During my first semester in the education program, I was placed in a PreK classroom at Hand-in-Hand in Thomasville, GA. The class I was in had 18 students, 6 of which had special needs. I had a wonderful mentor teacher and special education teacher that semester; I learned so much from them both.
One of the assignments we were required to complete that semester was to create a literacy based learning center. This was one of my favorite projects I have been assigned throughout my major. I love being able to create cute and fun things to help my students learn or solidify a concept.
The learning center had to accommodate the different levels of learning in our classrooms. My learning center had three different activities - sorting letters, forming letters, and capital and lower case letters.
My learning center wasn't quite completed when this picture was taken. The middle eventually had magnetic tape added. The students were able to sort the magnetic letters into one of three categories: letters with lines, letters with curves, and letters with lines and curves.
The left column was a capital and lower case letter match. The capital letters were in the purple cup, and lower case letters in the orange cup. Students would take the notecards and match them together. In order for them to be able to check themselves, the cards were cut like puzzle pieces.
The last activity was a class favorite. I added a copy of the alphabet to the right side for reference. Using gel bags, the students would practice writing their letters in the bags. The gels bags were so easy to create. All I did was add a little hair gel and food coloring to a ziplock bag, then tape the top shut.
Not only were they a class favorite, even my college roommates had fun writing in these bags!
