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It has been a busy couple of months! Once March is here, I am usually counting down the days until spring break on post-its hidden inside my desk! As much as I look forward to spring break, I know that this month can get busy and overwhelming with quarterly assessments, conferences, and more! A time of day that I can ALWAYS rely on to get most of my testing and preparation for conferences done is during my center rotations. I am excited to share with you some of my kindergarten centers for March that keep my students so engaged with hands-on activities that I sometimes feel like I could leave the room to grab some coffee at Starbucks and my students would never know! By the way… I would never do that!
I wanted to share these activities with you in hopes that these hands-on centers could help make your busy March a little easier! Your students can be working on engaging math and literacy skills that provide so much practice and learning while you are getting everything that needs to be done without the stress or overwhelm!
These kindergarten centers for March are packed with 36 different math and literacy skills. Many of the center activities that are included have several options for you to choose from that work best for your class and to use for differentiating.
Each March center activity includes a recording sheet for accountability and a kid-friendly ‘I Can’ poster for students to know exactly what to do without having to ask you. These ‘I Can’ posters make a huge difference in the amount of work I can get done during small groups and assessments. Even if a student does not know what to do using the ‘I Can’ poster, there is always a student nearby that can help.
Here is a list of the different skills included in these March literacy centers:
I like to include way more centers than I can sometimes use in one month. The reason for this is that I can differentiate with my class, use some activities for small groups and with specific students. Each year, my students are different than the last. I may not need a literacy center activity that I used this year but may need to use it next year. I hope that makes sense!
Here is a peek at some of the literacy centers included in these kindergarten centers for March.
This hands-on middle sounds activity truly takes on the March theme!
Students determine the missing short vowel sound in the CVC word. They place a rainbow with the correct short vowel sound on the pot of gold to make the word complete.
This CVC words center allows students to feel like detectives!
They will use a code to build a CVC word. Once students build the word, they get to read the CVC word and match the correct picture to the word.
Do your students love leprechauns? If so, they will be so excited for the leprechaun to reach the top of the hat!
Students look at the picture on the hat and determine the ending sound letter. They place the leprechaun with the correct ending sound letter on the top of the hat.
I LOVE mystery pictures and I especially love creating them for so many different skills. This mystery picture is all about matching rhyming words.
Students will read the word on the puzzle piece. They will place it on the correct picture that rhymes with that word. Once all of the rhyming words are matched correctly, a mystery picture will be revealed.
The suspense keeps students engaged from the beginning to the end and they usually want more!
Do your students love Mystery Pictures or Mystery Puzzles?
Word families are such an important role in literacy development. They teach word patterns and can significantly increase the number of words your little learner can read. The more practice students get with word families, the more fluent and strong readers they become.
Students will determine the word family for the given picture. Then, they will place the correct word family next to the picture to show the complete CVC word.
Even if students have their letter sounds mastered pretty well, it is so beneficial to continue practicing them. I like adding beginning sound centers each month to provide continued practice.
Students get to match the picture on the cloud to the beginning sound letter on the pot of gold.
Sight words are everywhere we look! The more practice the more students will know them. This sight words center activity has sight words ready to be built and so many to choose from!
Students will build the sight word next to the piano using music notes with letters.
March centers wouldn’t be complete without some gold coins!
This hands-on CVC words activity has students building the CVC word on the pot of gold using letters on gold coins.
Students get such a good laugh when you tell them that they need to help the leprechaun find her shoes!
They get to match the picture on the leprechaun to the correct beginning digraph on the shoes.
To help continue to build phonemic awareness, I like to add activities where students identify different sounds and multiple sounds in a word.
This phonemic awareness activity has students determine the beginning and ending sounds of the picture on the rainbow. You can use magnetic letters or the letters that I have included.
This digraph center adds a little challenge! Students look at the digraph on the card. They will place a clothespin on the picture that has the matching digraph at the beginning or end of the word. By the way, adding clothespins to an activity instantly makes it more exciting for students!
As I continue to move to some of my math centers for March, you will notice that these activities are also very hands-on. By having hands-on center activities I have noticed how much more engaged and excited students are to be working on each task. When engagement and excitement is up, more learning and mastering of different skills happen!
Here is a list of the different skills included in these March literacy centers:
Students get to show off their mental math skills by showing numbers to 10 in a variety of ways. Or you can add a challenge and have students show numbers to 20 in a variety of ways.
