1. Literacy Centres for the Early Years Classroom 1 to 3
Adapted from the book by Caroline Blakemore and Barbara Ramirez

2. A. Letter Play Centre 1. Letter Formation Activities
Purpose : students will form letters using a variety of materials
Materials : Magna Doodle, laminated strips with letter formation and directional arrows, sand tray, letter shaped cutters with play dough, pipe cleaners, letter templates, white boards with markers
Preparation : organise materials in labelled containers, provide flat working areas

3. Letter Play Centre 2. Letter Matching Activities
Purpose : students will match lower and upper case letters
Materials : magnetic letters all sizes and colours, rubber stamp letters, link letters, felt letters, ABC puzzles, a small alphabet poster or strip, upper and lower case letters on cards
Preparation : organise materials in labelled containers

4. Letter Play Centre 3. Letter Recognition Activities Using Names
Purpose : students will form names using a variety of materials
Materials : same as for Letter Matching activity but also include each child’s name card for children to copy
Preparation : organise materials in labelled containers

5. Letter Play Centre 4. Letter Sequencing Activity
Purpose : students will manipulate letters and put them into alphabetical order
Materials : as for previous activity
Preparation : organise materials into labelled containers with appropriate work surface eg paper, felt board etc

6. Letter Play Centre 5. Letter Sorting Activity
Purpose : students will sort multi-coloured letters according to letter, colour, shape and upper and lower case
Materials : as for previous activity
Preparation : organise materials in labelled containers and provide appropriate work surfaces eg paper, felt boards, overhead projectors

7. Letter Play Centre 6. ABC Book Activity
Purpose : students will read from a variety of carefully selected ABC books and /or letter books with a partner or independently
Materials : a variety of ABC or letter books
Preparation : put books in containers that are easily accessible to your students

8. Letter Play Centre 7. Letter Collage
Purpose : students will search for and locate specific letters
Materials : magazines, catalogues etc with large print, scissors, glue, paper
Preparation : on each page write an upper and lower case letter

9. B. Word Play Centre 1. Word Wall Action
Purpose : students will replicate the words on the walls using a variety of materials
Materials : word walls eg focus words at children’s eye level , writing materials
Preparation :organise materials in labelled containers and provide a work surface eg paper, card etc

10. Word Play Centre 2. Classifying Words
Purpose : students will classify word cards according to some specific attributes
Materials : words cards, pocket chart and basket for word cards
Preparation : commercially produced word cards or teacher made and written on index cards and kept in a box

11. Word Play Centre 3. Alphabetical Words
Purpose : students will select words from familiar reading books and arrange them into alphabetical order
Materials : familiar reading books from shared and guided reading , rectangular pieces of paper , A4 paper cut vertically and a small alphabet strip
Preparation : 6 to 8 pieces of rectangular paper per child and one half piece of paper per child

12. Word Play Centre 4. High Frequency words
Purpose : students will practise forming high frequency words and locating them in a familiar book
Materials : levelled readers which children can read independently, any type of loose letters, high frequency words on cards, plastic ziplock bags for holding letters of high frequency words
Preparation : word cards and bags of letters in labelled containers

13. Word Play Centre 5. Onset and Rime
Purpose : students will practise assembling onsets and rimes from familiar books
Materials : levelled reading books that children can read independently, sentence strips, rectangles of two different colours 4x10cm, word family list
Preparation : select words, write sentences from familiar books and write onset and rimes on coloured papers rectangles

14. Word Play Centre 6. Picture Word Match
Purpose : students will match a word card with an object or a picture card
Materials : word cards to match pictures or actual objects
Preparation : commercially produced or teacher made word cards and pictures including words from any area of school life

15. Word Play Centre 7. Search and Tally
Purpose : students will search for high frequency words in printed materials
Materials : shared, guided reading books, individual writing, big books, poems etc and laminated cards with a high frequency word on it, white board markers
Preparation : laminated high frequency word cards (about 5cm X20 cm ), work space for children to spread out with books

16. Word Play Centre 8. Overhead Words
Purpose : students will practise forming high frequency words and other words on the overhead projector
Materials : word cards, lower case letters, OHP
Preparation : word cards, letters and OHP

