Independent Centers are ready Week 4. I promise. We are starting centers this week in my school.  We don’t start until after Labor Day, so we are only in Week 4.  

Our kindergarten teachers have worked hard this week to prepare their students for a rotation of 10 centers over 5 days.

Looking at the header picture, you can see the center rotation chart and the lesson plans for the week. The class is divided into 5 groups (gray mice, brown bears, red birds, orange foxes, and brown owls).  

Each group will have 2 centers to complete daily and 10 centers to complete during small group instruction this week. At the beginning of center time each day, the teacher will move the group pictures to the right one spot.

Independent Centers: Gray Mice

Listening Center is a center that will build as the month progresses.  

This book has been shared in the classroom, so this is a second listen.  

After listening quietly, students will get a folded sheet of manila paper and create the cover of their booklet.  

They will write the title and illustrate their cover.  They will use this book for 4 weeks with new directions each week to include characters, setting, and a personal evaluation.

For a full explanation of listening centers, click the link to a post Listen Up! Listening Center Can Be Great.

Students need lots and lots and LOTS of practice with word wall words, writing sentences, and reading predictable text.  This writing activity combines all 3.  

After the Listening Center, students will progress to the Writing Center.  Here they will use a copy of Configuration Box predictable text and a reduced by 50% sound chart to create repetitive sentences. 

Students write the sentences paying attention to penmanship and glue a picture from the sound chart at the end. These sentences can be easily “read” by even the most novice of readers.  

This center will remain for the next few weeks.  Each week a new predictable sentence containing newly introduced word wall words will be substituted in the center.

Independent Centers: Brown Bears

At the ABC Center, students will get a bag of letter tiles and a sound chart.  

Students will use the sound chart to match tiles containing capital/uppercase letters.  

This activity will be repeated next week using lowercase letters and the following week using both capital/uppercase and lowercase.

The Rhyming Center will last a few weeks, as well.  

Using the rhyme puzzles (either purchased or teacher-made), the teacher has put 4 sets of rhyming puzzles in a resealable bag.  

Students will take a bag and a paper.  Students will put the puzzles together (which does not show if they can rhyme), and choose one pair to write and illustrate.

Independent Centers: Red Birds

We provide practice time for math, science, and social studies during center time.

Typically, these centers are a practice of the skills taught the week prior.

The math objective for the next few weeks is sorting.

This week students will have a resealable bag of attribute blocks and a manila paper divided into three colors on a sort mat.  

Next week, students will be given new mats with size sorting columns and the following week, the mat will be divided by shape.

As a great companion to the Math Center, the Word Wall Word will be a dice game.  Students will roll the dice and write the word wall word a rectangle on the corresponding column, building a column from the bottom to the top.  Students will continue to roll and write until a column is full.

Independent Centers: Orange Foxes

The Art Center is still a viable center, even in the times of test, test, test.  

We make the art relate to the Shared Reading from the previous week.  

Students will build a bus with the shapes provided and affix a copy of the poem to the art work.  

They are asked to read the poem to a friend and to the teacher, teacher assistant, or parent volunteer.  

This center is consistently related to the Shared Reading the week before.

The Poetry Center is a companion center to the Art Center.   We have all the shared poems copied in a Poetry Folder.

Students will find the poem of the week, circle the word wall words (from a model at first) and color the words yellow.  They will illustrate the poem.  This is truly one of the independent centers that is a process/product method.

Finally, they will read the poem to a friend first, then the teacher, teacher assistant, or parent volunteer. This center can also be used as independent reading practice for kindergartners.

Independent Centers: Brown Owls

The Science/Social Studies Center is always related to the lessons from the week before.  

Students have been discussing their 5 senses.  

This week in the center, students will make a flip book to match the body part associated with the sense and an object that can demonstrate this sense.

Students will work cooperatively to create floor puzzles.  

Social skills, cooperative skills, and part-to-whole skills are demonstrated and practiced.

That’s it.  Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. Independent centers can be done early. Don’t waste time.

Sample Week 4 Centers in Kindergarten, click the link.

Check back to see how it went and what future plans are.  Have a great week.