Amanda Jacobs11/27/2012

Learning Center

Target: Alphabet recognition and sound

Professor Clark

Ed 332/361

11/27/2012

LEARNING CENTERTarget: Alphabet recognition and sound

FOCUS OF CENTER Age: 4-6 years old Grade: Kindergarten Target audience: students learning their alphabets Subject Area: Reading foundational skills, writing (alphabet)

Connections to Curriculum/ Interdisciplinary Unit K.RFS.1: Demonstrate understanding of the organizations and basic features

of print K.RFS.2: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds

(phonemes) K.RFS.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in

decoding words K.W.2: use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose

informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic

Student IEP Objectives Successfully identifies upper case and lower case letters. Produce clear and coherent writing. Successfully writes upper case and lower case letters.

1

11/27/2012

STATIONSStation 1-Letter Sorting Tree

1. Gather your materials. You will need some craft paper, scissors, fall

leaves (make your own or pop to the dollar store before they all disappear), markers, painter’s tape, double stick tape, laminate the leaves. I also have a container of white board markers because students wanted to color some of the leaves as well.

2. Start by writing out a variety of upper and lowercase letters on the leaves. I did half the alphabet in upper and half in lower. Do however

2

11/27/2012

many you want in any combination. (can write the whole alphabet in upper and lower if you want) Remember we are playing not drilling. I made a good number of letters that are the same in either one too. This builds some freebies in which build students confidence. Also, if you want the students to trace the letters on the leaves for the extension activity you will want to laminate these leaves so, that you can reuse them. Make enough sets for every student to have one

3. Next make a bare tree with your craft paper.

4. I cut free hand because I am way better at cutting than drawing. Do what works for you. Attach it to the wall with painter’s tape. (If you want the tree to last a long time I would recommend laminating it as well.

3

11/27/2012

5. Add double stick tape to the branches and the roots. Now ONLY use this if you are not planning on repositioning the leaves. They can be taken off and moved immediately but after they are on for a few minutes they will rip. If you need to be able to move them, use contact paper sticky side out held on with permanent double stick tape. Or you can laminate the tree and this will not be an issue.

6. Make a pile of leaves and have the students start sorting.

7. You will have to explain to your students that upper case letters go on top and the lowercase on the bottom. I try never to use the terms big and little since you can have a 6 foot high lowercase b or a tiny uppercase one. Using the proper terms especially when they are just starting out really helps.  I made a poster next to the tree that

4

11/27/2012

reminded students ” Upper goes up and lower stays low!” as we went through the letters.

8. Have them say the sound each letter makes as they place it on the tree

9. Students tend to find letters they know or like first and then they do the ones that maybe they are struggling with. I always provide an alphabet sheet in their center folders that they can look at once they hit the letters they are struggling with. Also, they know they can ask others for help when they get stuck

5

11/27/2012

10. Final product

11. Have the students stick the letters they did not know into the bag with a red make in their learning folder, and have them stick the letters that they knew in the green bag. If you are having them take the letters off the tree.

12. If you have it available to you don’t have them do step 10, have them take a picture of the tree with the camera.

 Assessment Method: ask about!!

-Demonstration that they can complete the poster

-student log

6

11/27/2012

Rubric for Alphabet Tree

Number correct Letters they missed

Alphabet upper caseLower caseLetters missed

Student Directions:

1. In this station we are going to be working on upper and lowercase letters. For example: H uppercase hlowercase

2. The uppercase letters will go on the top of the tree(Branches) and the lowercase letters will go on the bottom of the tree(roots)

3. You will sort the letters and place the upper and lower case letters where they belong on the tree, if you do not know where they belong you can look at the alphabet sheet or ask a friend.

4. Take a picture of your tree.5. The letters that you have to look up or that you ask a friend about go into the

red bag and the letters that you know go into the green bag.

