If you have students working on their letters, this letter recognition literacy center is always a favorite! This was probably one of the very first centers I set up in my first classroom, way back when. It is a meaningful center that works great at any time of year, especially toward the end of the year, for early readers. Read on to learn about setting it up and the benefits of this letter recognition literacy center.
Setting Up your Letter Center
Setting up your letter center won’t take a ton of time, and then it will be set for daily use, for a long time!
How to set it up:
- Grab a similar container, with a lot of drawers. They typically can be purchased from a hardware store, or craft store.
- Using a dry erase marker (or permanent marker, if you’re just using for letter names and sounds), write one letter on each drawer. You can also use printed labels.
- Choose letter tiles that fit in the drawers for students to sort. Put them in a container next to the drawers.
Using the Letter Center
Now that it’s set up, using the letter center is simple! Students will pick a letter from the container and then place that letter in the appropriate drawer. Check out the video below to see this in action!
Students can:
- state the letter name
- state the letter sound
- place objects, or pictures, at the center, students then pick one and determine the beginning letter of that object, and place it in the matching drawer
- write phonics patterns (digraphs, blends, etc.) on each drawer- students then match letter tiles/printed cards, objects, or pictures in the appropriate drawer
The benefits:
More practice with Letters
If your readers need more practice with letters, my ABC reading passages are super helpful! They allow students to listen to a story that has many words matching up to each letter of the alphabet. Students get to then identify those letters in the story by circling uppercase and lowercase letters. They also then label specific words from the story, using those letters, again.
You can read more about the ABC stories or check them out, for your readers!
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