Here are some of the new activities I have put into our Literacy Work Stations this week:

We now have a Magnet Work Station.  I placed an upper and lower case version of each letter into 2 separate pencil boxes (for 2 children to use).  I also used Microsoft Words’ Word Art to create the children’s names using “bubble letters”.  The children use the outlines to match magnetic letters to their friends names.  I have also included a sheet for “letters with a stick/letters without a stick”, and a general sheet for matching letters to letters (those are all on the PDF page/tab).  

I have decided to put sticky dots on each of the child’s name cards in our large pocket chart to indicate what activity they should work on at a specific station.  For example, in Magnet Station, my lower level students can work on matching letter to letter, the middle level students can match letters to friends names, and the higher level students can sort the letters by attributes.  The sheets will also have a sticky dot on them, so they can match it to their name card.  I hope to individualize more Stations this way in the future–some Stations are good for everyone, so they won’t need to be color coded, but there are several that it would be great for–ABC Work Station, Word Work Station, Library Work Station, Big Book Work Station).

This is the one of the newest activities in Word Work Station.  The children put their friends names back together that have been cut apart, and then write their names on these small dry erase boards that I got this summer at Target in the Dollar Spot.  I have also taken each students picture and printed them out.  After they have assembled their name and written it, they match their friends pictures to their names.  I also added their pictures to the Word Wall.  I hope that my students will stop pointing at each other and start using each other’s names! 🙂  I also think it will be nice for a guest teacher–they can walk into the room and see the children’s names and pictures on the Word Wall and know who is who.

I couldn’t remember if I shared this activity already–it’s a tube with beads and plastic confetti inside.  You rotate the tube and search for a list of things hidden inside.  I have the children search for letters at this point and write down what they find. 

This picture is included to show that if you keep repeating yourself enough–they will finally get it!  Today and this week, the children have really shown that they understand what their job is at their Literacy Stations.  We’ve been slowly getting there, but now there is progress in the right direction! 🙂

This is another new Station-Drama Work Station.  We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and used these props to retell the story.  The children have a copy of the book and one of them reads it while the other puts the props on the flannel board.  They then switch jobs.  They love it so far–I feel another grant coming on: I need to write one to get more props for story retelling and Drama Work Station.

This last picture is of the sweet birthday cake my husband and 4 year old made for my birthday.  Can you tell it’s Elmo?  They used the Elmo cake pan from my son’s birthday a few years ago and iced it with chocolate icing.  My son’s favorite color is yellow and he went to town with the yellow icing! 🙂  When they lit the candles, my hubby was standing by with the fire extinguisher!  🙂  !  How funny!  He said there were so many candles that he might need to stand there and put out a potential fire! 🙂 WAH, WAH, WAH! 

Kristen 🙂