2nd and 3rd grade centers
I used Magic Tree House books with my 2nd and 3rd graders. I started off the year with
the first one, “Dinosaurs Before Dark”, but wasn’t doing centers. Instead I was doing
teacher-directed lessons/activities with the whole class, but didn’t like how things were
going so I switched them over to centers once we started the second book, “Knights at
Dawn”. We read both the fiction book and the nonfiction companion books during our
read aloud times (both before check-out time on Mondays and Fridays and on center
days on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays).
My circulation for the Magic Tree House series was phenomenal; many students told
me that their summer reading goal was to read as many in the series as possible.
Here is what I did for centers with my 2nd and 3rd graders:
Knights at Dawn
Kiva center: Students worked by themselves or with one or two partners and read nonfiction books and magazines that I had pre-selected on knights, castles, and the middle
ages. Students had to create a question and answer card based on what they had read.
That meant they were reading for information and also putting information they
learned into their own words, because they had to turn statements around and put
them into a question and answer format. They could illustrate their cards as well.
Table center: Students created art related to middle ages and castles. They could
either create a castle using pre-cut geometric shapes of black construction paper or
create a “stained glass window” by using a piece of acetate and permanent markers.
Books were provided so students could sketch out ideas and get inspiration for
medieval themes and castle structures.
Computer center: Students followed a handout on how to get to NetTrekker and
working on a medieval web quest site to find answers to questions. The focus was on
reading for information and following directions.
Mummies in the Morning
Kiva center: Students used the Smartboard to play the ancient Egyptian game of
Senet. They also used the World Book “Interfact” CD to learn how to make a mummy
and answer questions about the process and become part of an interactive story in
which they were an Egyptian slave trying to get away from his owner.
Table center: Students used the atlas and a worksheet to become atlas explorers.
They had to read directions, read maps, locate rivers, countries, and capital cities.
Computer center: Students viewed a movie from Encyclomedia about ancient Egypt,
they visited KYVL and did research on desert animals, and they visited NetTrekker and
were able to do a variety of interactive games on mummies and pyramids.