May Literacy Menu posted!

I finally finished my May centers and I’m so happy with them! I added 4 extra centers (one in each column) because my kids are getting so good at centers and May is always extra long! (I know some of you get out of school in May, but I get out in June, so May is super long.) So there are 20 centers in all.

Here is the student menu:

2 separate versions of Read, Think, Match

clipart by thistlegirldesigns

Rebuild a Poem (with an original poem):

Students put a poem back together using sentence strips in a pocket chart.

Fact and Opinion:

Sorting mats, sentences for students to sort, student sheet

frames by 3am Teacher

clipart by scrappindoodles

Read and Sequence:

2 versions to choose from

Read and Comprehend (students read the passage and answer questions)

frames by Miss Tina

Expand a Word: add prefixes and suffixes to a base word to make new words

frame by kpm doodles

How Many E’s: sorting long and short e words

Sunshine Words: matching onset with word ending to make real words

Syllable Sort: (my favorite)

Students will read the word on the frog and place it on the correct pond, depending on how many syllables it has.

clip art by kpm doodles

Sounds of C: sorting soft and hard c

frame (on left) by 3am teacher; frame on right: Miss Tina

Sticker Story

Be an Author: Spring Fun (book with illustrations for students to write)

Middle frame by Miss Tina; Yellow frame by KPM doodles

Book Report and What I Know (nonfiction writing)

Sequence and Write:

2 Versions: Trip to the zoo and field trip

Sentence Fillers: adding adjectives and verbs to sentences

Sentence Scramblers: 4 included

Super Sentence: Build a super sentence (words color-coordinated with super sentence mat)

Roll A sentence: 3 dice to make a sentence

frame by scrappincop

Word Endings: add -er, -est, -ed, -ing to words to make a sentence sound right.

frame by ginger snaps

Rubric for the end of the month

You can get this at my TPT store.

To view an older post about my literacy centers and reader’s workshop, click here.

I’d love to hear from you, especially if you use these! 🙂

Writing Rubric for the end of the year »

Sarah's First Grade Snippets

3 days ago

Happy Earth Day! 🌎 ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

2 weeks ago

Spring has sprung… not springed 🌷Ever wonder why? English actually uses two main ways to show past tense:🌸 Add -ed (regular/“weak” verbs): walk → walked🌸 Change the vowel (often called irregular or “strong” verbs): run → ran These vowel-changing verbs go all the way back to Old English and many of them still follow patterns.In our teaching, we call these “power verbs” 💪 because they change from the inside instead of just adding -ed.We ntroduce Power Verbs right away with cvc words: run → ran, sit → satThen we revisit with -ng / -nk words:sing → sang → sungAfter that, reinforce as new phonics skills are introducedYou can even keep a running list or poster so students can see the pattern. If you want this done for you, we include explicit lessons + posters inside our K–2 curriculum.Comment POWER and I’ll send details!#logosliteracyacademy ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

3 weeks ago

Happy Schwa Day! Thanks to Yvette Manns for making this a day to celebrate. The schwa sound is one of the biggest challenges for our developing readers. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t give them tools to make it easier for them! Swipe to see some ideas. The biggest take away? We need our student to be aware of the schwa and then teach them to be flexible with those vowels sounds. Want to go deeper into how to teach this (with examples and routines you can use right away)? Obviously, today isn’t the only day to teach the schwa. It’s impossible to avoid the schwa so we want to teach it early and often! Comment “SCHWA” to get links to a blog post and some other resources. And visit then official website of National Schwa Day to snag some FREE resources created by Yvette Manns 🙌🏼 ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

3 weeks ago

BREAKING: English spelling is being completely simplified next year…Everything will finally match how it sounds. No more tricky patterns. No more confusing spellings.April Fools 😉 It seems like that would make things easier, BUT English was never designed to be purely phonetic. It carries meaning across words, even when pronunciation shifts.English isn’t broken… it’s built from meaningful parts and has a rich history. When we look beyond sound and start noticing structure, spelling starts to make sense. We want to guide you in seeing that structure, so you can help your students make sense of spelling in a deeper, more lasting way.Comment “learn” if you’re interested in joining our community to learn with us! ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

4 weeks ago

There is more to spelling than how a word sounds.We must train our students to always use meaning as an anchor. Because meaning can lead us to structure which can help with spelling. There are endless examples of this, but this one is an obvious one. Think about the word blocks. It sounds like “blox”. I remember years ago this realization set in when my whole small group of students spelled “rocks” like “rox” during dictation. We had been working on <ck> and they were nailing it… until I added in suffixes. One of my students made a great point, saying, “But it’s just like ‘box’!” I remember that I almost just gave them the answer, “But this has a suffix -s.” But instead we turned to meaning. Let’s go back to our example here. We need to make sure we use the word in a sentence so they can activate the meaning. When we say “blocks”, what do you picture? What are blocks? “More than one block”, right? Now we know what we’re trying to spell.That leads to:✔ the base: block✔ the structure: short vowel + /k/ → ck✔ the correct spelling: blocksSo here’s what you want to take away from this:Meaning leads to structure.Structure supports accurate spelling.Comment MEANING if you want to learn more about how to incorporate morphology into your curriculum. #logosliteracyacademy #scienceofreading #structuredliteracy ... See MoreSee Less

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