Well, this blog has been ready to post since about 7 pm tonight, but thanks to our awesome friends at Comcast…it’s just now getting fixed. 30 minutes on hold. 20 minutes with no solution. No technician until Monday. um, yeah. And then, BAM it works. Hey Comcast, you really do need to get it together. That is all.
Now I can share two fun centers my monsters have been enjoying the past two weeks. They are simple, cheap (really free if you have a few basic items) and engaging!
Center Numero Uno! You’re going to want to steal borrow beg for some of those beautiful paint sticks from Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot! Wal-Mart gave me a bunch (trick: grab a giant handful and go through a check out lane with a younger employee…they don’t care!) for free! Just ask…use tears…
And then you can create this sentence writing center!
I found this idea somewhere 4 years ago when I was moved to kindergarten. I have no clue where I found the idea…but thanks for the inspiration!! It was before Pinterest so who knows where it came from!
I simply wrote sight word based sentence starters or sentence frames on the paint sticks. I made sure to leave a blank space at the end and included punctuation marks.
I made copies of tons of these picture cards of animals, food, toys, things, places, people…you name it! The students choose a stick and a picture. They use the picture to complete the sentence. They read the sentence and write the sentence.
And yes, they will be silly and funny sentences. Yes the monsters giggle and crack up. That’s the beauty of the center. They laugh, they learn, they read, they write…all while having a good time. Common Core is fun! And engaging!
I whipped up this little freebie for you! A recording sheet and some colorful picture cards to use with your legally obtained paint sticks!
Just click the picture for your freebie!
Center NUMERO DOS!
Got dice? Got stamp pads? Then you’ve got the ingredients for a fun addition center!
This is a messy center so you know I love it. Messy=success!
Students roll the dice and stamp the dice on their paper. When they press it into the ink they need to make sure the dice is covered with ink. They press the dice onto their paper and it leaves a nice stamp of the dice face! They write the number sentence and add.
Tip: use the dice that are more square as opposed to rounded! The more ink on the dice the better!
Here is a free recording sheet for you!
