November literacy menu

My November literacy menu is now posted on Teacher's Notebook. The package includes 16 centers: 4 reading, 4 word work, 4 writing, and 4 sentence building activities. Below is a preview:

November menu contents: Sorry it's sideways! 

The menu is divided into four categories: Reading, Word Work, Writing, and Sentence Building, and there are four centers under each category. The four categories stay the same each month. They always have reading, word work, writing, and sentence building.

Students are told which category to do each day, but they choose which center to do under that category.

Here are all the center folder holders. They are labeled with stickers showing each category. 

Each folder holder has its 4 centers. So, they know that they need to go to the yellow folder holder if they are supposed to do a reading center. They find the center they want to do and do it! Then they color in the center on their personal literacy menu when it's finished. I tell them to color half way if they didn't finish.

I keep a checklist of all the centers for that month. They turn their centers in daily and I check them. I keep track so that I always know who is falling behing or who is not on task. I also pass back any work that is incomplete or too sloppy. They learn pretty quickly that it's best to do their best work the first time! :)

I file their centers in a hanging file system until the end of the month. Then I staple all their centers, their menu and their rubric together and send it home.

I start these centers in October and practice a lot with them. I have parent helpers too. They love the variety and get to practice a ton of different skills. The skills are all taught the month before. For example, this month one center is making words with consonant blends. I incorporated consonant blends into my morning message, shared writing and  spelling lessons the month before so they had a good understanding before they had to do it independently. 

Here is a  freebie from November:

Fill a word focuses on digraphs. Students will look at the picture and decide which digraph is missing. You can download it here.