In my kindergarten class I do literacy stations. I have done literacy stations for the past eight years. I have tweaked them, tried different methods, and I finally feel like my literacy stations are truly successful!
The first thing to do when setting up literacy stations is to ask yourself a few important questions?
How many stations will you have?
Will you do your stations in one day?
How will you group your students?
What will you include in your stations?
How many students will be in each group?
Will you group your students by ability?
What do you hope to accomplish?
How will you manage stations and transitions?
These are all important questions and hopefully I can help you answer them
by sharing how I do my Literacy Stations.
How Many Stations?
I do 6 stations.
3 each day. 15 minutes a station.
I do the same stations on Monday/Tuesday.
And new stations Wednesday/Thursday.
A little more detail...
I plan six stations for Monday and Tuesday.
We do 1, 2, & 3 on Monday and 4, 5, & 6 on Tuesday.
I plan six different stations for Wednesday & Thursday.
We do 1, 2, & 3 on Wednesday and 4, 5, & 6 on Thursday.
I have station cards that I use to help my students rotate through the stations.
Here is a picture of the front side and the back side of the cards.
I am a very visual person. So most things in my room are visual and color coordinated.
Above each table is a pom pom that coordinates with the color station.
Although my stations change every 2 days, each color station has a specific teaching point.
Purple - computer
Orange - Teacher Table/Guided Reading
Blue - Writing activity/monthly theme (classroom assistant)
Red - iPads (differentiated apps)
Green - Listening station
Yellow - Sight words
Breakdown of Stations
Purple
The purple station is the computer station. At the computer station we either do an alphabet website
such as StarFall or ABCya or a computer program that we have at school called Compass.
Regardless of what program we use it is literacy based.
Orange
The orange station is always the Guided Reading station. This station is always teacher led. Students at the orange station are grouped by ability. I feel that grouping by ability is important for this station because I can focus on the needs of the students.
My Guided Reading Station follows a similar agenda every day.
1. Sight words (review & slap it)
2. Read a decodable reader
(I use the paper readers from our Reading Series - Scott Foresman Reading Street)
While reading the book we practice one to one correspondence, reading left to right, and practicing our reading strategies by using our reading friends.
I organize my Guided Reading Group using an AMAZING product by Deanna Jump @MrsJumpsClass
Click here to check it out!
I have recently started using Poetry Journals from Caitlin Clabby @ Kindergarten Smiles.
I have recently started using Poetry Journals from Caitlin Clabby @ Kindergarten Smiles.
Pictures from my Orange Station:
Blue
The Blue station is ran by my kindergarten assistant.
At this station we focus on our theme or comprehension skill for the week or handwriting.
This station includes some type of writing.
At this station we focus on our theme or comprehension skill for the week or handwriting.
This station includes some type of writing.
Red
The Red station is always the iPad station.
I differentiate among my students and the different apps.
Each student has a set of apps that they can choose from.
I base the apps on the needs of each student.
Green
The Green station is my Listening station. I used to do a cd listening center.
One CD and one book or if I was lucky a couple books for the kiddos to share.
I have since moved from that type of listening center to a listening center where the student have choice. Once I got my iPads and discovered QR codes I knew there had to be a better way. I started recording my own stories and connecting the recording to a QR code. Now I have a bin full of books that my students can choose from. I pick the books based on our kindergarten themes. I have a bin for every theme!
For example during our animal study I fill the bin with both fiction and nonfiction books.
This gives the students a choice to pick the type of story that they would like to read.
As the year progresses, they listen to a story and then complete a reader's response.
The QR code links to a recording. The students need to follow along with the book as they listen.
Yellow
At the Yellow station I focus on sight words. I try to do a variety of different sight word activities
to help my students learn their sight words. We do cut and paste sight word activities, roll the sight word, play doh sight words, stamp sight words, and building sight words.
I also like to add my iPads into this station. We use magnetic alphabet to spell our sight words. Once we have built a sight word using magnetic alphabet we take a screen shot. We have a classroom competition to see who can guid the most sight words. We also use beads to build sight words and take pictures of the words created.
I hope some of this tips were helpful!
I hope some of this tips were helpful!
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