10 Simple Literacy Stations That Will Last You ALL YEAR (Free File)!
Simple kindergarten literacy stations that will last you ALL YEAR! You bet! Let me show you!
Whenever I do professional development, I discuss the importance of having anchor activities for literacy stations. One question I get asked often is, “How do you get your students to work independently so you can run guided reading groups?”
Here is the secret:
The first 4-6 weeks of school we work hard on building routines. Like REALLY hard! Setting expectations is critical because YOU, as the teacher, have important work to do. You must be able to work with small groups… right? I have never had an aide, so my little kindergartners need to be able to work independently. So I talk about anchor activities. These are activities that essentially stay the same ALL YEAR. You just swap out the materials. So here they are:
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #1: Writing Station
Each month new words go up. My students can not WAIT to see what the next month will bring! Students go to this station and write… pretty simple!
At this station, there are five different types of writing options. Students decide, but they may only select one page and they must work on it the whole time. At the end of the month, new vocabulary cards are added and the same five types of writing options are given. There is no need to reteach this literacy center… just a few nudges as the year goes on to elevate the writing… simple!
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #2: Predictable Sentences
Predictable sentences are a great way for students to practice multiple skills: Concepts about print, sight word reading, handwriting, illustrations, and matching words to the picture.
We start the year with VERY simple sentences, but as the year progresses so does the level of expectations. By mid-year, we are building multiple sentences and then writing them.
You can find these Predictable Sentence units HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #3: Library
Students explore our classroom library.
In addition to the picture books that I own, I also found these simple books from Wilbooks! (sidenote: Wilbooks doesn’t know me from the man on the moon, but I really like their books.) I have had them for many years and I have found they were perfect for my classroom.
If you have a limited personal library, like I did when I first started out, you can borrow some books from your school library or the local public library. Put them in a nice basket and your students will eat it up.
You can also take some of your classroom poems and make them into books. You can find these poems HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #4: Overhead Station
We love our overhead. This little dinosaur is super engaging for students! We start the year with simple letter formation on the board and then move onto other skills as the year progresses. Having multiple options and levels of difficulty at this station helps you to differentiate the activities.
You can find the overhead station activities HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #5: Listening Station
Such a simple station to keep going all year. I get my resources from Scholastic. Then I make response sheets that are specific to that text.
Multiple response options that grow over time sure helps to add rigor, but it also keeps this station fresh!
Listening to books is such a fantastic way to support your ESL students and vocabulary of your students.
We are using the Scholastic SeeSaw Listening Library Catalog this year. You can find the Listening Station units by clicking HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #6: Poetry Station
Another option is to make a songbook. Students can listen and read/sing-a-long with the poems your class has learned.
I have also added QR codes to these lyric pages if you want to turn this into a sing-a-long station.
You can find these activities in my Poetry Music and Video units by clicking HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #7: Stamping Center
We have activities from beginning sounds…
You can find all my Stamping units by clicking HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #8: Sequence Game
I have a print and play beginning sounds option. Gotta love the daubers. The best thing about this game is once students understand the structure of the game, you can easily swap out the activities for a different skill. I introduce this in our small groups. Once students are proficient with the rules of the game… boom! It goes in a station!
You can see all of these Sequence games HERE.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #9: Games Galore!
Again… spend some time teaching your students a few game structures. We start the year off with this ABC game.
Then we can swap out the theme AND add some complexity. This ocean animal version is essentially the same game as the Chick-a-Chick-a Boom-Boom game. We have just switch the theme and changed the task to CVC words. In my Puzzles and Games Station, I usually have a few varieties of games so students can select the activity that meets their needs… hello differentiation!
Similarly… Roll, Say, Keep works the same way. Because it is editable, you can add your own sight words… or hang out with just an ABC version.
Simple Kindergarten Literacy Stations Example #10: Time me! Fluency Center
We introduce this activity in our small groups before it becomes a station. So by mid-September, this becomes a staple option. It also goes well in an early finisher bucket!
Flashcards + Timer = Good times! These are also editable, so you can add your own words. I usually make 3-4 sets of these cards that vary in difficulty. Again… simple way to differentiate this station.
Whew… there you have it! Simple but meaningful tasks that are easy to differentiate. IF WHEN you start small groups, you will not have the time of go around the room and explain stations. Set yourself and, more importantly, your students up for independence. Then you will have the time and energy to do the very important work at your small group table.
You can find all the varieties of this activity HERE.
ESGI
A HUGE thank you to ESGI for sponsoring the webinar. You can grab your 2 months FREE trial by clicking HERE (*affiliate)
Still have questions?
This is a post from a few months back that talked about how I manage stations. You might find it helpful. Click HERE to read more.
FREE STUFF
In other news… I wanted to offer the free file that was included in my webinar. When you download the leveled text, you will be added to a series of emails that will help support your Guided Reading. Don’t worry, you can opt out any time you wish.
Looking for More Center Activity Ideas?
Here are a few blog articles you may be interested in.
- Fun Kindergarten Brain Breaks (Free File)
- 15 Fine Motor Activities for Kindergarten | Free File!
- 15 Kindergarten Math Centers That Will Engage Your Class ALL Year! (Free File)
- 10 CVC Word Games to Play in Kindergarten and First Grade Plus a Free CVC Center Activity!
- 24 Fun and Engaging Sight Word Games and Activities for Kindergarten
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Deedee Wills
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
Hi, I'm DeedeE.
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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10 Responses
I attended the webinar and I thought it was great. The content was spot on and I totally get the technical difficulties. Just makes it real. I have guiding reading set and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Seeing good improvement in my students’ reading abilities.
Thank you so much!!!!!
Hi there Deedee,
Thank you so much for your blog posts and for sharing so much of your materials for free. I love all of it!
If you haven’t heard of storybird, it is an online tool where you can publish student poems and stories, share them with the school, parents, etc. There are also fundraisers on the site that you can raise money for the school. I thought I’d pass that along just in case you hadn’t heard of it.
Thank you again and Happy Veterans’ Day weekend!
~Shelby
I Love the ideas included in this post. Thank you. Can you provide the link to where you bought the notebooks you used to make classroom books of your poems. It’s seems like a great way to add to classroom library.
Hi Mary!
I’m not sure if I understand. The student notebooks (composition books) I got at WalMart. The actual poems are from my poetry notebooks. I hope that makes sense.
Here is a blog post I did on making the library versions.
Poetry Books
Hi! I have enjoyed reading your posts. They are so helpful. I am switching schools this year, but still teaching Kindergarten. The set up of stations will be completely different. I am used to having many students doing the same activities (5 choices) in different places around the room (Daily 5) versus rotating through multiple stations. When introducing and modeling your stations to your small groups, what are the “other” students busy doing? I like the idea of introducing and modeling small group versus whole group, but was unsure of what the rest of the class is busy working on while doing so. Thank you!
Hi, Maybe this blog post will help you.
How to Start Stations
I’m also doing a webinar this Thursday on centers! Just click on the “Workshop” link to sign up!