Monday, December 29, 2014

Literacy + Math Workstations: A favorite time of day

Workstation time is one of my favorite times of our school day, and the kids really love it too. This hour is exciting because the kindergarteners pair up with a partner and rotate between ten stations (each pair of kids goes to two stations per day, and then they hit all ten throughout the week). We have seven literacy-related stations, two math-related stations, and one "teacher table" station, where the kids will meet with me to practice reading and math strategies in small groups. 

Without further ado, here are the stations with our learners hard at work!

1. Listening Workstation
At this station, partners listen to a book on tape. When they're done they draw a picture of their favorite part and take it home! Often times they like to revisit familiar books and read them over and over again. A current favorite is I Stink by Kate McMullan.


2. Math Tub Station
Here partners play together with math manipulatives, including pattern blocks, building cubes, geoboards, and other hands-on math items. 


3. ABC Workstation
Here there are three options for activities related to reading and writing. Below is a picture of one game - sorting our names by syllable. When they find a letter, they write it down on their paper until they find them all! This station also includes two other letter games this week.


4. SmartBoard Station
This is always a favorite - a giant touchscreen! I set up the screen to go to our class blog, and they click on "Websites for Kindergarteners" on the righthand side, then choose any of the learning games there.


5. Games & Puzzles Station
Here kids get to pick from letter-, word- and number-related puzzles and board games. This is also a popular choice during free choice time!


6. Library Station
Partners can read books from anywhere in the room, including the classroom library, the big book basket, the poetry chart, and their own book boxes.


7. iPad Station
Our classroom iPad is filled with learning games related to reading, writing, spelling, math and science. This station is also great for learning to take turns, since there is only one tablet and several partners. :)


8. Writing Station
There are several options here, including highlighting sight words in our weekly poems, searching for words hidden around the room, and writing stories.


9. Math Fact Practice
This station is filled with math games that the kids have already learned during math centers. They choose their favorite and play together. The games cover all sorts of math concepts, from number sense to measurement to addition/subtraction later on. Below, this kiddo is playing a memory game where you try to match the numbers to their corresponding ten frame.



10. Teacher Table
Here is where I meet with students to do Guided Reading at their current reading level. We practice phonics skills, sight words, and reading strategies. Most of our readers are currently working on one-to-one correspondence (touching each word as you read it) and using the illustrations and first letter of an unknown word to figure out what it is. The partners above are stretching out words for each other - for example, one partner says "rrr-uh-nnn" and the other says "run." This is called phoneme segmentation, and is an important early literacy skill! Often I use my Teacher Table time to teach a literacy or math game that they can then play on their own at another station.

No comments:

Post a Comment