Centers that Work!

Want these for your room?  Click HERE to see them on TPT.

One of the things I'm most passionate about is having students participate in activities where they can find meaning, and I can gather relevant, actionable data to use when I'm working in small groups.

I have used sentence scrambles for years, but this year, I'm kicking them up a notch! :)

There are six cards to a sheet, so after you laminate them, you just slice them and place each set in a baggie.

I like to let my kids do their stations in self-selected teams of two.  All of the items they need are in one box for ease of storing.  The kids get a directions card, their sentence cards and their sight word lists.  Each group of five sentence scrambles features at least one word from the prescribed spelling pattern, and at least one sight word from the list. I have them review the sight words a few times in pairs first.  Then they are allowed to sort the cards in a pocket chart.  After they are done with that, then they are able to record their work.  Some pairs can do all of that in one 15 minute rotation.  Sometimes it takes them two days to do it.

With my littles about five sentences is all they can do in one sitting, but second grade students could work with more depending on the task that you ask them to do afterwards.  I would only suggest this type of work for remedial seconds, since the words and the phonetic patterns are geared for first.  Advanced kinders could do this, but I would stick to just having them write the sentences rather than identifying subjects and verbs. 

I love the fact that I can use this with advanced kinders, my on grade level firsties, and even some remedial seconds!  We've been exploring subjects and predicates in my first grade classroom just a bit as we are working on sentence structure.  I love looking at grammar and syntax and I hope a few of my students go on to second grade carrying that with them! :)

So if you were looking for a way to add some kick to your word work station, you'll love these sentence scrambles and the spin that I put on them for my kids! :)

If you would like these for your classroom, please click HERE.