January Centers

It's hard to believe that it is already January.  Seriously, where did the first semester go?  I had wonderful intentions of having January centers and the first two weeks lesson plans finished before I walked out for Christmas vacation, but I can tell you that didn't happen. Not. at. all.  Oh, well.  I did manage to go into school a couple of days with three kids in tow and get January centers ready to go.  I have to say that these might be one of my favorite little products that Cup of K has created so far.  Something about the hot chocolate theme just melts my heart.

Here are the activities that my kinders will be working on when they return...

Math

Number recognition from 1-30 in numeral, tallies and ten frames.

Coin sorting with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Determining numbers that are less than or greater than a given number.  I used the little to go coffee cups for manipulative storage. Love how cute it looks!

Adding groups by counting a given set and rolling a die to get the other number.  The recording sheet for this activity is on the top black divider.  The other sheets are recording sheets for the four other math activities.

Telling time to the hour and matching the analog clock to the digital time.

Literacy

 Sorting noun picture cards by person, place, or thing.  I used velcro to attach the little pieces to this activity.  With 15 small picture cards I thought this would be easier to keep track of for the kiddos.

Students will read the sight words and then practice stamping and writing them.

Real or Nonsense partner word game.  Students will roll a die move that many spaces and then draw a card.  Some of the cards are word family cards and some are cards that tell the student to move ahead, move back, or lose a turn.  If the student draws a word family card they will blend it with the consonant they land on and determine if it is a real or nonsense word.  Students use a recording sheet to show their work.

Write the room with s-blends!  My kinders LOVE write the room!  Since word work tends to be a lot of sitting, I thought this would be perfect.  We have been working hard on blends so this should be engaging and great review! (BTW...those are sneakers.  Does anyone call them that anymore?)

Sorting picture cards by medial vowel sounds.  This is still great review for them.

This is the little recording sheet that goes with the vowel sort.

Writing

This is something I have always done in my writing center.  This is just a little magnetic board divided with painting tape.  The picture cards are from the fabulous DeeDee Wills January writing packet.  Stinkin' LOVE those packs!  The students practice building words.

 These are also from DeeDee Wills January writing pack.  My kids do these every month, so there is very little training involved.

Dramatic Play

As you probably know if you read this little ole blog, we have added play back into kindergarten.  I had one sweet mom tell me that when her son was sick he was devastated because he was supposed to be at the dramatic play center that day.  How cute is that!?  

This month we are introducing "The Chocolate Shop" where hot chocolates, lattes, doughnuts and pies will be served daily from 9:00-10:00.  I loved the way this turned out.  

Why do they say tape is invisible when it's clearly not??

Art

This little cocoa cutie was created by my AMAZING teaching partner Mrs. Barnett.  She is so talented it isn't even funny.  This will be a project in our art center this month along with a coloring page and a color by number. 

If you are interested in any of these activities you can purchase our January center pack in our TPT shop.

And...I will pick one lucky winner to receive our new January center pack for free!  Just don't forget to leave a comment and your email address!  

Happy Teaching!

-Mrs. Gordon