Reading Centers with a Checklist

I've received a lot of questions on Instagram about how I run my reading center time in my classroom. I have played around with this precious 45 minutes of time for years. I want my students doing work that is engaging, purposeful, relevant and encourages them to become responsible for their work while giving choice.

This has all led me to my little center checklist. The checklist that I currently use looks like the one you see below. I don't like to tie myself to centers with names because what we do throughout the year changes and I want their centers to grow with students.

When I plan my centers each week, I do try to keep them somewhat consistent. I use the planning template seen below. It's easy, but keeps me focused.

Here is an example of what it looks like filled out digitally. Normally, I just write them down with pencil because I like to be quick and simple! :-)

Here is a break down of how the centers run in my classroom. We will begin with the rotation chart!

When students have the checklist card by their groups name, then they have the choice to pick an activity they would like to complete for the day. They are required to complete one checklist activity per day. They are allowed to do 2, if one doesn't take them too long. They get pretty good at managing their time (another important life skill to learn)!

I introduce the new activities on Monday. Wednesday, I have kids turn in their folders and I do a midweek check up to make sure everyone is getting their work completed. If not, then they get Mrs. Hursh on their tail for the rest of the week. It only takes about 1 week of me nagging a student for them to kick it in gear for the rest of the weeks. ;-)

Here are the centers set up from last week. I'll get to the grading part here soon!

This week students are unscrambling sentences. I don't want to make a million sets of these cards, so I just cut out one sentence, place it in a bucket and write a number at the top. When students visit this center, they grab one bucket, unscramble the sentence and then record the sentence on their activity sheet. When they complete that sentence, they put those cards back, put the bucket back, grab a new bucket and repeat until all sentences are done. The kids don't lose cards this way and they aren't overwhelmed by way too many sentences at one. It helps them focus on just one thing at a time.

 To prep the craft center, I place student supplies in the two bins you see below. If there are little pieces, I just put them in zip lock bags. I make an example craft for students for them to look at while they create their own.

When students complete an activity from their center checklist, they place it in their center folder which also doubles as their 'catch up' folder.

When students finish an activity, they put a check in the box next to the correct center number.

When we first began checklists, I would ask students to circle the one they wanted to complete for the day. This helped them have a focused plan and allowed them to set a goal for themselves. I still do this with some students who have a difficult time getting started. In my mind, this system is a great way for students to be responsible and learn accountability with their work.

On Friday, I collect their folders, take them home and grade them. I place checks by the completed activities on their checklist, staple their papers together and return them on Monday.

Now, we do our two stations every single day. Some students finish by Thursday! I make sure their work is quality work that shows effort and if it is, they're able to make choices during their checklist station. The choices are ones that are still literacy based.

When I introduced the choices to students, I made this anchor chart right along with it so it held meaning. They refer to it often! (The students also love to complete these activities at indoor recess *win, win*).

You can find the activities I use for choices here.

I do not have students turn this work into me. However, they do LOVE to share their sticker stories with the class so we do make time for that at the end of the day once we pack up to go home.

If you would like any of the resources you saw above, you can click on the links below.

Winter Sentence Centers

Editable Word Work Activities

Center Checklist Template & Planning Sheet

Big Book Activity Sheet

Digraph Word Work

Long Vowel/Short Vowel Word Work

Nouns

Candy Cane Craft

If you have any questions about checklists just comment below!!

I have another post about my stations with a checklist that I did a few years ago. It's a little different than I do now, but may give you more ideas!

Just click HERE for that POST!

You may also like these blog posts as well:

Phonics Lessons & Activities

Daily Spelling Practice

Editable Station Checklists

Scavenger Hunt with Words

Classroom Management

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You Think it's Easy Being a Tooth Fairy? - Reading and Writing Unit!

Hey guys! I am so excited to show you a unit series that I've begun simply called, Reading and Writing for First Graders! Each month, I'll be introducing two read alouds to you with full blown reading and writing plans for the week, including 3 literacy stations! 

