1/12/14 Center Time

2 hours without my direct instruction has never been more difficult than this year.  I don't know if it is because I've been out of the 1st grade classroom for four years and I'm rusty, or if the kids need more engaging centers than what kept them interested four years ago.  So, I revamped once again...

I added Spot that Word to our free center, which truly helped.  Once I noticed that they liked fast, competitive games, I decided to add a few more to our list.

For this game, I just typed, printed, laminated,

cut, and made an envelope with our

weekly sentences.  The words go

into the envelope (I have two sets).  

Then students race to see which group can

build all the sentences the fastest.  

Only problem - it can get sort of

loud because they get so excited and

nervous.  It's cute!  These cut-up words are in

my Words to Know packets.  I have weeks 1-32.

To see if this is something you would like, I 

have week 19 as a FREEBIE in my TPT store.  

This is a number bond flashcard set where one

student is the teacher and the other two

students race to see who can say

the answer first.  This is great for

number bond practice.

The next two pictures show a game I created to help with

tally marks, ten and ones, and numerals.  The students

play battle with these cards.  At first, it was a little

hard because I put 0 - 99 in the deck.  So, you can

imagine what it's like with 99 tally marks!  Jeeze - what

was I thinking?!?  But, eventually they got it, and

now it's a popular game during centers.  I made these, but
I have not put them in my stores - I think I'll do these as a 
Fan Freebie once I figure out how to do that. :0