My Favourite Center Activities - Beginning of the Year

Centers are a big part of our day, they keep students occupied while I work with my guided groups. Carefully chosen centers allow students to work on skills taught in guided groups in a fun way.

Here are some of my favourite centers for the beginning of the year.

Make a Pizza
I have a numeral and alphabet versions. The can be found in my Beginning of the Year Centers pack.

In this activity, students make a pizza by matching the ingredients to the pizza base. This is a great way for students to consolidate their matching skills as well build familiarity with numerals and letters.

This is probably one of my most popular games. I even get requests for this game from my fast finishers :)

Clip A Word
Click here to find it on TPT.

In this activity, students pick a card and use pegs to 'clip' the letters that match. This helps with fine motor and letter recognition.

Number Tracing
Click here to find it on TPT.

In this activity, students trace over the numerals with a whiteboard marker. I love this activity because I feel that we spend a lot of time emphasising letter formation that we forget about numeral formation. So working on our numeral formation during guided maths groups is a great way to slip it into our daily routine.

Matching Trains

For this activity, you can use these ten frame trains and unifix cubes. Alternatively, you can use a printed ten frame or an egg carton.

Students match the unifix cubes by colour to create 'passengers' for the train.

Duplo Letters and Numbers
The number cards can be found here and letters can be found here.

These have been a huge hit with my students. They love showing me the letters/numerals that they make :)

ChickaBoom Tweeze

This awesome mat can be found here, from My Fabulous Class.

In this activity, students use tweezers to pick letters and see if it matches the letters on their board. Once again a great activity for matching, fine motor and letter recognition.

Pipe Cleaner Letters and Numbers

In this activity, students use pipe cleaners to make letter and numbers. This activity helps students develop strength in their fingers through manipulating the pipe cleaner.

Pegboard Numbers

These pegboard cards can be found here.

Students use the pins to copy the number onto the pegboard.

Sorting

This is a simple activity that works with anything. All you need is a sorting tray and some tweezers. Students use tweezers to put the objects into groups. Students can sort by colour, shape, size, etc.

Hopefully you have found some inspiration on here. Got any ideas to share? Let me know through email or comment below :)

Enjoy your weekend!

New Term, New Centers!

Tomorrow will be the start of Term 4! For the non-Aussie teachers out there, that means the last 11 weeks of the school year. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone! Feels like just a few months ago it was the start of the year. Yikes!

Centers have been a big part of our daily routine this year. I'm always swapping them around to keep things interesting. Of course, now that it's nearing the end of the year, my kiddos are outgrowing the centers that I've been using. So I spent my holidays making some new centers that focus on the skills that we have been working on. Here are just a few that I'm excited to introduce this week;

Initial Sounds Detective - CVC Edition 

This activity requires students to look at the picture and work out the initial sound. They then write it in the box underneath the picture. The letters will spell out a CVC word. I love this activity because it's a great way to revise initial sounds and practise letter formation. Check it out here.

CVC - Race to Cover

This activity requires students to read a CVC word and see if they have a match on their board. This is a great way for students to practise sounding out. Check it out here.

CVC Clip It!

Students look at the picture, say the word and then clip the correct spelling with a peg. A great way to practise sounding out and develop fine motor skills! Check it out here.

Subtraction Math Centers

Three activities that require students to use subtraction to find the answer. Check it out here.

Domino Math Centers

Dominoes are a great way to incorporate key math skills in the classroom. These are just two out of the three domino activities in my Domino Math Centers pack.

The best part about all of these centers? they don't require too much cutting and there are no fiddly pieces! :)

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Happy teaching!

Robot Themed Alphabet & Number Centers

You know you're a teacher when you see something super cute and think "I can make a ______ activity out of that!".

I had that moment yesterday when I saw this robot jar!

Those "bang!" style games have always been quite popular in my room. What is a "bang!" game? it's where players take turns picking a card our of a container and say what's on their card. If they pull a "bang!" card, then they must put all their cards back. The game continues until all cards have been won.

As soon as I saw this jar, I knew this would be perfect for a "bang!" game :D

I'm on Kindergarten this year, so one of my big focus areas will be on letters, sounds and numbers.

Last night I created an alphabet & numbers pack to go with this jar. I know it's the holidays, but I am still very excited about having my own class again!

As you can see from the pictures, the pack covers;

* Lower case letters
* Uppercase letters
* Numerals
* Number names
* 10's frames

Simply select the cards you want your students to focus on!

The special card is called "Robot Dance". If a player draws this card, they must move their arms like a robot and then put all their cards back in the jar.

The cards also lend themselves to being used as a match game.

 

As the year goes on, I intend on making more cards to go in the jar. For now I am just sticking to the basics. If you would like your own copy, you can get it here at my TPT store by clicking on the picture below. The pack also includes mats that can be used for a Roll, Say & Keep style game. Don't you just love when one resource can be used in multiple ways?

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Stay tuned for more posts and sneak peaks of my latest resources :)