Scott Foresman and Such!

I thought I would share a few things that have made both Scott Foresman's Amazing Words and literacy centers somewhat easier lately.  None of these ideas is all that original or earth shattering BUT I really like the results I am seeing with these centers.  The BEST part is these jobs require NO COPYING and the grading is quick and simple! Woohoo!

I downloaded these rhyming cards from Lana Holzer's blog http://acreativeclassroom.blogspot.com/ and had them laminated.

The kids practiced matching them up to one another and you can see, it got a little silly!



They had to choose their favorite pair...



and write their own rhyming sentences.

This is a bit of a challenge so I tried it with my higher group first.  They worked on this while I Progress Monitored for NWF last Friday.

They did a good job and "got" the concept.  I will do this with my other groups but with more guidance.

She even made up a third line!

I just looked over and saw this and my heart melted.  I have never even shown them the Whisper Phones!  Why, I do not know, especially after I see this!  I love these kids.

Ok, another literacy center that I have incorporated once a week is for the kids to write and illustrate four of  the Amazing Words from our story on a Four Square paper.  I usually have them complete this as a center on Wednesday.  (On Monday, they make a Four Square paper using the letter of the week.)  I am loving their illustrations and the reinforcement it provides for the practice of these words that are often not the words that I would choose as "Amazing" from the story.

They have to read the words to me before they receive an "S".

At the listening center, the children illustrate a picture from the story but I have them write a sight word from that week as practice.  I know they should be writing a sentence about the story they just listened to but I have them writing their little fingers off so I ease up on them at this center!