Adaptations for Station

1. Have students trace the letters before they place them on the tree with the white board markers.

2. Have students place cards first in stacks of uppercase and lower case letters and them place them on the tree.

3. Have students place the cards in stacks by letter and then figure out which is upper case and which is lower case.

4. Have upper or lower written on the back of each card, so that students can reference if they do not know. However, this could lead to students simply looking at this on the cards

7

11/27/2012

Station 2

Teacher Directed Instruction or "Guided Instruction".  During Teacher Directed Instruction, students report to a designated area of the room (the carpet, a table, a circle of pillows) where they will receive direct instruction from the teacher. . The first ten minutes of the lesson involves guided practice or modeling.  The last ten minutes of the lesson includes independent practice.  During the independent practice portion of the lesson, the teacher should remove herself for 3-5 minutes to allow students the space they need to work independently and to monitor the progress of the other stations.  It is important that the teacher walk the room to ensure that all learners are engaged during Learning Center.

In this station the group’s instruction will be based on what they need to work on. This information will come from the assessments and rubrics that the teacher gathers from the learning stations.

This could be focusing on writing the letters, or identifying the letters. It could also be going back and working with letter sounds and hearing them. This is because for students to understand reading letters they must first know how to say letters and hear the sounds in letters.

Some materials to use are K-PALS, PALS, Getting Ready for the Code, and Road to the Code.

Assessment Method

-dependent on day

Rubric

-dependent on day

Student Directions

Depend on lesson being taught

Adaptations for Station

- The difference lessons being taught to the different groups of students.

8

11/27/2012

Station 3-School of Fish Game

1. Gather your materials. You will need multiple colors of card stock or sturdy construction paper, a marker, scissors, eyelets and an eyelet setter, or you can also use paper clips!

2. Draw a fish to make a template. Make sure the tail is large enough to write a letter on it. Cut it out and use this to trace all the fish.

3. Start tracing the fish on your card stock/construction paper. I normally trace one for every two fish and cut them out. Or you can get pre-cut fish from the store

9

11/27/2012

.

4. Add a letter on the tail and a smile too. If you are using paper clips add an eye too!

5. If you are using the eyelet option, add the eyelet as the eye for each fish. The eyelet should be magnetic, double check though since some are so heavily coated with paint the fishing pole may not pick them up!

6. You can easily make fishing poles if you don’t have them already with a chop stick, ruler or blunt knitting needle. Add some yarn or ribbon with a strong magnet on the end and you are set!

10

11/27/2012

7. Let your students start fishing!

Assessment Method

-student log filled out

-partners write the letter that the student did not know the letter or the sound for identified in the box for activity

Rubric

NAME:_____________________________

Letter shown on fish

Name Sound matches Ipad

11

11/27/2012

Student Directions

1. Welcome to fishing, in this station you will start by getting a partner, if there are not equal number of students in your group you can do a group of three

2. Take all of your fish out and lay them on the floor.3. Get your fishing pole out of the kit4. You and your partner decide who goes first if you can’t decide play rock

paper scissors 5. Each of you take a turn fishing one letter out at a time.6. When you get a letter say the letter name and. When you do this your

partner is writing the letter down that was shown on the fish in the first box of the chart Write a C for capital or a L for lowercase

7. Next, you will say the sound that the letter on the fish makes. 8. Next use Z is for Zebra app on the ipad (if it’s not pulled up it is the

picture of the zebra on the ipad screen9. Check on an ipad if the sound matches the sound the ipad gives for that

letter and the name matches as well.10. The partner not fishing will write yes in the name box if the name

matches and no if it does notName matchesyes name does not matchno

11. The partner not fishing will also write yes or no down if the sound matches

Sound matchesyes Sound does not matchno

Adaptations for Station

1. When you get a letter say the letter name and. When you do this your partner is writing the letter down that was shown on the fish in the first box of the chart and them writing what you say for the letter name

Write a C for capital or an L for lowercase

12

11/27/2012

Next, you will say the sound that the letter on the fish makes. See if your partner and you agree with each other what sound the letter makes.

2. Have students say one thing that starts with that letter3. Simply have students say letter name and if capital or lower case4. Simply say letter name5. Say letter name and sound it makes

13

11/27/2012

Station 4-Stamp a storyStudent choose to use letters and pictures stamps to

- Make their names- Stamp the letters in ABC order, upper and lower case- Find the uppercase and lowercase letter that a picture belongs with- Find pictures that begin with the given letters- Label a picture that they have drawn

How you can organize your stamps

MAKE YOUR OWN BOTTLE TOP STAMPS

What you need:

14

11/27/2012

Bottle tops.  The tops from the flavored water and orange juice bottles were just the right size.