Students sort shamrocks with different ways to show a number onto number mats. For example: tallies, addition, dice, base ten blocks, ten frames, place value, fingers, and more.
This center activity is great addition facts practice. Students will solve the addition equation on the leprechaun trap.
Then, they will place the leprechaun pulling a pot with the correct sum under the trap.
This addition center activity is packed with great learning and hands-on fun for addition.
Students will solve the addition equations on the hearts and sort them to the stem with the correct sum. The best part of this activity is that students get to build a 4 leaf clover with the hearts that they sorted.
Measuring is not only a skill students get to learn in kindergarten, but is also a great life skill!
Students get to measure different March themed pictures using nonstandard measurement. This measurement center activity uses shamrocks to measure.
This subtraction activity is similar to the addition sorting activity.
Students get to solve the subtraction equation below the gold and place it on the pot with the correct answer. The pots will soon be filled with gold! Choose from many different answers that the students will solve and sort the subtraction equations.
Students will get TONS of hands-on practice with this comparing groups activity.
They will roll two picture dice. Then, find and place those picture cards on the mat. They will count how many there are of each group to compare them to each other. So many skills are packed into this one activity!
Combining both addition and subtraction really gets students to pay attention to the symbol in the equation. It also allows them extra practice with putting together and taking apart. Lots of focus is needed in this center activity in order to complete the equations correctly.
Students get to solve different addition and subtraction equations. However, there is a twist! Some of the equations have the correct answer and some do not. Students get the extra challenge of determining whether the equation on the card is true or false.
Counting is not only such an important skill in kindergarten to continue to practice all year, but this is a skill that will be used for a lifetime! Providing as much practice with counting and counting objects will only make students math skills stronger in all areas.
This one-to-one correspondence activity has students counting out the correct number of gold coins to show the number on the pot. You can choose counting from numbers 1-10 or 11-20.
I couldn’t have a literacy mystery picture without a math mystery picture. This mystery picture takes it up a notch and has students matching the numbers on the puzzle pieces to the correct ten frames to reveal a mystery picture. They will match numbers 1-20.
What you may notice about ten frames is how students are starting to memorize what they look like. You may notice your students stop counting the dots with their fingers and instead just look at the ten frame or ten frames and know what the number is. This is such an exciting and huge skill for them to develop!
Counting on can not only be a difficult skill to learn, but also a difficult skill to teach!
I have found that in this counting on activity students have the most success when they start at the given number and touch each 4 leaf clover when they count on. By touching the clovers, it helps students know when to stop and to see what counting on means in a hands-on way.
Students have so much fun finding the leprechaun’s missing hat!
Students will determine the number missing in the sequence by placing the correct number on the hat to the top of the leprechaun’s head. You can choose from missing numbers to 10 or missing numbers to 20.
Practicing counting with different math tools is great practice for so many math skills!
Using base ten blocks is kind of like another counting on activity. Once students understand that the tens block has 10 blocks, they no longer need to go super close to the paper to touch and count each of those little blocks. Instead, they can say 10 and count on from there all of the small blocks to get the answer.
It’s time for some real-life 2D shapes practice and fun!
Students get to use a spinner to spin a shape, find the real-life shape on their recording sheet, and color the real-life shape the color as the shape on the spinner. The spinner is easy to make and use! All you need is a paperclip, a pencil, and the spinner. Students hold the paperclip in place with the pencil and flick the paperclip to make it spin.
March is a busy month! Having center activities that are hands-on, engaging, and full of important math and literacy skills will allow you to get some needed time to complete student assessments and prep for conferences during March. I always feel more at ease and capable of tackling my tasks while knowing my students are engaged and having fun while learning with these kindergarten centers for March.
There are 36 March centers included and you got to see a peek at many of those activities. You can find all of these engaging and hands-on kindergarten centers for March in my A Spoonful of Learning Shop or at my TPT Store.
Looking for MORE March activities? You can read all about my different March activities and ideas that will help with your planning and fill most of your month with hands-on, engaging, and fun learning! Click HERE to read all about it.
Be sure to save these hands-on kindergarten centers for March to your favorite Pinterest board so that you can come back any time for engaging center activities that you can add to your classroom or home!
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
