Kindergarten Literacy Center Ideas

Kindergarten Literacy Center Ideas {Beginning of the Year Edition}

Kindergarten Literacy Center Ideas for the beginning of the year:  Stations are something *All* Kinder teachers are in search of…why?  Well, simply put, literacy stations for Kindergarten at the beginning of they year can be, let’s say, difficult (and that’s putting it mildly).  The kids are confused.  The teacher is exhausted answering the same questions over and over…and it’s a little like herding cats {to be honest}.

 I’ve been in school for over 30  days and my stations have definitely changed, evolved, and become more “rigorous” but these are pictures I took during the first week and thought it might be fun to take a peek into my classroom during those crucial first couple of weeks when establishing routines takes precedence over almost everything else.

Below is what I came up with for my rotation board.  I am utilizing my Smart Board to save space on my walls.  It’s saved in Powerpoint and I have a different slide for each day of the week.  This is Monday’s slide…and each day the plain color crayons move down one space. So for Tuesday, red group will be going to Word Work, Orange to Letters and Sounds, Yellow to Writing, Green to Listening, and Blue to the loft.  The crayons with their pictures on the side stays the same, it is just to remind them which color group they are in.  I added a clearer version of the screen in the corner of the picture to help you if you can’t see exactly what’s going on with the poor lighting on the board.

Word Work

One of the first things I started using was the visual discrimination pack from Primary Press {HERE} with my newly created rice sensory tub!  Get directions to dye your own rice {HERE}.  It so much easier than I thought it would be!!  In addition to the sensory tub, I have color word matching popsicle sticks and upper and lowercase letter matching games.

The caterpillar below is a FREEBIE from my TpT shop {HERE}

I am using the following little digital frame that’s a FREEBIE from Bonnie Kathryn {HERE}.  It rotates sight words and later on I plan to add a cute little recording page to go with it.  For now, they try to read the words or name the letters.

Letters and Sounds

This station is typically packed with activities, but at the beginning of the year, I add only a limited amount to help not overwhelm them.

The above is a freebie from Pocket Full of Kinders {HERE} and below is a great activity for fine motor/ABC practice by Doodlebugs Teaching {HERE}

Below is a game by Scrabble called {Scrabble Alphabet Scoop} I found on Amazon.

I also use these from my TpT shop {HERE}

Here’s a pic of my sight word labeling pack {HERE} in action:

Read to Self

Writing Station

I LOVE my {Boogie Board Writing Tablet,} and so do my students!  They are less than $25 each and make writing FUN =)

I introduced my Labeling Pack for Beginning Sounds.  It is recently UPDATED and perfect for the beginning of the year initial sound fluency practice.

You can find the Labeling for Beginning Sounds Pack {HERE} in my TpT shop! I am loving the updates I made to the graphics.  If you already own it, be sure to download again.                        Another thing I added for a quick activity is a stack of index cards and smelly markers and crayons.  The kids LOVE to write on the cards without having a ton of space to fill up!

Listening Station

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour of my beginning of the year literacy centers!  Do you have any links or things you can’t live without when it comes to stations?  Leave a comment below for me if there is something you can’t live without {as I’m trying to get back into the swing of Kinder again}! =)

I hd some requests for my order cards shown here:

You can find Order Cards on google drive.