Foam shape stickers.  Check your local dollar store for these stickers.  I found many of these stickers at our local Dollar Tree.  Letter and number shapes would be perfect for teaching letters, spelling, numbers and math.

Alphabet Stamp

1. Cut paper into strips2. Students will stamp the letters of the alphabet in order with capitals and

lower cases on this strip

Label the picture drawn

1. Use blank piece of paper2. Students use stamps to make a pictures or draw a pictures3. They use the stamps to label the objects in the pictures with either the

first sound they hear in the word or by trying to sound out the word

Find pictures that begin with the given letters

1. Get out the column tables with preprogrammed letters at the top of each column (in appendix)

2. Have the students stamp pictures in each column that start with that letter.

15

11/27/2012

Uppercase and lowercase letter with picture

1. Use the letter boxes(in appendix)2. Have the students create a cover3. On each page they stamp the letter (capital and lowercase) and stamp or

draw a picture that starts with that letter.

Assessment Method

-Student Log

-What student hands in.

Rubric Alphabet stamp

Stamped all 26 letters in order

Stamped all in order except 1-5

Did not stamp the alphabet in order

Label the picture drawn

Student labeled 90% or more of the objects in the picture drawn.

Student labeled 70-90% of the objects drawn in the picture.

Student labeled less than 70% of the objects drawn in the picture

Find pictures that begin with the given letters

All pictures found match the given letter

75% or more pictures match the letters

75% or less match the picture

Uppercase and lowercase letter with picture

Successfully identified both uppercase and lowercase letters that match the picture.

Successfully identified the upper case letter to the picture.

Successfully identified the capital letter to the picture.

Student Directions

1. At this station you will be using stamps. 2. You can choose from one of the 4 activities that go with this station3. Make sure to stamp your name at the top of your sheet4. Get the directions for the chosen activity

Alphabet stamp

1. You will at this station get out the alphabet stamps.

16

11/27/2012

2. Next you will stamp both the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet in order

3. For example: Aa, Bb,

Label the picture drawn

1. Get out a blank piece of paper2. You can either make a picture using stamps or draw a picture with provided

materials.3. Once you are done making your picture use the stamps to label the objects in

the pictures with the first sound you hear in the word or by trying to sound out the word.

Using stamps to label objects1. Use the column paper with tables2. Look at the letter on the top of the column3. Find stamps that start with that letters sound

Find pictures that begin with the given letters

1. Use the column tables with preprogrammed letters at the top of each column2. In each column find stamps that start with the sound that the given letter

makes.

Adaptations for Station

Using the 2, 3, and 4 tables

1. Stamp/preprogram a picture at the top of each column so students write or stamp the corresponding upper/lowercase letters

2. Stamp/preprogram a picture at the top of each column so that students can find a stamp other pictures that begin with the same sound.

Letter boxes

1. Stamp their name on the cover and then stamp pictures of things they like on each page. Label them with the letter that they start with.

2. Stamp a letter on the front cover and then stamp one picture on each page that begins with that letter.

3. Stamp one letter on each page and draw a picture that begins with that letter.4. Stamp a picture and write/stamp the letter it begins with5. Stamp a picture and write the full name of the object using sound spelling6. Make a name booklet by stamping the names of classmates and drawing a

picture of each person

Small pieces of paper

1. Make letter collages by stamping a letter and all the pictures they can find that begin with that letter.

17

11/27/2012

STUDENT ACCOUNTABILITY FOR STATIONManaging Learning CentersBegin by having a teacher directed center where the teacher can focus on specific targeted skills though direct instruction.  While the teacher is modeling appropriate strategies other students are visiting independent learning centers or stations.  Student’s sign up for stations each day and during the course of the week rotate through different Literacy Stations. They will rotate through two stations each day. Students are assigned two 15-20 minute learning stations each day. Students begin working in the first station and upon hearing a designated signal students rotate to their second station.

