August Literacy Centers for 1st and 2nd Grade

There doesn't appear to be a Throwback Thursday today, but I'm still throwing it back anyway. Since it's August 1st, I wanted to show you an old post that previews my August literacy centers (in case you're a new follower). I'm happy to say I'm not an August starter. I still have one month of summer left. I can't imagine going back right now. It feels so early! I wonder if you August starters feel the same way, or if you are itchin' to go back. If you are an August starter and you're looking for some literacy centers, you'll love this post! I would use these as an introduction to centers, to help teach routines and procedures. In other words, they will not be doing these independently but it will set them up to be independent for the rest of the school year. For those of you who are new followers, I have a whole system for my literacy centers, all centered around a student menu. It's a great way to keep track of and organize centers. Since this first post, I've gone back and added the common core standards to the student menus. 

This was originally posted on August 7, 2012

I finally got around to making an August literacy menu. I've had requests to make it since many of you are in school in August. I'm on the Sept-June schedule. I made a literacy menu for June, and it turned out to be one of my favorites! BUT so many of you don't have any need for it. SO, I decided to use it for a 2nd grade August menu (assuming you wouldn't need both-unless you are year-around?) and then I modified it a bit (a lot) to work for an August first grade menu. 

I should start by explaining how I would use this. I would use this as a way to introduce routines and procedures for the literacy centers for the rest of the year. That means I would walk through each of these centers as a whole group or just with modeling. It depends on your class and how early you start in August.

The entire 1st grade pack is 101 pages in all. Here's a small preview of what you get:

Two menus to choose from (only 2 centers are different) with a total of 18 centers.

 TPT       

Read and Sequence: 4 choices (3 shown)

Read, Think, Match (2 options)

Read, visualize draw (2 options)

Rebuild a poem: original poem with student sheet

Bird Sort (sorting short a words)

Springtime Spin: (now summertime spin, which makes more sense)

Monkey words: Real and "silly" (sorting real and nonsense words)

Watermelon Words:

Syllable Sort

Make a sentence 

This is an easier version of Super sentence seen later on in the menus. Students choose the subject (with picture clues), the verb (action) and where to make a sentence.

Match a sentence: Match two parts of sentence

Sentence Scrambler:

Word Endings: Adding s to words

Camping: 

This could be a personal narrative or just writing about each picture. 

There are two options: the one you see below or an option to cut out 6 pictures and choose 4 to write about.

Roll and Write: Make a cube with pictures to prompt writing.

Picture Prompt: 3 versions

Post office

Here is the 2nd grade August menu:

You can find this HERE.

Click here to see all the pictures of what's inside the 2nd Grade August Menu (remember it's the June first grade centers, just with an August menu).

You could also get the COMBO pack, which includes both 1st and 2nd grade menus. You can get that HERE.

Want a freebie from the pack? Click here for an older post that gives you this goodie: