Our FAVORITE Center Tools

What are your favorite tools to use during centers?  We have our favorites that hold up ALL YEAR LONG! As I get ready to start finishing up the year I can't help but reflect on some of our favorites. Most of these we introduced early in the year and they are still a favorite even this far into the year. 

Cut & Glue
What makes this so popular? Scissors of course but my students love being introduced to glue sponges. They are so amazing, I can not say enough about them! I make them once a year, add a little glue every once in awhile and that is that! I debated making these for YEARS before I actually got around to doing them and I will never go back. 

Simple directions: 
1. A sealable container 
2. A sponge 
3. Dump a bottle of glue on said sponge  
4. Seal it up! 

So simple right? The glue soaks into the sponge and then anytime you need a little glue just dab your paper right on the sponge and you get the perfect amount. I flip the sponges over from time to time and add a little glue about half way through the year. Other than that....nada! 

Even better? Papers don't stick together in our turn in box. I love that part!!

Word Searches
These are really popular with some of my students for one main reason. TWISTABLES! I always keep a container of these super fun crayons as an extra motivator for my students. They hold up amazingly well all year long. 

If I can't use Twistables I use colored pencils. Since we don't use those on an everyday basis either they can be a pretty popular choice too! 

Stamping
I invested in some of these stamps a couple of years ago and I have never been disappointed with my purchase. I only had one set of stamps (that were very bulky and hard to store) before I found these on Amazon. My students flock to this station at the beginning of the year so I needed four sets to keep them happy. I don't need to have quite as many sets out now but they are still in use every day. These heavy duty stamp pads have lasted for years too. (I think I've had them 5 years!)

Here is my affiliate link for these. If you purchase through this link I receive a small amount at no additional cost to you. Just click on the pic. 


Write the Room
Permission to get up and walk around? Yes please! They love this center and other than putting up new words every week it is pretty low maintenance. I have a bucket of clip boards available for students to use during centers so they just walk around the room with one of those to write the words. We always draw a picture of one of the words (and be sure to include ourselves). I love seeing their pictures they draw each week and I know they are making a real connection if they are in the picture!  This is how I wish I looked on the beach with a crab. HA! 

For students who SPEED through everything I had to make sure they were really taking their time with write the room. We added a "HAVE TO" do on the back of the page that they have to complete before they can take their walkabout. It is usually a handwriting page for some extra practice. They know if it isn't completed neatly they will have to meet with me later in the week to work on that letter. They work really hard to show me they know how to make their letters! 

Little Books
These are a fan favorite every week. Seriously. On Monday I know everyone is going to go for the little book and that's ok. Why? They keep it in their browsing box all week and it is EXTRA reading material for them to practice. At the beginning of the year I show them how to cut off the border around the outside of the little book and then cut it into 4 pieces (these are two sided for a total of 7 reading pages). They put them in order and staple in the corner and ViOlA! A little book just perfect for their little hands.  We use the colored pencils and Twistables with these. 

These 6 staples in our center routine make for SUPER easy planning. The first year I did these I kept thinking they would get bored but guess what? They don't! They love the consistency of the centers and there are always enough options that they aren't doing the same thing week to week. Our cut and glue centers have a bunch of choices (sight words, mixed up sentences, letter sorts and word sorts) as well as the stamping and word searches so there are always a ton of choices. I make a few new copies each week and I am DONE and DONE. Yay for not working too hard! 

These are our keepers for the year. I am ALWAYS on the search for more fun ideas for centers and pin as many as I can. Here is a pin for you to save this one for later! You can follow me on Pinterest HERE.

If you would like to see the centers we use along with these tools you can see them HERE. I make weekly centers aligned with Reading Street stories that focus on weekly sight words, letters of the week, grammar skills, and have pages to use for our focus wall. 

Thanks for stopping by today! What are your favorite tools to use during centers? I would love to hear your fun ideas!