Centers

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Home : 2002 : August : 12

Centers
By Red

I taught 6th grade last year (I am teaching 2nd this year so maybe we could trade ideas) and I used centers all the time.

One of my kids favorite centers was a "mail center" I filled a plastic tub with several kinds of
paper, markers, stickers, and stamps then let the kids write a letter to a friend. I had to take a peek at the letter to see if they had used the correct parts, then they were allowed to "mail" the letter to a friend by putting it in thier "mailbox". The "mailbox" was a paper sack.
I did lots of centers where students followed the life of an important person in history. For example

Martin Luther King, useing a map of the US they had to measure the distance he traveled between cities. I know that is confusing but when you start to do it it works out. (MLK gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C., and was killed in Memphis, TN was is the distance between the two). I did something very much like this charting Santa's trip around the world, this was a lot fun.

Writing centers are also a lot of fun, if you give them a prop they love it. For example: I gave the kids a huge key I bought at a flea market and they had to write a story about what the key opened. But you can also do simple things like having them describe the American Flag to someone who is blind.

Don't forget games...and folder games too.

I hope these ideas help. If you need more ideas let me know.

Red