How to Introduce Literacy Centers Plus 4 FREEBIE Centers!

My greatest source of anxiety when I became a teacher was establishing routines. I knew that if I did not teach them well, it would significantly impact the rest of the year. At the beginning of every school year, I spend the first 3-4 weeks explicitly teaching, modeling, and re-teaching these routines. The time it takes to establish routines is well spent and helps the rest of the year go smoothly.

I decided to lay out the first six days of how I establish literacy center routines, and how I introduce each center. My literacy center structure is heavily impacted by (1) Whole Brain Teaching and (2) The Daily Five. The Whole Brain Teaching component is mostly during my mini lessons. I use call and response, mirrors, hand gestures, and movement activities to get my kids engaged. They love it! If you want to know more about WBT, I encourage you to check out youtube and watch teachers introduce WBT strategies in their classrooms. Honestly, this is how I learned much of Whole Brain, and I’ve never looked back.

Daily Five is a literacy center structure for introducing centers. It encourages student choice and independence. I do not follow it exactly, but the book The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades changed my teaching.

My literacy centers are: Library (also known as read to self, independent reading, book nook, etc.), word work games, literacy review games, writing center, computer, listening center, and teacher table. To alleviate any confusion, the word work/literacy review games are where I put games involving write the rooms, pocket chart, magnets, etc. I don’t have a specific center for each activity.

I have 5 games for word work, and 5 games for literacy review to promote student choice. When my students get options, they are more motivated to work and do their best.

Below, you will see a break down of the first 6 days of literacy centers. My focus is using materials/centers correctly, building stamina, and establishing routines.

After the initial few days, I revise and re-teach as needed. Below you will find 4 FREE literacy centers to help you start your year! They all come with recording sheets!