July 4th centers

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.