For my first "real" post, I want to share our July 4th centers. Center time is when we practice skills. I try to keep a variety of math, literacy, fine motor, pretend play and ss/science baskets avaliable at any given time and rotate them out. The most difficult part for me is leveling the baskets so that the skills benefit both my children (ages 2 and 4).
Writing - Katy (4) could write about any topic she chose, but the cool star pen and stencils gently encouraged her to write about more than princesses :-)
I have a whole set of these stencils with different themes. They are great because she can concentrate on her writing without stressing out about the illustrations. (I have a bit of a perfectionist in that regard.) Plus they are fun!
USA puzzle
Drawing a star - This has a series of 6 simple cards with directions of how to draw a star.
Counting Cards - These were geared for Evan (2). He used star-shaped beads to add the number of stars indicated to each flag. It turned out to be a great fine motor exercise for those little pinchers too!
Guess the shapes - This turned out to be a great leveled activity since Evan (2) could just pull a shape out of a hat and name it, but Katy (4) had to feel the shape inside the hat and verbalize which she thought she had. (How many sides, corners, rounded....)
Patriotic concentration - Even Evan (2) could "play" by finding a match with the cards face up.
Abraham Lincoln's Logs
Money/Value sort and match
Sight Word Practice - Each of the star "ice cubes" have a letter written on them to practice spelling high frequency words.
Beginning letter/digraphs - These big cardboard stars were stuffed into a box with old decorations. I can't remember ever using them, but they made great cards for our pictures. (It's amazing what a difference it can make to make the same old activity visually appealing!)
Skip counting - Evan (2) really enjoyed practicing lacing these little star-shaped beads onto pipecleaners. Katy (4) picked a card from a pile and made groups of ten to match the number.
