Camping Centers- First Grade

Recently I just couldn’t find what I was looking for to keep themes going in my classroom at the end of the year. You know they whole keep them busy and reviewing while you assess for the next teacher.

We all know that place. That exhausting part of the year when our curriculum is done, but we still have so much to do.

I sat and wanted to keep skills going that we learned this trimester fresh before our assessment for the district and decided to make it all about camping.

I am fortunate to live in a woody area and many kids have been mentioning that they all look forward to camping soon.

I have created a large file with centers all ready to print. I find it super important to make both Black and White version and Colored Version. We all have different printing preferences or availability. Each center does contain an answer key to save you time.

Camping ELA & Math

These centers are sold individually if you just looking for one center to supplement for your class.

Comparing Numbers within 100

This center allows students to practice comparing numbers within 100. Students can write on the cards if they are laminated. My students love to write on the cards and then record the answers on the recording sheets.

Adding within 100

My class has been amazing at adding within 100. I have been so proud. Now, I do let them use whatever strategy that they wish to solve these problems. One of the things they love is breaking the numbers apart to add the numbers. They are successful with this method and have super proud moments. Many students do still enjoy the hundreds charts and drawing with base ten blocks as well.

Adding 3 Numbers within 20

In first grade we have been practicing adding 3 numbers within 20.  They have been using the break apart method. Many of these equations make 10 and they can add from there. My class looks forward to when I put these in our rotation and love to challenge one another to see who can finish first. I do have a super competitive group this year. They are completely healthy competitive this year though.

Counting Money

Counting Money. One of my dreaded standards. I am not going to lie this standard can often bring me to tears. The mixing of quarters and nickels, to not knowing the values of coins. All of these task cards have face pictures not tails. We are still practicing identifying coins with confidence in our classroom. We are getting quicker, but we are not completely ready for tails yet. More centers are coming this summer with a mix of heads and tails.

More and Less

As an introduction to the number line we practice adding 10 more and 1 more to move on the number lines. We are working on moving away from the hundreds chart, though some still rely on it. We use this to practice our mental math skills. 

Fix the Sentences

We are still struggling on writing sentences with capital letters on our own without reminds. Hence the eye roll. It does not matter how many times I saw it every single day. They say you have to repeat something so many times and they will retain it. I swear this skill I have repeated no less than a million times and still I say it. This center has capitalization, punctuation errors, and series of items to place commas. I assess handwriting and if they can write letters correctly using capitalization and punctuation. 

Reading & Writing Numbers

Since most of my class enjoys using the expanded form adding numbers I decided to place this review skill in my rotations. This skill is reviewed and expanded on in 2nd grade. I did not want them to loose this skill moving onto their next classroom. Those who did not master this skill get additional practice prior to moving to 2nd grade. 

Number Order

The numbers are not in order such as 1, 2, 3, 4 rather they are in order from the least to greatest. There are 10 numbers. Half of the numbers are in order, half the number are not in order. The class has to rewrite the numbers back in the correct order on the recording sheets. I had a few students use their hundreds charts to help place the numbers back in order. Much of my class did it off of memory. This was the first week introducing this center. They enjoyed the challenge. 

ABC Order

We enjoy putting things in order. I believe strongly that learning to organize helps build confidence and skills that they will later use in life. They use these skills in finding words in word books, indexes, glossaries, and any other nonfiction text. 

I really hope you enjoy these centers for your class. I always try to keep the same format for predictability and to say you time explaining every week how to complete centers. This summer I will be adding centers for the beginning of the year review. More ELA centers to come.

Why Themes?

One of the first things I learned while student teaching was how to make centers. Now I was in the world before clipart and fancy fonts so I went with whatever I could find. Boy times have changed in 8 years. I found an old flash drive with all my old centers and I was both proud and mortified of my work.

You see I love themes. My class loves to switch themes. They ask me weekly about what we are doing the following week. Sometimes I don’t know and I say it is a surprise, whereas other times I will tell them to make them look forward to what we are learning about.

Now when I saw themes, I do not mean total classroom makeover. I have 2 toddlers and that I do not have time for. What I do mean is that our centers, writing, and books are centered around that topic.

For example, this week we are all about superheroes! Why? Well, it is Teacher Appreciation  Week and the whole school was decorated in comics and superheroes. I used this to my advantage.

Superhero's Link on TPT

Our math centers are all about superheroes. Just reviewing skills with what we have learned and adding clipart to the skills makes my students engaged. I match every answer key with the clipart used so that you and the student can easily identify what goes together.  We created our own superheroes this week and are writing a story. In reading we are beginning our research projects on dinosaurs, but our regular centers all center around heroes.

I do try to rotate themes out and keep them interesting and fun. During reading week, which was space themed, we had everything space. It is a lot of work up front, but worth the skills being reviewed with fun.

Superhero Math & ELA

All the centers I create have a copy in color and BW. I do this for teachers who have different printing preferences. Sometimes I like card stock and other times I prefer colored copies. All files include answer keys to make your task easier.

I believe in working smarter not harder. This is one center that can help you do this. Enjoy!

Love,
Mrs. Morenzoni

January Print and Go

Who doesn't love a bundle that has several activities that are print and go? We are all busy and have things we are working hard on throughout our day. Over the weekend once I finally set the littles to bed I decided to get to work for once. It has been a long time since I sat down and let my fingers work for me. Having a 2.5 year old and a 15 month old some days is rough. 

I have been working on my centers for some time now. I admit I have my teacher authors that fill my bins, but sometimes I can't find exactly what I was looking for.  I created a few centers to meet the needs of my first grade classroom. 

The word problems in this file use words that follow cvc, cvce, and digraph patterns. I also made the story problems match many January word list.  

My classroom uses a mix of the Engage New York RDW and a little bit of CUBES to solve. I really love how the RDW first step is to actually read the problem. I always felt like though we know to read the problem it was always a step the was innocently skipped over. 

Steps. 

Read the problem, 

Circle the numbers

Underline the question

Box in the clue words

Draw your strategy

Write the Equation

( If you come up with a cute saying for these please tell me. )

Balanced Equations

These little guys can confuse some of my parents for sure. I created some puzzles and a recording sheet to help my students match them. I also allow them at all times to access their math folders that has a multitude of graphic organizers for them to use to solve. I also allow them to use whatever tools necessary to solve. We are building our fluency, but allowing them to see touch and feel the problems, I believe they are more successful. 

I will keep everyone posted of any more activities included in this activity. Off to work I go. 

Below is the link for the product review. 

Miss Stetson's Classroom January Print and GO