WELCOME TO CENTER TIME!

You'll be hearing about center time all year. This is our independent work time, when the children choose the work centers that they will go to. Your child will visit three to four centers per day. Most centers have a variety of tasks that your child will choose from. Often, centers will have both a selection of activities and a specific task that is mandatory.

If your child repeatedly tells you that he/she didn't do anything at school, it might be helpful to ask him what centers he/she went to that day. This paper will help you understand what each center emphasizes, and why it is so important to our curriculum. You may want to keep it in a safe place so that you can refer to it throughout the year.

Art Tables and the Easel

Art simultaneously develops all areas of a child: fine motor, large motor, emotional, cognitive, symbolic communication, and social skills. Math skills such as how to use space, thick and thin, etc., are learned as we complete art jobs. One table is used to complete specific projects, following directions; the other table is used for creative art experiences. At the easel, a child may develop his muscle systems by using his whole body to make large strokes.

Role Play

The most productive learning experiences come from children's natural play. Our role-play area is related to our thematic units in science and social studies. It is sometimes a house, a space shuttle, a post office, or a restaurant. Such important concepts as self-worth, cooperation, self-control, and imagination are nurtured in our role-play center. The children will use writing and reading for real purposes in their dramatic play. This will encourage literacy development, as they are motivated to use these skills to accomplish tasks that have meaning and a purpose for them.

Blocks and Games and Puzzles

Our large muscle area holds much more than just blocks, but that is what we call it most of the time. Block building is science: gravity, stability, weight, trial and error, inductive reasoning, and interaction of forces. It is math: classification, measurement, volume, area, sequence, number, fractions, height and weight, depth and length. Block building is physical development: eye-hand coordination, visual perception, hand manipulation, and balancing. It is also art, social studies, language, and social skill..

The selection of activities in the game and puzzle center changes regularly, but the concepts being taught remains the same. Math, language, and science-oriented games build cognitive development. Small muscle control, eye-hand coordination, and visual discrimination are developed with puzzles, stencils, and other manipulatives. Social and emotional skills are also developed in the game center, as the children learn to share, take turns, and follow rules of different games.

Alphabet, Writing, and Library

These centers house the activities your child will use to build his literacy skills this year. The language center deals mostly with the alphabet, and how letters make words we can read and write. The writing center is our space to practice the mechanics of handwriting, as well as learning how to use written language creatively. We will be writing regularly, and this center will be available for extra practice or conferencing with the teacher. Our library is filled with favorite books, flannel board stories, books on the tape recorder, and puppets. Many of the books are ones I read aloud, repeating them often to teach specific literacy skills.

Math

Our math center gives children many opportunities to manipulate tangible objects. They will classify objects, discovering relationships between them, form sets, make patterns, and seriate according to size. Because math for a young child should be a concrete activity rather that an abstract concept, few papers will come home. Our math center is one area where we develop the awareness that we can solve problems and create solutions.

Science

Curiosity, experimentation, discovery, observation, decision-making, and problem solving are all-important abilities we nurture in our science center. Math and scientific concepts such as classification, comparison, and sequencing are reinforced. We learn to draw conclusions. We learn to be scientists as we go about our lives on this lovely planet, Earth. Specific units include colors, dinosaurs, nutrition, weather, magnetism, our five senses, living things, space, as well as others the children wish to investigate.

Computer

Your child will have the opportunity to work at the computers during center time. He/she may work on writing, math, science, or art activities, or use computer games based on a current thematic unit, while learning valuable computer skills.