The photos and ideas on the following pages are examples of kindergarten literacy activities from my classroom and from Internet chatboards. The photos may take a few minutes to load.

Updated 7-28-05

Photos of Centers

Independent reading (using a phonics phone keeps voices lower)

Writing the room

Use letter and picture stamps for letter recognition and letter/sound match activities.

Reading the room

Matching words in a pocket chart poem

Using letter cubes (from Lakeshore Products) to match pictures to initial sounds or spell word family words

Use magnetic letters to spell words

Dry erase markers (or vis a vis markers) can be used to write on the overhead projector screen

Making concentration games to play and take home for additional practice

Arranging cut up sentences in order (sentences are color coded) and then copying the sentences

Using letter stamps and markers to make cards or messages for classmates

Make individual books for home reading. An excellent source  for book ideas is Kim's Kid-Made books at: http://www.kindernetonline.com/misc.html

Use story props and a flannel board to retell a story. Many story props can be found at:

http://www.littlegiraffes.com/storyprops1.html

Write the room

Use rubberbands to make alphabet letters on geoboards.

Word family puzzles can be printed out at:

http://teachers.santee.k12.ca.us/carl/word_way.htm

Put small manipulatives beginning with 2 or 3 alphabet letters and foam or plastic alphabet letters in a tub (this is dried oatmeal).

The students find all of the letters and items buried in the tub and then sort them by letter and beginning sound.

This is one of the Evan Moor Take It To Your Seat Literacy Centers. (They come colored and ready to go except for cutting and putting in a bag or envelope.) At this center, the girl is sorting words on to cards by word families.

If the words are sorted correctly, they can be made into a puzzle, as this picture shows.

Use velcro-backed numerals to practice phone number recognition or to copy numbers from a class phone book.

This Lakeshore Learning set is used to sort pictures by word families.

Use letter cubes to spell words from different word families.

Use story pieces to retell a favorite story--this one's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.