Directions for Designing a   Learning Center with Two Rotations 1.   Decide on the type of stations that will be used (there are four         stations in the pictures shown above) 2.    Assign students to flexible groups (there are four groups in the         pictures) 3.    Each group is assigned a group number or group name4.    Each morning groups are assigned to two learning stations5.    Groups begin in the first station and remain there for 20 minutes6.    The classroom lights are dimmed and this signals that students         have 1 minute remaining in the station. Students begin cleaning up.7.    At the sound of the signal (music playing) students rotate to the        next station8.    Students remain in the second station for 20 minutes9.    The classroom lights are dimmed again and this signals that          students have 1minute remaining in the station. Students begin        cleaning up.10.  At the sound of the signal (music playing) student’s move to the         carpet or back to their seats

Creating center CardsThe center cards and group name cards were designed using Microsoft Word.  Each card was printed on a 3 x 5 index card and then laminated for durability.  Each card was then assigned a graphic using clipart.  Graphics are a great way of getting student's attention.  Without spending too much time, students quickly scan the

18

11/27/2012

transition chart for the two centers they are assigned to by first locating their group name or number and then by identifying the centers they will be attending.

Creating Student Picture CardsStudent picture cards were created using a digital camera.  Each card is approximately           3 inches x 3 inches and laminated for durability.  Students like to see their picture displayed in the room.  Display student pictures, names, and student work makes students feel important and a valued member of the classroom environment.

TEACHING PLANS FOR LEARNING CENTERa. Today were going to talk about our learning center activities. We are going to

be starting new stations that are part of our morning learning center tomorrow and I want to make sure everyone knows how to do the learning stations correctly. We will be focusing on the alphabet in these stations and the sounds letters make

b. We are going to keep the management of the station the same, each station I have a rubric for what you are suppose to be doing and you get to see where you are going in the centers on the management chart.

c. Additionally, each station has directions for you to follow if you forget how to do the center.

d. Can someone tell me what’s going to stay the same with the centers?e. What are we starting tomorrow? What are we working on?

Station 3f. One of the stations we have will be a station with me and a group of students

will come to the octopus table in the back and we will work on different skills with the alphabet together

Station 1g. The next station you will have will be the letter sorting three. In this station

you will be working on capital and lowercase letters.h. In this station you will use the trees you see on the wall by the window. i. In this station you will get the green bucket out of the shelf (showing them

where it is and taking it out)j. In this bucket you will find leaves with letters on them.k. The letters on these leaves are capital and lower case. ( show them an

examplel. You will place the uppercase letters on the top of the tree(Branches) (place a

capital letter there)m. the lowercase letters will go on the bottom of the tree(roots) (place a lower

case letter theren. Where do the uppercase letters go? Where do the lowercase letters go?o. You will go through the letters and place the upper and lower case letters

where they belong on the tree, p. If you do not know where they belong you can look at the alphabet sheet or

ask a friend. I have placed the alphabet sheet in your folder.

19

11/27/2012

q. Following this you will take a picture of your tree with the camera in the bucket.

r. To take a picture you push the red circle button on the top of the camera and look at the big window on the camera. To take the picture once you see the while tree in the window you push the smile face button on top (all the while demonstrating how to do it on the camera

s. Take to pictures and pull them up on the computer and ask the students if the pictures show the whole tree in them or if it’s only part of the tree.

t. The last thing you will do is the letters that you have to look up or that you ask a friend about go into the red bag and the letters that you know go into the green bag.

u. You will find the colored bags in the station box.v. When you put the letters in the bag you will place both bags in the smile face

side of your folder.w. We have 2 more centers to learn about but, we will do that later in the day.x. ---------take a break and do a different activity---------y. Remember earlier in the day we were talking about learning centers, we are

going to learn about the last 2 centers now

Station 2z. The next station we are going to be learning about involves fishing. Who has

been fishing?aa. What are some things you use when you are fishing?bb. Well our fishing is a little bit different! Our fish have letters on them!!! To get

the fish you will have to use the fishing poles just like when you are real fishing on a lake!

cc. For this station you will have to get a partner who is assigned to that station as well if there are not equal number of students for 2 in a group, there can be a group of three.

