Literacy Stations

I am always looking for new ideas to keep my kids engaged and LEARNING at literacy stations. We push them so hard to learn new material and expect them to "just get it." What happened to the FUN in school! I am a visual hands on learner and many of my first graders are too so I try to incorporate that into my stations.

This week I made a fun word match game for Sand Search Station. The word cards and matching picture cards are printed really little. Once the student finds the cards in the sand (rice, popcorn, etc.. whatever you want to put into a tub), they use a magnifying glass to read the words and see the matching picture. They write the word down and draw a picture to match.

Then for Playdough Station I created some spelling word mats where the students use the playdough to make the missing letter. I try to have them make the letter that is most commonly missed when sounding out. 

For Poetry Station, the students read a poem that goes along with our theme for the week or phonics skill and either color the picture or draw their own picture. They also have to choose a task card to complete. This week our task cards look like this...

The students love to use highlighters or colored pens to do their work :-)

Hope this gives you some ideas to put into your literacy stations.