Place bean bag chairs, pillows, blanks and rugs on the floor in your reading activity area. Make sure the students are comfortable, as they should not be allowed to run around this area. Provide books and magazines spanning a variety genres including nonfiction and fiction. Use a computer to make up question sheets about the books, laminate them and give them to the students to use as a reading tool. Make a separate sheet with the answers and keep it nearby so that the students can check their work. After the students finish a book, ask them to write an evaluation or an impression based on what they read.
Math centers are devoted to helping children learn to count. Provide games that teach numbers, such as Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders in which players must count forward and backward spaces to play the game. Games such as Connect Four teach the students about counting as well as pattern recognition, while older children can play chess to test their logic skills.
Take the opportunity to set up a science center that focuses on the environment. Bring old, recyclable items from home, such as newspapers, clothes, boxes and plastic bottles. Have your students think about new ways that they could use these unwanted items or teach them about recycling. Provide items that they can use when renewing the old objects, such as glue, tape and scissors. For instance, if a child sees an old shirt, a ribbon and a piece of tissue paper, she might want to turn the shirt into a dress and decorate it with ribbon and a flower made out of tissue paper. Make sure you have the proper supplies on hand.
Show the children examples of comic strips and graphic novels. Combine art with writing by having the students sit down and draw out their own comic strips. Have them brainstorm various story lines, list events that will happen in the story and then illustrate the plot. When they finish, sit down with the class so that they can share their work. Provide feedback and allow them time to revise their piece if they want to do another draft.
Designing an alphabet center is especially important in preschool and kindergarten. These centers help children recognize the letters or reinforce knowledge if they have already learned them. Purchase a sand table and instruct the children to draw their letters in the sand. Provide colorful play dough and show the students how to roll out all the letters of the alphabet. Use a magnetic board and letters to have your students pick out letters as per your instructions. Remember to use both upper and lowercase letters to help your children learn and remember the alphabet.
In order to learn how to read, children must have a solid understanding of phonics and how words sound. Centers that focus on phonics teach children that each letter has an individual sound and that when the letters are put together, the combined sounds form a word. Make flashcards or purchase letter cards. Provide an object that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Instruct your students to match up the letter to the object based on the sound at the beginning of the word.