Managing Reading Street Centers Efficiently

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Efficiently.
In a way that achieves maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense. 

How efficient are you when it comes to planning? I can tell you that I have a lot of wasted effort (and expense) when it comes to centers. I can spend an entire weekend re-inventing the wheel and it never results in maximum productivity.

When you are using a reading program sometimes it is hard to figure out how to fit it all in. I have learned a few tricks along the way and I wanted to show them to you today because when I found them I was like, "Duh! I've been doing it all wrong!" 

When I started back in kindergarten 3 years ago I was greeted with boxes and boxes of Reading Street material. Can you say overwhelming?? Well for me it was and I had to really take my time through the curriculum to figure out what worked best for me. Here is one way that I organized the small group books. Instead of keeping the low, on level, and advanced selections in separate boxes I put them all together and labeled them with file tabs. 

It made it much easier to grab the whole group each week instead of searching in 3 different places. Plus it took up a lot less room in my closet! You can put a rubber band around them but I found that the little dividers worked just fine. I saved all of the cute boxes they came in just in case I ever change grade levels and need to leave these for another teacher.   

All 36 weeks fit in 3 of these Sterilite bins. You can get them HERE.  

In addition to storing all of those materials I needed something to organize each unit. I'm a binder gal and what's better than a pretty label for an organized binder?  

Click on the pic to get the binder labels FREE

What's in the binders? Centers of course! I created weekly centers to go with each unit that focus on sight words, letter sounds and recognition, grammar skills, and more! Here are a few examples of the activities and the way I set them out each week.  

#1 Roll a Word
This is a really fun sight word activity. Students roll a dice and then write the sight word on the recording sheet. I provide them with colored pencils or Twistable crayons to make it even more fun.

 #2 Sound Daubers
Students look at a picture and dab the beginning letter sound. They love doing this one and then I have some handwriting practice on the back to do when they are done.

 #3 Cut and Glue
There are all kinds of cut and glue activities in these packets but this one is always a favorite. Students cut the word out and glue it on the recording sheet along with reading the word, finding it, and writing it. We use glue sponges for this. 

 #4 Write the Room
This is a fan favorite for sure! Student use the recording sheet to write down words they find around the room. When they find all five words they go back to their seats and draw a picture of themselves with one of the words. Their pictures always make me smile! 

 #5 HFW Stamping
I bought these STAMPS from Amazon a couple of years ago and they have worked really well for our class. Each week this center is available and they flock to it!

 #6 HFW Little Book
Each week has a new little book. These are really easy to put together (they are two sided). Students cut the border off around the edges and then cut them in half (twice). They put a quick staple in the top and then they have an extra book for reading during the week. 

That's it! Easy peasy 6 centers and all I have to do is make copies. I don't even have to give directions after the first time because they stay consistent. These are just a few of the centers that are included. I do switch them around from time to time so we don't get bored.

Where can I get these amazing centers you ask? (I'm so glad you did!) You can take a closer peek at them HERE 

Don't forget to grab your FREE BINDER LABELS AND COVERS HERE!  before you go today and if you want to save this post for later pin it here. Thank you! 

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