What Happened to the Turkeys?

What?  It's turkey time.... so why the frog?

Some of my fantastic followers asked me to do a "generic" beginning/ending sound literacy station.  In this station the children take a mat, then place a picture in the middle of the mat...where the cute frog is. Isn't it adorable? You can use your own foam letters or use the ones I made for you to place on the mat.  The beginning sound goes to the left of the frog and the ending sound to the right.  Bonus:  3 different recording sheets!  I think you will be able to use this station for awhile! :) 
If you download, please leave a comment and thank you for following me!  Just click on the pic to download.  Graphics: Scrappin Doodles!

Bat Wings and Rhyming Things!

I love Halloween!  At my school we are not allowed to have Halloween "stuff" but we do a nocturnal animal unit and a pumpkin unit around this time of year. So, that sort of makes up for not being able to have Halloween things up.

I still have little ones who have difficulty rhyming.  I made this bat rhyming sort for one of my guided reading groups.  First, we are going to read, 5 Little Bats together, discuss what a rhyming word is and then circle the rhyming words in the poem. I have the poem below for you. I like using this poem because it integrates great with our math standards.  Then, I'm going to get my little ones to help me sort the rhyming, not rhyming bats in the pocket chart.  Later, I will put the trees and the bats in a literacy station along with the recording sheet.

If you would like a copy just click on the picture at the top of this post.  Please think about joining me on my blog!  And of course you know bloggers love comments!

Please join us on Monday at Our Gang for treats and maybe a trick or two!  All you have to do is find My Gang button on the right side of my blog to go there.  I think you will really enjoy all the fun you will have!

Literacy Centers--I Love Choice!

So many of you have asked how do I manage my literacy stations.... See the library pockets and colored popsicle sticks?  .... This is my management board.  Yes.. this is the way I have done it for years!  It works for me and my children!  Every year I glue then laminate library pockets to a poster board.  Add the children's names and different colored popsicle sticks in the pockets and voila choice! I write the children's names on each popsicle stick so that I know who is in each station.  I love giving my children choice to go the station  they choose to work in each day.  After reading workshop, my children go pull the popsicle stick that matches the color of the station.   For example, the blue popsicle stick is for the listening station.

Do you see the blue tote and cup?.... That is where the popsicle stick goes.  This one is easy for the children to determine only 2 children can go here daily because there are only 2 places ...  On some totes and cups I have placed a number for the places available.

Here is my alphabet station.... It is orange and the children know that 2 children can go here because I have it written on the cup inside the tote.  Believe it or not the children learn the number of children very quickly.  This station is on a cart and the children push to a table.... teeny tiny room ... but it works! 

Here is the green station... this week the children are working with alphabet mats from Kindergarten Works.... They get to use play dough and alphabet cookie cutters.  They splat the play dough on the mat and then use the correct alphabet cookie cutter to cut out the correct letter.  They are loving this station!  Again there are 3 places here so 3 children can choose this station.

At the end of literacy stations, the stick collector places all the sticks in a cup. We keep the sticks in this cup until Friday. The children have to make a different choice  each day.  Then on Friday, we place all their sticks back in their library pockets for Monday!   I have about 9-10 different stations and change them out as needed.  Some of the stations, I change out weekly. 

Here is another picture of the pockets and sticks....

 Hope you enjoyed.... Do you give your children choice during stations?  Please leave a comment below... I would love to know how you do your stations!