I would love to hear your ideas for learning centers in fifth grade.?
i teach 6th grade, and i use centers in Reading class only...since we are middle school and aren't middle school, there is a lot that is weird about our schedule, so i just stuck with doing it during Reading time. I usually offer centers 3 to 4 days per week. My kids are broken down into 4 different groups, and i change the groups often. sometimes i need the groups to be reading at approximately the same levels, and other times, i group them according to behavior (to avoid all behavior problems in the same group).
anyway, here are some of the centers that have worked well for me. i will tell you that the first MONTH of school was pretty much spent explaining rules and procedures and such. one thing that has worked really well, is each child is given a folder labeled %26quot;reading workshop%26quot; and they keep all of their work from any activities in it. this folder does not leave my classroom.
1. guided reading center -- my kids meet with me to read and we focus on various skills.
2. listening center -- i have a lot of chapter books on tape and CD (mostly CD). i bought 4 portable CD players at walmart, and buy batteries in bulk...i'll probably spend 20 bucks in batteries for the whole year, which i don't mind. the portable CD players were 10 bucks and they only play CDs (no radio). this center allows any child to read a book from cover to cover, even if it is too hard for them. it's a nice way for them to be exposed to more vocabulary, without getting discouraged sounding out the difficult words.
3. Writing center -- i have them do various activities at this center, and they do whatever the assignment of the day is. They can pull a %26quot;story starter%26quot; sentence out of a can and do a quickwrite. They can choose from a box of laminated pictures i've cut from national geographic mags and they write a story about it.
4. Reader's Response center -- after the listening center, my kids respond to what they have read in a reader's response journal. basically they write how they felt about what they read, if they had any questions for the author, and make predictions about what they think will happen next.
5. Scrabble -- i had to teach the basics, but this is an easy center to handle...all they need is to be able to keep score, and check the dictionary if there is a question.
6. Boggle -- another great word building game.
7. Mystery words -- i use cards with letters on them, and place a combination of them in an envelope. they choose an envelope at random and spread out the cards. they have to figure out what the mystery word is, and they need to come up with a list of other words that can be built with those letters.
8. Independent reading -- this one is self-explanatory. my school does the 100 book challenge, so my kids are required to read one chapter in school and one chapter at home every school day.
i'm sure there are a ton of others, especially if you want to add centers from other subjects. i hope this helped.
I would love to hear your ideas for learning centers in fifth grade.?
One center could be a math center. They could use teamwork to complete a worksheet together, play a math game with cards, or make up their own word problem for the class to figure out later in the day. When I was in fifth grade, I remember making a chart/graph of our shoe sizes on poster board (i think it was a bar graph), and thought it was kind of fun! We got to decorate it with markers after we finished too=)
Another center could be a creative writing center. They, as a group, could make up a fun story together! Each student could contribute part of the story, or a sentence, whichever would work better. After they finish the story, they could illustrate it, and once centers is over, could read it to the class!
An art center, or fun center would be nice, and a break from doing work. They could make something, color, or play an educational game.
A reading center is great! Have a corner of the room set up with comfy pillows, and lots of books! The kids can take a break, away from work (and desks) and relax for a while to read! I remember doing this in 4th-6th grade, and thought it was so cool that we could lie/sit on the floor to read!
Hope this helps a little!
