Subtraction – chocolate! Get a bag of chocolate chips and give each child a certain number – say, 10. Then tell them, “Eat 3 chocolate chips. How many are left? 7! So 10-3=7!”

For reading, find one of those books that have a page for each letter of the alphabet. The cihldren will work together to find the page for each group member – “Let’s find [and read] page M for Maddy!” This uses teamwork, letter redognition, and reading.

Good luck!

1-library -this is where i keep all my books that are organized by theme. Students can browse /read what they like. I also keep lots of brochures I pick up when traveling. They are usually too hard to read but the students LOVE looking and trying.

2-read the room- I provide the students with pointers and allow them to walk around the room and read environmental print

3-write the room- I provide a clipboard and the students go around the room looking for a particular skill like for example short a words

4-big book- any big books we have already read together are stored here with pointers for the students to reread

5- computer- I allow the kids to use educational games/software. Check with your district on what is available. Starfall.com is a great free site to check out

6-listening- books on tape that usually relate to what we are reading/talking about in class -books can/should be above their reading level b/c they are listening

7-letter and word- this center changes quite a bit through out the year- in the beginning it has “stuff” to practice letters and high frequency words

8- games- this center is a place for educational games- I use puzzles and file folder games here too!

9-overhead- After we have viewed/read an overhead together I leave them there for the kids to practice reading. Again…I give them pointers

10-book tubs- Here I have one book tub for each reading group. THe books are organized by reading level and the students sit on a special rug and read from their tub. They may read to the other person who is there with them or independently.

11- pocket chart- I have a pocket chart hanging on a door and it has games where they have to match or poems/stories written on sentence strips they must sequence or words from a sentence they must put in order.

12- writing- this center changes a lot during the year- my favorite is when we are learning to write a friendly letter and I put out all kinds of letter writing materials and stationary and a mailbox. The students can write each other letters and we deliver them once a week.

13- poetry- after I teach a poem it goes here for them to practice reading with …you named it pointers. I also have the poem printed on a half sheet of paper. They glue it in their poetry notebook and illustrate it! THey LOVE this!

14- leap frog- I have a few different leapfrog things I put out during the year for the kids to use. Word Whammer, Phonics thing and this thing with the letters I don’t remember what they are all called.

I use lots of pointers as you see. The cheapest way to get these are 1- use the pencils that have an oversized eraser glued to the end or 2 – get a whole bunch of chopsticks…dip the end in glue and then in glitter.

Make dominoes for matching, clock faces, ice cream cones and scoops for adding.

For language arts, make a word wall with age appropriate words, words with long and short vowel sounds, words with letters missing that must be replaces to form a correct word, wheel of fortune word wheel, jeopardy word game: students find the meaning and match it with the correct word, jumbled spelling word cards, word cards for I spy game. In your writing center, place paper, crayons, pencils for free writing, drawing, making personal books, etc. Make charts showing words that describe, do, name etc.

For reading, glue pictures on a card, write simple sentences relating to picture for students to read, picture cards for students to describe , age appropriate reading books, a large picture with labels, simple sentence strips cut into single words for putting together. Use a computer to print the words and laminate them, they will tolerate the wear and tear. I hope this helps.

Good luck

http://oxbow.concord.k12.in.us/firstgrade_files/firstgrade.htm

http://www.ridgefield.org/branchville/grade1/g1_team.htm

http://www.firstgradekit.com/

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/learningcenter/main.htm

On line activities:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/month2month.htm

These should help – good luck