non-fiction literacy center

One of the first literacy centers I ever intended to share with the teaching public is also one I haven't shared much about. My first year in teaching kindergarten, I received lots of "toy" type items as donations and gift to help stock my classroom. Although they were appreciated, I had no idea how to store them or use them effectively. Well, I was pink slipped my first year since they brought me on two weeks after the year started and wasn't needed based on numbers for the following year. What's a teacher to do? Organize and create a plan for all of those materials! Determined to not let it all sit in a closet, I figured out that I could use the "toy" type of items, cards and general stuff as a "hook" in a literacy center.

Out of this came the idea to pair the items with a set of non-fiction books. Simple idea and yet it capitalizes on my students innate love of non-fiction. I call it the science center mainly because there are a lot of science type of topics included, but the focus is on reading. I use a clear shoe box to keep all of the books together and added a binder. The binder has

• a zipper pouch to hold the "toy" materials or cards
• a laptop with vocabulary
• a sorting mat

You'll see in this picture above that I used a bag to hold the toy items, but I've updated it to have a binder which makes cleaning up and storing everything so much more organized (and easy) for my kinders.

In order to keep this center feeling fresh, I change out the non-fiction tubs about every nine weeks. My kinders only get to this center once a week, so with six tubs to choose from there is enough variety.

I label all of the books and materials in case anything tries to get lost {that never happens in your classroom either, right?} then anyone knows where it gets returned to even if they are just lending a helping hand and weren't the ones playing with it. Its very similar to the way I label my classroom library.

Here is a free set of organization materials you can download on: the human body, insects, butterflies and arachnids. Still to come: apples/pumpkins, jobs, construction, dinosaurs, ocean life, reptiles/amphibians, space.

Would you believe that this is one of the first products I ever created to share? Its nowhere near the par I feel I bring to the table anymore, but if you like it, please share the buttons below or to the left or became a fan of our shop.

And this is the poster that I use to help keep my kinders on track. It also outlines the Common Core Standards that each activity helps meet for any administrators walking through. (K.RF.1, K.RI.1, K.RI.2, K.RI.3, K.RI.4, K.RI.5, K.RI.6, K.RI.7, K.RI.8) While I'm not sure what types of non-fiction books you like to collect, I hope that these can be helpful to you!