Egg-celent Workstations

I'm not sure what it is about March...

perhaps it's the change in the weather,

the birthday of my favorite middle daughter,

or just spring in general...

either way, I love it and I'll take it.

My class has been learning about life in the polar regions for the last 5 weeks and I'm happy to say we are leaving the cold for some new light and sound studies.  Ahhh...I feel the heat of the sun already shining down on me.  Sorry, I digress with dreams of spring break on the horizon.  

During our unit on the polar regions, my students diverted from our daily/weekly guided reading workstations and did a lot more "team" projects and research based learning.  It was such a great experience to look up during my reading groups and see such intense and focused thinking going on.  

(Insert a picture of a beaming teacher here.)

However, this week it was back to our routine of workstations.  Last March I had created some fun workstations that my students loved and I thought we would try them again this year.  Of course it wasn't as simple as pulling out old stations and "Go!" since our curriculum and pacing has changed since last year.  So I refreshed the stations and put them out today.  What a hit!

Here are my seasonal workstations for the week...in case you are still in need or want to bookmark for next year.

WORD WORK

Students worked on Shamrock Boggle making words.  Each small shamrock has a magnet on the back and students randomly choose the letters (must have at least 3 vowels in the group).  Then, they write their words on the large laminated shamrocks.

HANDWRITING

Each tray has 12 eggs filled with seasonal sentences modeling neat writing.  Students crack open the egg, read the sentence, and then copy the sentence in an equally small box to mimic the neat writing. 

(Each tray has the same sentences.  To differentiate, you could vary the sentences by ability levels and then assign colors to individual students within that station.)

Here are the FREEBIE sentences and writing sheet!

SIGHT WORDS

In large bowls, I filled rainbow rice and hid 30 high frequency word strips inside.  (You can see some peeking out in the pictures.)  The students have to dig in their bowl to find the word and then write it on the laminated recording sheet.  

When they finish, they can check their answers on my key.

(The trick is to train your kiddos to re-hide the words after they are through for the next group. Oh, and to remind them to keep the rice in the bowl.)  ;)

SPELLING EGGSTRAVAGANZA

In each egg carton, 12 plastic eggs are filled with words chopped into individual letters.  The eggs are numbered on the outside and the recording sheet is numbered.  Students crack open one egg at a time.  Unscramble the word.  Write the word on the line.

In the picture above, my kiddos are working on St. Patrick's Day words in one carton and Spring Break words in another carton.  I also have a carton with spelling words.

This also works with sight words and vocabulary words that your students are familiar with.  Again, this activity can be easily differentiated by filling cartons with various levels of words and assigning specific cartons to kiddos.  

I have several other workstations (10 in total).  I like an even balance of students at various workstations to help maintain independence but also behavior management since during this time I am working with my students at guided reading.  

I will share more about my Science workstations as we move forward into our light and sound unit.  Today was a success with it's launch and I'm eager to share.

Stay tuned...