PocketChart/Listening Center...a compromise!

Two of my least favorite centers are pocketchart and listening. (I know, I know....don't stone me.....) I think there are great activities for both but they often seem to be overwhelming for the kiddos.

PocketChart center tends to get boring...(sorry it can) and Listening center doesn't provide enough for them to do. So I compromised! I put these centers together.....

I have a little nook for my PocketChart center.

In this center kids can do the normal things: match student names and pictures, sort words and names into how many letters they have, how many vowels and consonants, syllables, etc.

Here is my fun twist! I placed a stereo with headphones. I love nursery rhymes and I find kids in 1st and 2nd grade have a hard time recognizing them. So I spend extra time in kinder with nursery rhymes. (They are great for oral language, vocabulary, and retelling).

Each week we read a nursery rhyme, discuss it, act it out, etc. I have a CD with funky versions of many different nursery rhymes on it. My FABULOUS friend, Sherry, recorded each nursery rhyme song on a blank CD 3 times.  I have 1 nursery rhyme song on a CD by itself (so kids cannot just listen to whatever). The kids love ROCKIN' out to the nursery rhyme each week.

But....that's not all. As the kids listen to the nursery rhyme they are busy coloring, cutting, and making a sequence book that correlates to the nursery rhyme. They can use the pocketchart to sequence the pictures and retell the story before stapling it (with a non-staple stapler of course).

PocketChart center is now a BIG FAVORITE in my room!

Have you ever tried combining a couple of centers to provide more flexibility and choice? Let's discuss below :0)