dd. You group will then get 1 orange bucket off of the shelf. And take it to the corner with the ipads in it(show them where to get the bucket and show them the corner)

ee. Next you will grab an ipadff. Spread out from all of the other groups in this corner to make sure your fish

do not get mixed togethergg. Take all of your fish out of the bucket and lay them on the floor.(demonstrate)hh. Get your fishing pole out of the bucket. We do not use the fishing poles for

anything else than fishing for the letters.ii. You and your partner decide who goes first if you can’t decide play rock paper

scissors like we did with the other stations last time.jj. You will each get the paper that goes with the station out of the bucket (show

them the paper)kk. Each of you take a turn fishing one letter out at a time.ll. When you get a letter say the letter name. mm. When you do this your partner is writing the letter down that was

shown on the fish in the first box of the chart Write a C for capital or a L for lowercase

nn. Next, you will say the sound that the letter on the fish makes.

20

11/27/2012

oo. Use Z is for Zebra app on the ipad (if it’s not pulled up it is the picture of the zebra on the ipad screen, show them on the doc cam where it is.

pp. You click on the app and it will pop up with the letters you have to click on the letter that the fish has on it on the screen and it will tell you the information you need.

qq. Check on an ipad if the sound matches the sound the ipad gives for that letter and the name matches as well.

rr. The partner not fishing will write yes in the name box if the name matches and no if it does not

Name matchesyes name does not matchnoss.The partner not fishing will also write yes or no down if the sound matches

Sound matchesyes Sound does not matchnott. Can anyone show me how to do this station?uu. We will be learning one more station later in the day.

------------Take a break--------------------a. Now we are going to learn about our last station!

Station 4b. At this station we will be using stamps! Has anyone used stamps before?c. Well for those of you who have not, we are going to go over how to use a

stamp properly. We get out the paper we are going to be stamping on, next we get out an ink pad and the stamp we want to use. We take the lid of f the stamp pad so that we can use it. We take the stamp and press lightly into the ink. After we do this we press the stamp using our fingers onto the paper. (Demonstrate all of this).

d. Give each student a stamp and a ink pad per table and have the students demonstrate that they can stamp for you

e. Now to learning how to run this station. All the paper material and directions are in the purple bucket. All the stamps are in the drawers next to the buckets(show them)

f. At this station you will be using stamps we just worked with. You can choose from one of the 4 activities that go with this station

g. Make sure to stamp your name at the top of your sheeth. Get the directions for the chosen activity i. One activity you can do is alphabet stampj. You will at this station get out the alphabet stamps. Next, you will stamp both

the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet in order For example: Aa, Bb, (show them how to)

k. The next activity you can do is label the picture drawnl. In this you will get out a blank piece of paper. Next can either make a picture

using stamps or draw a picture with provided materials (make an example).m. Once you are done making your picture use the stamps to label the objects in

the pictures with the first sound you hear in the word or by trying to sound out the word. Use the stamps to label these objects.( Show them how to do this both ways)

n. The third activity you can choose from is find pictures that begin with the given letters

21

11/27/2012

3. In this you use the column tables with preprogrammed letters at the top of each column that you can find in the bucket(Show them its)

4. In each column find stamps that start with the sound that the given letter makes.

MATERIALS FOR MAKING STATIONSOver all

Alphabet sheet Learning center log rubrics

Station 1- Brown craft paper- Scissors- Fall leaves (make your own or pop to the dollar store before they all

disappear) (1 set per student)- Plastic bags one labeled red and one labeled green- Markers - Painter’s tape, - Double stick tape- Laminate the leaves- White board markers for extension

Station 2- Dependent on what teaching

Station 3- multiple colors of card stock or sturdy construction paper or fish cut outs- a marker- Scissors- eyelets and an eyelet setter or magnate or paperclips- Fishing poles (made out or ruler/chopsticks, strong and magnate)- Z is for Zebra - Learn Letter Sounds - Learn To Read By Visions Encoded

Inc

Station 4- Stamps- Ink pads- Small booklets- Table column print outs- Plain paper for ABC order and picture label

22

11/27/2012

APPENDIX

23