A literacy center provides children with the fundamentals of reading and writing development. Fill this center with various types of books, including audio books, activities that promote the development of letter-sound recognition, and items that children can use to practice their writing skills. While visiting this center, children can page through the books and retell the stories to one another, listen to the audio books and follow along in a print book, sort through items that begin with specific letters, and trace stencils or letters written on paper to hone their writing abilities. The skills children gain from a literacy center ready them for more complex literacy instruction in subsequent grades.
Introduce your students to several basic mathematical concepts in a math learning center. Provide them with activities and games that help them develop one-to-one recognition, enable them to learn how to create patterns and sort items based on characteristics. For example, to promote one-to-one recognition, children can glue a number of pumpkin seeds that corresponds to the numbers printed on paper pumpkins — two pumpkin seeds on the number two. Students can use different colored feathers, plastic chips and blocks to practice making repeating patterns, and they can also sort these items based on their common attributes. The activities provided in this center lay the framework for mathematics instruction, including addition, subtraction and even geometry and algebra.
Fine motor skills are necessary for a variety of tasks, including handwriting and picking up small objects. Provide children with opportunities to develop the small muscles of their hands in a fine motor center. Fill this center with activities that require children to grab, squeeze and move about their hand muscles. For example, kids can use tweezers to grab objects, thread yarn through the holes of lacing cards and manipulate clay into different objects.
Arts and crafts not only enable children to express their creativity, but they also develop listening skills, teach children how to respect varied viewpoints and instill a sense of pride. Fill your arts and crafts center with an array of materials that children can use to create different works of art. Various types of paints, markers, crayons, colored pencils, papers, scissors and glue, as well as sequins, glitter, craft sticks and foam shapes are all elements that should be included in this center. Allow kids to use these materials to create any type of art they wish, or encourage them to create a specific work of art, such as a handprint turkey, using the materials.
Dramatic play enables children to learn about their world and assume other roles and identities in a safe environment. This center encourages listening skills, language development and social interaction. Get creative with dramatic play and include more than baby dolls and toy dishes; create backdrops and include props that pertain to specific themes, such as a large sun, towels and beach chairs for a summer theme and doctor and nurse costumes, clipboards and play medical bags for a hospital or doctor theme. Allow children to use the materials in this center to explore and act out different roles.