My weekly centers in pictures

This past weekend, I spent all of Sunday working in my classroom. I cleaned, made copies, and organized centers. My week has gone SO MUCH SMOOTHLY as a result! I thought I'd share some of the centers that we've been doing this week. The kids had gotten bored with centers lately, so I decided to spice it up a bit. They have loved it and have worked so much harder. :) It's been a great week. A snow day tomorrow would just be icing on the cake!!!

I don't know about y'all, but I have a hard time finding passages that are short enough for my first graders (especially my strugglers) to read quickly and comprehend enough to fill out a graphic organizer about what they just read. I wrote these passages and made sure the kids could identify the four parts of SWBS. They have done GREAT with this! It's really helping with understanding plot.

This graphic organizer is included in my comprehension pack. My boys and girls this year have understood main idea more than any other group I've ever had. Isn't it funny how some groups really "get" a skill while other groups struggle with it. 

I found these skill word cards over on Little Book Lane. I had my kids pick a word and write a story about the picture that the card had on it. This is helping with their writing and practicing our sound skills at the same time!

This has been my favorite center this week. The story is a decodable reader from last week. The kids have to highlight the compound words (which was the skill from last week), write them in the box below and then flip over to the back.

On the back are comprehension questions and a small box for illustrating the story. Not only does this reinforce phonics, but helps with comprehension!

I didn't do good taking pictures of this center, but I did want to share it with y'all. Aren't these masks adorable?? I found them in the dollar section (what?!?) at Michaels. I created monster sight word cards that the kids practice while wearing the masks. Love it!

My kids actually gave me the idea for this next center (I originally learned this center from Kacey at Doodle Bugs, but my kids helped me remember it) . Last week in our independent/buddy reading center I noticed my kids had been taking a few word cards and hiding them around the back corner. Another student would find them and if they said the word correctly, they got to keep it. They just had the best time with this, so I decided to take cards, hide them around the room, and have a student try and find them all. I LOVE that it gets them up and moving.

I also remember to snap a picture of the focus board in action. This is not my original focus board, but me being the nut I am, changed it sometime in November. It works so much better now! 

 We have been working so hard on understanding plot! SWBS is helping! I'll share some activities with this skill later on in the week.