Workstations!

I LOVE workstations.  I love everything about them.  I love building stamina with my kiddos for independent work, I love watching them have fun and engage in learning activities and I love listening to them help each other learn.  I am going to run to my classroom and take some pictures of my workstation chart and the system I use to build stamina so I can share with you.
I think my favorite workstation is the building words (Word Fun!).  I have this set of balls that contain and object and random letters that I got from a girlfriend who was retiring.  The ball will have a mug in it with the letters, m, u, g.  In this station, the kiddos say the name of the object, /mug/ and then say all the sounds, /m/ /u/ /g/.  After they say the sounds, they make the word using the letters.   The kiddos get so involved in sounding out the words.  They love opening the balls and seeing what object they will get. So FUN!  

A few weeks into workstations (since they don’t start at the beginning of the year in kinder, it was October) I realized this station was very fun, but if I wasn’t sitting right there with them, there was little accountability.   I got to thinking about ways I could get a hold of this.  So…  I created a set of worksheets to help manage my workstations and student accountability.  They loved them!  I also created workstation posters I can place around my room that have the station objective – my principal loved that!
I put them all together for some of the stations I have in my room.  Check them out!

I use this one on the right at the word wall.  The kiddos write a word in in space, read the word and then decorate the page to look like a quilt. This worksheet is also included in the pack with an objective poster!