Kindergarten Literacy Centers: Details, Workboard and Routine

By Leslie Simpson · About 6 minutes to read this article.

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Literacy centers are a huge portion of our day. They allow me to teach guided reading to small groups of students and keep students learning and on task. Here is how I use a literacy center workboard, routine and transitions to make this portion of our day work smoothly.

Literacy centers makes a big impression on my kindergarten students' view of their school day and impact on their reading and writing skills by offering tons of opportunities to practice them.

Literacy Center Workboard Placement

My literacy center workboard (where student names and center icons are located) is visible from just about anywhere in the classroom. I have a total of 4 purple pocket charts side by side that make up this display.

I'm a big believer in making my walls functional, so that wall has bulletin board paper and a duct tape border to make it look like a bulletin board. I have the pocket charts stapled up to hold everything needed for our workboard.

Note: Pictured above you see 3 pocket charts on the far wall, but I later added a fourth to improve spacing and make it more visually pleasing.

Literacy Center Placement Workboard Setup

My literacy centers are set up in pocket charts.

This allows me freedom to add icons as we learn more centers throughout the beginning of school and make any changes as I see fit.

The top row of the pocket chart holds index cards. I write 3-4 student names on an index card to form a center group.

Using the pocket strips below, I place up to 3 icons below each set of names. These icons show the students the order of the centers they will be visiting that day.

Students are grouped heterogeneously.

This simply means that I don't put all of the same level readers or performers in one group. Creating groups with a high, average and lower reader gives everyone a role to play and allows me room to put personalities that will work well together.

Groups change about every 9 weeks to ensure students get the opportunity to learn with all different styles of learners and personalities. It helps keeps things fresh on a daily basis.

Literacy Center Rotations

Students go to three centers each day once we are up and running smoothly.

These centers take place all over the classroom.

They go to the very first picture listed below their index card with their group's names listed on it. They will stay at that center until signaled to clean up.

They will go to the next (2nd) center listed below and repeat again later with their third.

Each day the index cards are rotated to the next column of center icons.

This way a student and their group will visit 3 new centers each day. The variety of choices works really well for us. Rotating the name cards is a student job in our classroom.

I believe in making centers feel fun so that students are actively engaged while learning, so I have lots of "reading" centers, "writing" centers and "word work" centers.

They each just have a different feel, keeping my kinders on their toes.

Literacy Center Daily Routine

What I'm Doing

I work with my guided reading groups while literacy centers are taking place.

Students come to see me with other students who read with similar strategies or need similar guided practice. They come from all over the classroom when signaled, leaving their center knowing they won't get to complete it.

We learn early on that this is the reason we have centers, so we quickly adjust our attitudes on "missing" centers. We learn that we have centers to work independently so that the teacher can help us become better readers.

I pull one group while a 20-30 minute literacy center is taking place.

Sometimes I will assess, work with a smaller group of 1-2 students who need intense work or just aren't getting something crucial.

I'm not a center, so that really allows me flexibility to do exactly what I need to do.

What the Routine Looks Like

Students go to their first center for 20-30 minutes and then are signaled to clean up.
We gather to do a read aloud and story discussion. If time allows or I want to be sure to edify something great, then I allow 1-3 minutes of sharing center work before we begin our story.
Following our story, students are dismissed to their second literacy center.
They work for 20-30 minutes and then are signaled to clean up. {Sound familiar?}
We gather {and potentially share} to do phonics or word work and then dismiss to our third reading center.
We complete this for 20-30 minutes and gather to move on with our day.

Transitioning Between Literacy Centers

Students learn to quickly read our literacy center workboard independently {although not magically... we work hard to make it happen smoothly}. They learn to utilize the tools and materials of our classroom and classroom spaces to work wherever they can best do their learning.

Signaling Clean Up

Once a center is over, I turn on the Disney song, (affiliate link) "Whistle While You Work." It is an icon on my computer that is a shortcut directly to play the song in Windows Media Player but of course you could easily play a song from your phone wherever you are in the classroom.

I made it a one-click process so it's quick for me and easy enough for a kinder to do.

I will often ask a student to turn it on for me when I am still in the middle of finishing up with a group or across the room interacting with students at their center.

Sharing Their Work

Students may often bring their center materials {within reason} to our gathering space if they have something they want to show off.

Most often they want to read a page, show a sight word they discovered or show their final product.

Sometimes I highlight strategies I saw students attempting in groups and connect it with a literacy center where they can do it for more practice.

So, there are some of the details of how we run our literacy centers - how about yours?

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