This unit uses the story, "You Think it's Easy Being a Tooth Fairy?"

I just LOVE this book!!

You'll get full blown, visual lesson plans inside the unit to walk you through how to carry out this unit throughout the week. I kept our busy schedules in mind so pacing for the week was actually manageable!

Inside each unit, you will find a 5 day reading unit that focuses on a particular comprehension concept or skill. This unit, includes activities to help first graders identify who is telling the story. It's a tough concept for our friends to learn, but I've made it very attainable and engaging for the kids!

This unit includes fun matching activities and writing activities to work with identifying who is telling the story!

In each unit, you'll also find something I call, Quick Writes! These focus on general comprehension of the story. These are great discussion starters to use with the book. You can have the kids make their flaps at the beginning of the week, bring their reading journal to the rug for your mini-lesson and as you read the text, you ask them a question. Students can write the response under the flap and you can share! Short, simple and effective!!

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In each unit, you'll also find simple vocabulary activities. Much of the time, you'll find prompts that allow students to make real life connections with the vocabulary from the text they're reading. I think it's so important to teach the vocabulary from the text. 1-the kids gain a deeper understanding of the story. 2-the kids learn to use the words in context which is turn.... does exactly what we want it to do--EXPAND VOCABULARY!! 

Inside each unit, you'll also find a full blown writing unit. You can be as involved with it as you want! I've included everything you need to allow your students to flourish with their narratives. The book I chose for this unit, lends itself perfectly to a narrative about when the students lost their first tooth. 99.8% of firsties have lost a tooth and LOVE to tell their stories!

Here's a look at what the kids final writing would look like! Nice little craftivity and all!

Last, those literacy stations I told you about! Here they are!!

They are designed to allow students to complete independently!

They're included inside the unit so you don't have to go purchase stations to match the theme separately! I like to place 2 in my word work stations and I always use one for a guided reading activity for the week to review a skill!

If you're interested in seeing more of this unit, click here!

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Finding Good Fit Books!

This past week my students worked hard to make sure they filled their book bins with good fit books! We spent all week practicing and reading those good fit books. My kids have quickly fallen in love with read to self and we make sure we get our 15 minutes in each day.

Here is how we learned how to find our good fit books:

First, we read the book, "Goldie Socks and the Three Librarians."
In the book it talks about how Goldie Socks found her good fit book and it just so happened to be the little bears books! As we read the book, we talked about why she kept choosing those books and why she wasn't choosing Mamma or Pappa Bear's books.

After we read the book, I asked the kids to just look through their books today during read to self and think to themselves if they thought their book was or was not a good fit book. After read to self, we closed the lesson with a quick discussion of why some of our books were or were not good fit books.. Some of the kids knew right away that their book was WAY too hard.

On day 2, I introduced this poster to the kids which will hang in our classroom all year.

Then, I modeled how to go through a book using the good fit book test.

Afterwards, the students went back to their seat and looked at the books in their book bin to see if they were good fit books. If they were not, they set them beside their book bin. Afterwards, I spread out the book baskets around the room and the students went shopping for new good fit books!

We then, did read to self and as we were doing it, a kiddo went to our recycle bin (AKA book mark bin), got a marker and wrote a number 5 on the paper. Came up to me and said, "Mrs. Hursh, I made myself a good fit book mark so I never forget to use the good fit book rule." *Happy Teacher Moment.* This sparked an idea for the activity the following day because my kids are always wanting a bookmark *proof they're actually reading*!

 I was going to print and laminate some, but it becomes so much more meaningful & purposeful for the students when they create something themselves.

I modeled how to trace our hand, and place numbers on our fingers. I modeled some fun coloring and then off they went. After students were finished, I laminated their hands so they could use them all year long.

Next week, we'll learn this poem as a beginning of the week refresher! 

