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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Hands-on, Independent Station Activities

In addition to using printables at my stations, I also love to use engaging, meaningful, hands-on activities. The children love to manipulate letter tiles, clothespins, spinners, dice, paper clips, dry erase markers, and anything else they can get their hands on! While working, they are thinking critically, communicating and collaborating with their peers, all while being thoroughly on task and motivated.

Here are some of my newly created hands-on activities...





These 21 word family mats are so much fun and help my children learn and practice the most popular word family words. Students build the words with letter tiles, letter beads, or write them with dry erase markers. Then, they practice writing the words or use them in sentences. I keep them in a bin at my phonics station.




These 100, colorful cards, are also a lot of fun for my students. I keep them in a bin, with plenty of clothespins (which are so inexpensive) and my students read the words and clip the words that match the (very cute!) pictures. These cards help my students learn and practice beginning, middle, and ending sounds, as they segment and blend the words. Since there are 100 cards in all, this is a great activity for the entire year. Recording sheets are included.






I cannot live without these sight word mats! They are aligned to the Journeys reading program, and help my students learn and practice their weekly sight words. They build each word with letter tiles, letter beads, or write them with dry erase markers. Then, they practice writing the words or use them in sentences. I keep them in a bin at my sight word station. I included a set in black and white for those of you who don't like to print in color. I always print in color because I love the bright and cheery look.












These activity cards are a HUGE hit and a HUGE lifesaver in my classroom! I keep them all in labeled bins at my phonics station. Students grab a bin and use letter tiles or dry erase markers to build the words. Answer keys are included, so they are self checking. There are recording sheets included, but I don't always use them. There are tons and tons and tons of cards, so this is another great activity for the whole year.


And, the last thing I'll show you, are some rhyming activities. I created rhyming activities for every single month, so my students can practice rhyming all year long. The images below are from my back to school edition.


I have many, many more hands-on activities for young learners. My stations are always stocked for the year and I hardly ever have to plan each week. 

All these activities make it easier for me to write out sub plans. When I'm out, my students can easily spend 20 minutes at each of their 6 stations, using the activities that are always there. There's no greater feeling than always being prepared and organized. Right?

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