Monday, January 16, 2012

Literacy Center/Adventure at Dollar Tree!

I LOVE the Dollar Tree! I loved them even before they created their teacher section, but now that they have, it's my guilty indulgence! I am trying to be more creative in my literacy centers, so I went looking for inspiration yesterday. This is what I came up with!

Since I have multiple levels in my classroom (from Primer to 4th!), I need to make differentiated centers. We have been working on plural nouns, so that is the focus when I introduce it this week.

I used the blue blocks for alphabet letters, red for blends and digraphs at the beginnings of words, green for vowel combinations, and orange for endings. In hindsight, I'm wondering if I should have taken the "Boggle" approach and put different letters on each block instead of the same on all 6 sides. Oh well! That could be another project for another day! :) I've stored the extras in a pencil pouch I also picked up at the Dollar Tree, so the total cost of the project was:
blocks (2 pouches) $1.00 each
egg container $1.00
pencil pouch $1.00

Not too bad for $4.00!!!!

Students will write on dry erase boards the words they have created and show to me by the end of centers OR take a picture with the digital camera (depending on how crazy it gets in our room!). I thought about doing a cute template, but realize that's a lot of paper, and in our class, we're trying to conserve (we recycle all paper and plastic bottles, which I take every couple of weeks to our local transfer station!).

I'll post more as I create them! Got to love Pinterest - it's taken me beyond the traditional centers (and granted, some of them are great and I'm still using them!) and has helped me "spread my wings."

4 comments:

Tammy said...

Welcome to the world of blogging! Looks like I'm your 1st follower. :)
Tammy
Forever in First

Mrs. Youel said...

Thanks Tammy! :) I've been doing a blog for the last couple of years that's been strictly for parents, but have been inspired to create one to share with teachers, after seeing the HUGE amount of great stuff that's out there! :)

Kimberly said...

I am your newest follower. I LOVE going to the Dollar Tree. I always find super cute items for cheap!

Would love it if you checked out my blog.

www.loveofteachingkimberly.blogspot.com

Mrs. Youel said...

Thanks Kimberly! I will definitely head there now :)

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