Teachers who incorporate learning centers will tell you that it is a great learning strategy for many reasons. Some of these reasons include: 1) Increase student self-motivation and empower self-monitoring 2) Ability for teacher to integrate small group or individual attention 3) Individualization of instruction and meaningful learning activities leading to mastery.
Setting up and organizing centers on a regular basis can be a time consuming and daunting project! Here are some resources that can help ease the task of providing engaging, meaningful, and kid-friendly academic centers throughout your school year. The following centers resources are available at evan-moor.com in a variety of grade levels or grade ranges.
Take It To Your Seat Series (available as Early Learning Centers, Math Centers, Language Centers, Literacy Centers, Writing Centers, Vocabulary Centers, Geography Centers, Science Centers): Full-color centers that are easy to assemble and prepare for a student to take to his/her seat for independent practice. Also available in e-book format. These centers work well as an individual or partner activity, and don’t require a dedicated space in the classroom, because students complete at their seats with everything they need organized in a folder.
“Daily” Centers Classroom Resource Kits (Daily Language Review Centers, Daily Math Practice, Daily Reading Comprehension): Students will practice and master important skills with 36 motivating centers throughout the school year. Students will quickly become familiar with this center format, and be able to complete ongoing centers all school year long.
Some of my favorite moments as a teacher occurred while I was in the middle of small group or individual instruction, surrounded by the background hum of as students were engaged in learning centers. Best wishes to you as you plan your centers for the new school year!
Marti Beeck started her career in education as a parent volunteer in her three children’s classrooms. Her many years of teaching experience, including adult school, intervention, and the primary classroom, was inspired by her background in brain-based learning. After working for four years as an editor in educational publishing, Marti currently works as a freelance writer and content developer.
Erin Sawyer has been an elementary school teacher for 8 years and currently teaches sixth grade. She has also taught third and fourth grades. Erin enjoys finding resources that will motivate and challenge her students to learn. She also serves as the student council mentor to the upper-grade students.
Take it from me, as a second grade teacher and mom of two, time is my nemesis. A resource that saves me countless hours in lesson development is Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox online.With TeacherFileBox, I was able to access differentiated instruction for my students with a click of my finger.
Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.
Lisa Vitarisi Mathews is Evan-Moor’s executive editor. She has over 20 years’ experience in PreK–8 education, and has worked closely with teachers across the United States through Evan-Moor product training and workshops.
Going back to my compound words example, take a look at this screen shot.
Amy Michaels is a certified teacher with 11 years of elementary classroom experience who is actively homeschooling her own children. Her mission is share the best teaching methods and resources with all homeschoolers. Amy supports parents through her podcasts, webinars, and online training for homeschoolers on her website www.thrivehomeschooling.com.
Collect piles of good books and make time to read! Libraries, used-book stores, and thrift stores can provide new reading material.
Theresa Wooler has more than 10 years’ experience in K–6 classrooms as a parent volunteer and homeschool educator, has taught high school English, and is currently involved in education through Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team.
If you are curious about these elements of art, they are quite easy to teach with Evan-Moor’s 
My children have experienced many tearful goodbyes with school friends who move across the world due to a military deployment. While heart wrenching, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the military child who is moving and adapting to a new school, new home, and new surroundings.