I may use it as one of our transition songs too! ;-)

I'd love to hear how you introduce good fit books to your kids too! 

Feel free to comment below!

Grab your freebies from this blog post below!

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Using Checklists During Reading Stations!

Hey all! A small part of my day is when students get to work through their reading checklists, also known as reading station time AKA daily 5, what have it. I'm going to give you a little run down of how I make this time work with my firsties! I absolutely love it! The idea came from Fabulous in First. I took it and just tweaked it to make it work in my own room.

Each week, my students work through a checklist of 6 different stations. Their goal is to finish all stations by Friday. The students have 30-40 minutes each day to work through the stations. They can get them all done, IF they stay on task! ;-)

Here is the checklist that I pass out to my kids each Monday.

I don't make the stations too complicated. I try to keep the type of activities consistent week to week so I don't have to spend a bazillion hours explaining the activity.

The great thing about the checklist is that students get to choose when they do an activity. They love the choice! I was afraid to let go here, but it's been so worth it. The kids are more engaged and on task because they do what they want to do.

One of their favorite stations is the Book Station.

These are little interactive readers that I write to go with our weekly skill or theme.

Last week we were all about Otis and Scarecrows. Our spelling skill was Y sounds like I - so, Mr. Sly Scarecrow it was. When I introduce this station, we do a shared reading of the book and discuss the story elements. Students then work on the book independently to identify sight words and complete a little comprehension activity at the end of the book.

Here is an example of one of the comprehension activities from one of the books called, "The Library Mouse."

The next station activity on the checklist that you see above is what we call Skill Work.

I basically use this station as one where I can really put whatever I feel we need to work on.

One week students reviewed their short vowels, last week students searched for sight words in books and this week students are working on a noun and verb activity. It's super versatile and the name of the station really covers anything!

Another station that the students love to complete is the writing station.

Each week I provide students with prompts and other options to complete at the writing station. The only requirement is that they turn in one piece of writing with their checklist work. They can write a story, pick a prompt or do a writing activity sheet that is at the writing center.

Here is an example of what many students completed last week.

Other students had a story on their mind that they wanted to write instead, so they grabbed a piece of blank paper and got to work! I really don't mind what writing activity they do. As long as they do their best and turn in work that they're proud of!

Another favorite is the Poetry Station! 

I get my poems from Proud to be Primary! 

They make prepping for this station SO easy!!

Each week, I write the poem on a large anchor chart. We work with the poem as a class on a variety of skills. Then, students do the independent poetry work at their poetry station. They fill in the blanks for the poem and glue strips in order. It's great practice for fluency because they really get to read this poem A LOT throughout the week! <3 p="">

An easy peasy one is the listening station.

We use something called, BookFlix. Students get on, choose a book and listen. After they listen, they complete a simple graphic organizer. I don't change the organizers too often. Right now we are on week three of this beginning, middle and end flip flap. I like the keep it the same, just because it encourages independence and limits interruptions when I am trying to do guided reading groups. You can never have too much practice with BME anyway.!

The last station you see on the checklist is word work.

We all basically know how this ones goes. Each week, I slip an activity in the bucket that follows our spelling rule for the week. Sometimes the kids have an activity sheet, sometimes a sort and sometimes a search. Just depends on which idea Mrs. Hursh comes up with for the week! :-)

That's how we do stations in my room. During station time, I call one group over for a 20-25 minute guided reading lesson. I swear by a-z reading. I just love it!

I meet with each group 2-3 days a week.

We get our read to self time in, in the afternoon after our read aloud. Sometimes I incorporate an activity here too. For example, this week we are looking for s blends while we read to self. It really helps with their stamina. We read to self for 15-20 minutes. Just depends when I am done with the guided reading group.

This week after read to self, we are sharing some of the s blend words that we find.

All week long, students keep all of their station work in a blue folder. On Friday, they get it out, I staple it, grade it and return it!

I hope you found this little run down helpful! 

Have a great Monday night!!

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