25, 2009
What's in a Name?
As I endeavored to create a classroom environment that was more learner-centered, one of my wishes was to allow the children to name the literacy work stations (or learning centers). I also involved the children in creating the norms for each center - the "can do's" and "can't do's" that would make each area a fun yet productive place to learn. After much discussion and debate (and finally, a decision by the kids to "take a vote"), here are the names the children came up with:
Books-R-Us - Reading Center to read and write about books, including an "I Recommend It" station where children create posters to advertise books they think others would enjoy.
Listening Center - your typical station with books on CD and tape, also including response pages for children to do some written comprehension work.
Word Factory - word work area for working with weekly sight words, featuring our Word Wall and including activities with letter stamps, alphabetical order practice pages, sentence writing sheets, ABC books, vowel/consonant work, sight word Bingo games, and more.
Word Factory # 2 - space for one child at a time to build weekly sight words with magnetic letters, write them and "butter" them - featuring clipboards and highlighters - a favorite!
Author's Studio - "writing center" with small and large blank books, including optional extra pages by popular demand; lined paper; blank paper; note paper/cards; seasonal writing paper; graphic organizers; editing checklists and whisper phones. This center also featured a class-created poster (Debbie Diller-style) on which children shared their writing topic ideas.
Creation Station - "art center" with weekly projects to offer fun, creative opportunities to practice tracing, cutting, coloring, drawing, and other fine motor skills. Many projects arise out of children's ideas/inspirations..."can we do this in the Creation Station next week?"
Computer Center - well, nothing creative about the name, but it is a popular place for children to use their techie skills to utilize a variety of ELA/Math/Science skills. A great feature is that I came up with a way to make many of the monthly activities available for children to access at home via the use of our class webpage. See Computer Center link here to get an idea of how this worked.
SmartBoard Center - opportunity for children to practice concepts in a variety of areas including word work, math, science, and more while honing their skills with Mr. Smart Board.
Read the Room - pointers, clipboards, and scavenger hunt-type pages for children to find words around the room. This area could also have been called "Write the Room" as the recording sheets required a lot of writing. For some of the year, by children's request, we also featured Word Family Hunts for children to search for word from particular word families we had worked with.
Stop, Look and Learn Station - an area that made good use of what would have been wasted space - the bottom half of the front of our classroom door -- each week a new instructional poster was featured, usually tied to our current science or social studies focus. Children took "research notes" using the information on the poster to share with the class. An added bonus of this center was that its location aloowed it to also be utilized by children in adjacent classrooms!
"First Mate" Interest Center - this area was a space that was dedicated to our Student of the Week (we called him/her the "First Mate"). Each child had an opportunity to teach the class about a topic of his/her interest. After presenting the topic to the class, the First Mate placed posters, artifacts, books, etc. in the Interest Center for the week. Children had the opportunity to visit teh center to do further "research" on the topic of the week. During the last several weeks of school, this area turned into the Fantabulous Friend of the Day center. Each child had a turn to be the Friend of the Day. On the given day, each child brought in a Mystery Bag Show and Tell item and provided clues. Throughout the day children visited the center to record their guesses based on that day's clues. Children could also create compliment posters to present to the Friend of the Day.
Stay tuned for a future post with photgraphs of each of the Work Stations!
Books-R-Us - Reading Center to read and write about books, including an "I Recommend It" station where children create posters to advertise books they think others would enjoy.
Listening Center - your typical station with books on CD and tape, also including response pages for children to do some written comprehension work.
Word Factory - word work area for working with weekly sight words, featuring our Word Wall and including activities with letter stamps, alphabetical order practice pages, sentence writing sheets, ABC books, vowel/consonant work, sight word Bingo games, and more.
Word Factory # 2 - space for one child at a time to build weekly sight words with magnetic letters, write them and "butter" them - featuring clipboards and highlighters - a favorite!
Author's Studio - "writing center" with small and large blank books, including optional extra pages by popular demand; lined paper; blank paper; note paper/cards; seasonal writing paper; graphic organizers; editing checklists and whisper phones. This center also featured a class-created poster (Debbie Diller-style) on which children shared their writing topic ideas.
Creation Station - "art center" with weekly projects to offer fun, creative opportunities to practice tracing, cutting, coloring, drawing, and other fine motor skills. Many projects arise out of children's ideas/inspirations..."can we do this in the Creation Station next week?"
Computer Center - well, nothing creative about the name, but it is a popular place for children to use their techie skills to utilize a variety of ELA/Math/Science skills. A great feature is that I came up with a way to make many of the monthly activities available for children to access at home via the use of our class webpage. See Computer Center link here to get an idea of how this worked.
SmartBoard Center - opportunity for children to practice concepts in a variety of areas including word work, math, science, and more while honing their skills with Mr. Smart Board.
Read the Room - pointers, clipboards, and scavenger hunt-type pages for children to find words around the room. This area could also have been called "Write the Room" as the recording sheets required a lot of writing. For some of the year, by children's request, we also featured Word Family Hunts for children to search for word from particular word families we had worked with.
Stop, Look and Learn Station - an area that made good use of what would have been wasted space - the bottom half of the front of our classroom door -- each week a new instructional poster was featured, usually tied to our current science or social studies focus. Children took "research notes" using the information on the poster to share with the class. An added bonus of this center was that its location aloowed it to also be utilized by children in adjacent classrooms!
"First Mate" Interest Center - this area was a space that was dedicated to our Student of the Week (we called him/her the "First Mate"). Each child had an opportunity to teach the class about a topic of his/her interest. After presenting the topic to the class, the First Mate placed posters, artifacts, books, etc. in the Interest Center for the week. Children had the opportunity to visit teh center to do further "research" on the topic of the week. During the last several weeks of school, this area turned into the Fantabulous Friend of the Day center. Each child had a turn to be the Friend of the Day. On the given day, each child brought in a Mystery Bag Show and Tell item and provided clues. Throughout the day children visited the center to record their guesses based on that day's clues. Children could also create compliment posters to present to the Friend of the Day.
Stay tuned for a future post with photgraphs of each of the Work Stations!
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