All About Centers + a GIVEAWAY!

Hey all!!! I’m popping in today to discuss all about centers + be sure to keep scrolling as there is a GIVEAWAY! Last year I found myself scrambling for centers each week! Well… let me put it this way…. quick! What can I print, laminate, cut and throw into a basket without staying here until midnight!? HA! A little dramatic… but pretty much! Another biggie was my kiddos’ OBSESSION with our weekly KinderLiteracy themes! They ate it up and wanted more, more, more! We couldn’t read enough books or watch enough YouTube clips for our theme!

The first time I showed them our new themed centers….well they flipped out! What does that mean in teacher lingo? Happy kids equals ENGAGED kids! I’m sure you’ve ran across many center packets on TpT and I have several in my shop as well. They are all fantastic… but I still wanted more for my kiddos! They loved their skill focus centers for alphabet, sounds, rhyming, etc…. However, I wanted centers that would match up to our class themes and centers that would be so fun… they’d forget they were learning!

When I mapped out my list of themes and started creating the centers I knew I wanted something different from these centers. I wanted them to take on more of a “real-life” look as I knew this would be even more exciting for the kids! You’ll notice in the pictures below that there are very few “cut on the straight line” centers. These are hands-on and require the kids to really manipulate the pieces!

Up first I will share my Kindergarten themed centers! Even if you don’t teach KinderLiteracy…you’ll notice that they are all very common themes covered in kindergarten! There are 25 themes and you can see the full list below:

School
Apples
Transportation
Seasons
Pumpkins
Three Pigs
Three Goats
Three Bears
Little Red Hen
Bats
Scarecrows
Reindeer
Snow
Penguins

Snakes

Dinosaurs

Moon

Weather

Ponies

Rabbits

Frogs

Butterflies

Flowers

Community Helpers

Ocean

Below is an up close look of the center packets found in the kindergarten centers bundle!

This of course isn’t all of the centers but gives you a great look! Up next I’ll share about the 1st grade themed centers! I get a lot of questions about if they two bundles are the same! The answer to that is yes and no! No being that there are no duplicating centers… all the centers are unique in their skill! Yes, because you’ll notice that some of the clip art is the same! After many requests for 1st grade centers (from kindergarten teachers), I created a set that would be close for visual purposes! Kindergarten really wanted to use the centers for their higher kiddos without drawing a lot of attention…as the centers would visually look similar!

Below is an overview of the 1st grade themed centers!

School

Apples

Transportation

Seasons

Pumpkins

Fire Safety

Space

Patriotic

Volcanoes

Bats

Scarecrows

Reindeer

Snow

Penguins

Snakes

Dinosaurs

Moon

Weather

Ponies

Rabbits

Frogs

Butterflies

Flowers

Community Helpers

Ocean

Below is a closer look at a few of the first grade centers!

To celebrate our little center party here I have just now reinstated the Teacher Appreciation special “buy in price” for both the kindergarten and first grade center packets! You can snag all 250 kindergarten centers for $25 and the same sweet deal for first grade! 🙂 That’s $0.10 a center! OY!

You can snag the HUGE bundle at a crazy price below!

Kindergarten

First Grade

I also wanted to share with you about these skill focus spreadsheets! They contain the skills covered in each packet! They are great to reference for a quick way to see what skills are covered in both the kindergarten and themed centers packets! You can toggle between the two grade levels at the bottom!

When it comes to my themed literacy center packets, I am often times asked these three questions!

QUESTION #1: HOW DO YOU STORE ALL THE CENTERS?

This is a common question I get and it truly depends on you and your style! I am still a huge binder hoarder when it comes to storing centers. I like placing each center into a sheet protector, tabbing the first center under each theme, and then quickly flipping to it! However, YOU guy quickly changed my thinking this summer! I just love how the centers below have been easily stored in cheap , yellow, mailing envelopes!

Another AWESOME idea is to store the centers in containers! Below, Courtney has stored her centers in Rubbermaid containers! A lot of teachers have also been using the iris scrapbook cases as well!

QUESTION #2: HOW IN THE WORLD DO I PRINT ALL OF THESE COLORED CENTERS?

Well, this question is kind of two-fold! I have included ALL centers in a color and black/white version! However, most of us still prefer to print in color… so how in the world do we do that on a budget? You most likely have heard about instant ink… and if not well then, Lauren explains all about it here!

QUESTION #5: HOW CAN I POSSIBLY LAMINATE ALL OF THESE?

I get asked about what kind of laminator I have quite often! After your many questions I really got to thinking about my current laminator and decided it was time to part ways! Please don’t think I’m lazy when I typed in, “easy and fast laminator” to Google! Ha… sad but true! I mean it’s not that laminators are ‘hard’….but ya gotta admit that waiting on them to creep through can drive you nuts! It never fails that I think, “Oh I have 5 seconds before the next sheet can go in… them bam 10 seconds later you realize you just wasted 5 seconds LOL! So, ramble done… I came across the ezLaminator! Sounds ‘easy’ right? LOL!

Well I fell hook, line, and sinker…. but so happy I did! It’s a cold laminator! If you haven’t tried one before well they are like a dream in a few spins! Check it out below as I put it to the 5 year old kindergartner test!

So, yes it is called the ezLaminator and it’s on Amazon! However, I have something even better …. I am giving away THREE laminators! WOOOT! It’s easy peasy to sign up below! I’ll choose winners a week from today so 9/16! Choose any of the ways to enter below or all for more chances!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Well… that’s all I have for you! I hope you have a great weekend!

Comments

Miss Parsons says

September 10, 2016 at 2:02 am

Thank you for this post and the giveaway! Sometimes you forget about all the goodies you've made over the summer from Tara West! 😉

Nicole King says

September 10, 2016 at 4:00 pm

Super excited about this giveaway!! I entered all five and picked up the center packet too. Thanks for doing this and sharing all your hard work and ideas ☺️ Mrs. King

Stephanie Crisp says

September 10, 2016 at 4:36 pm

Thank you for the chance to win! I'm moving back to K this year from 1st grade and the K bundle would be a BLESSING! Kindergarten is where my heart is! Literacy centers are one of my favorite things to do, but sometimes I do feel like I'm rushing to find something and it's frustrating! Everything I've purchased from you on TPT has been helpful and a hit with my kids, so I don't expect any less from this bundle!

Cindy says

September 10, 2016 at 4:50 pm

Thank you for fantastic centers, and an opportunity to win an ezLaminator! I'm pacing out my center production for the year, and my kids will love them!

Th Ch says

September 10, 2016 at 8:32 pm

Love your centers Tara! I still think cutting lamination is therapeutic and calming (when it's not due like the next day:).

Courtney Petzold says

September 11, 2016 at 1:29 pm

Thank you for your hard work and for this lovely giveaway! Fingers crossed 🙂

Deb Thomas says

September 11, 2016 at 3:15 pm

Thank you for sharing all of your great knowledge about teaching and for the great giveaway!
Deb at Fabulously First

Multi - Age Teacher says

September 11, 2016 at 4:45 pm

Thanks so much for all your ideas makes all of our lives easier!! Would love to win a laminator!!

Cindy Bangart says

September 11, 2016 at 5:18 pm

Wow! That laminator looks fabulous!!! Just bought your $25 activity special, this would be a huge help!!

6 boys 4 me says

September 11, 2016 at 6:30 pm

I love these centers and everything else Tara does!! This would be amazing to have!

Amy says

September 12, 2016 at 10:36 am

Thanks so much for all of your hard work. You make my life so much easier.
Amy

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