17. C. Sentence Play Centre 1. Sentence Collecting
Purpose : students will select a favourite sentence from a current guided reading book and copy it onto a sentence strip and then match it to their illustration of the sentence
Materials : sentence strips, 10x10 cm paper for pictures, G/R books, envelopes
Preparation : sentence strips (5cm ), 10x10 cm paper for drawing and pencils

18. Sentence Play Centre 2. Sentence Punctuation
Purpose : students will reassemble phrases and words from sentences they have seen in familiar texts and insert correct punctuation
Materials : sentence strips, markers, pocket chart, familiar books
Preparation : make sentence strips from familiar books and cut into words and phrases and punctuation

19. Sentence Play Centre 3. Sentence Book Match
Purpose : students will match a selected sentence with a book that has been read aloud to them during modelled reading
Materials : sentence strips, books, a picture or some representation of the books (photocopy the cover )
Preparation : sentence strips, books and cover photocopies

20. Sentence Play Centre 4. Sentence Puzzle
Purpose : students will reassemble phrases and words from sentences they have seen in familiar texts to practise self-monitoring
Materials : sentence strips, pocket charts, familiar books
Preparation : make sentence strips from known books and cut up into phrases or words

21. Sentence Play Centre 5. Overhead Sentences
Purpose : students will reassemble phrases and sentences from familiar books using the OHP
Materials : OHP transparency of familiar text, OHP sentence strips cut into phrases or words on OHP transparencies, envelopes for storage
Preparation : familiar text on OHP transparency and cut ups of it as well

22. D. Oral Language Centre Tell, Listen and Do
Purpose : students will give and receive specific instructions
Materials : familiar books, counters or other markers, two manila folders
Preparation : two copies of each book, two manila folders and about 8 markers for each child

23. Oral Language Centre 2. Living Storybook Characters
Purpose : students will talk about storybook characters using visual prompts
Materials : story books, simple line drawings of characters from familiar books, drawing materials
Preparation : simple line drawings of characters from story books, drawing materials and storage for finished characters

24. Oral Language Centre 3. Storytelling Tapes
Purpose : students will listen to, retell and read favourite stories and poems
Materials : selection of books, a cassette tape recorder with a microphone, blank tapes of 15 minutes, headphones
Preparation : favourite books for taping, commercially produced tapes of books with accompanying books to start off with , books taped by parents, staff or other familiar people

25. Oral Language Centre 4. Story Sequencing
Purpose : students will arrange in correct sequence a series of pictures from a familiar piece of literature and retell a story
Materials : familiar books , sequential visual representations of the story, envelopes to store visuals
Preparation : copies of familiar books and four to six laminated representations for each book

26. Oral Language Centre 5. Guess the Title
Purpose: students will orally retell the beginning , middle and end of a familiar piece of literature and try to guess what book it is
Materials : selection of books, book cover representations (photocopy the cover), envelope or box to store
Preparation : select books and make laminated representations of each book or have students make them

27. E. Writing Centre Writing the Walls
Purpose : students will copy a variety of words and texts from the classroom walls to learn to look at and reproduce print carefully
Materials : class rules, poem charts, high frequency word charts ,Thrass charts, children’s writing , days of the week, months of the year, cardinal and ordinal numbers etc
Preparation : as you create writing with your class , place this at eye level around the room

28. Writing Centre 2. Independent Writing
Purpose : students will write independently and collaboratively for a variety of purposes
Materials : a wide variety of writing materials and folders for students to store their work
Preparation : a list of the kinds of writing that children can do eg birthday cards, letters, notes, poems, lists, recipes, descriptions and examples of each genre

29. F. Reading Centre Reading the Walls
Purpose : students will read a variety of materials on the walls of the room with a pointer to develop early reading behaviours
Materials : see Writing the Walls
Preparation : see Writing the Walls

30. Reading Centre 2. Reading with a Friend
Purpose : students will read a variety of books with a partner to practise fluency, gather and share info and foster a love of reading
Materials : a large variety of books of different genres and levels of ability, big books, class books and children’s own books
Preparation : organise books into baskets according to subject, theme or level

31. Reading Centre 3. Independent Reading
Purpose : students will read a variety of books independently to practise strategies, gain fluency and foster a love of reading
Materials : see Reading with a Friend
Preparation : see Reading with a Friend