Time For Kids

I wanted to design a center that focused on real-life nonfiction text.  I wanted to use something that was in the consumer text genre. I had the menus and the map reading, the diary and the post office...how about magazines or newspapers?

I found some free copies of Time for Kids.  I had thought about getting a subscription for my class, but it was too expensive.  I thought about getting a Donors Choose grant or asking parents for donations, but that idea came and went. I never threw away my free samples though so I decided to laminate them to make them more durable.

I decided to use some of the task cards I found on my favorite website which I call Third Grade Wiki. The section with these activities is called Response Cards 1-4. For this center, I only printed out the ones that related to nonfiction text.

I put the magazines and task cards in a bag and hung them on the wall.  The students really enjoy this center.  Some of them will read the same issue several times and complete a different task each time.  Others will find a task they like and complete it with each of the copies of the magazine.  I was able to go to other teachers at higher and lower grade levels and get their free copies so I have a variety of reading levels for different students to use.



Writing Center

My writing center is filled with all of the materials a student needs to write. There are baskets of pencils, markers, and crayons. I have a bucket of scissors and another of glue. There are cubbies filled with sticky notes and index cards. I have shelves of paper--notebook, blank, old-school lined, colored. I have Writing Tubs that contain reference books, flip charts of the most commonly misspelled words, alternate words to use for said, lists of contractions, rhyming dictionaries, almanacs, dictionaries, etc.

Posted below you will see some of the activities I have in the writing center so that students have some thought provoking and unique writing topics.

These are story titles. Students choose a title and write an appropriate story.

I cut pictures out of magazines. Students write captions for the pictures or a whole story to go along with the picture.  I look for a variety of pictures to match my students' interests.

I use interesting notepads and write prompts on them. Some are fiction and some are nonfiction.