ABC Centers is the time of day that most students eagerly look forward to! It is a very active time in which students have the opportunity to work hands on with literacy materials.  Students feel as though they are just 'playing games', but they are actually actively engaged in the learning process as they are thinking and doing!  They are practicing and developing letter/sound knowledge, listening skills, oral language expression, rhyme, letter formation, cooperation, etc.

In EDK, students are involved with ABC Centers each day. In our regular Kindergarten session, students participate in ABC Centers approximately once each week.  ABC Centers may also be chosen during free choice time once introduced.

ABC Center Index

ABC Memory / Go Fish
ABC Sounds
Alpha Bears
Big or Little
Book Baskets
Chicka Chicka ABC
Colors
Fun Fonts
I Can Read!
Letter Search
Letter Writing
Names
Read & Write the Room
Rhyme Time
Seasonal ABCs
Sequencing
Stamp a Story
Word Maker

Organization

EDK students are assigned to one of four groups. Each group is also assigned to a color-coded table. Students complete most of their ABC Centers at their table (or on the carpet when more room is needed for an activity). Book Baskets, Stamp a Story, Read the Room, and Write the Room do not hold to this rule.

Each day, at the start of our ABC Center time, students check the ABC board.   The ABC board shows them which two centers their group may work in.  The ABC center signs are rotated each day so that all students may explore all of the centers that are being used during that week.  The signs on the ABC board coordinate with the labels on each ABC center tub. Most materials are stored in the labeled tubs on shelving at the child's level.

ABC_Center_Board.jpg

EDK ABC Board

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ABC Center Tubs

Rules

  • Students must start working on the tub activity they are assigned to first on the chart.
  • Once students complete one activity and have an adult check it, they may bring the second ABC tub to their table if they desire to.
  • Students must work the entire time.
  • Students may not choose an ABC tub or other activity that is not assigned to them for that day.

Internet Resources

Literacy (and Developmental) Centers - with info and printable signs, free from Carl's Corner
Alphabet Pattern Block Printables - free from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Suggested Resource Books

Developing Literacy Using Reading Manipulatives bySandi Hill (Creative Teaching Press, 1997) ISBN 1-57471-222-5

Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction by Donald Bear, et al. (Prentice-Hall, 1996) ISBN 0-02-307490-6

Word Matters: Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading/Writing Classroom by Pinnell and Fountas (Heinemann, 1998) ISBN 0-325-00051-4

Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work by Debbie Diller (Stenhouse Publications, 2003)  ISBN1-57110-353-8