Try a FREE hands-on holiday activity here!
With all of the excitement at the end of the school year, it’s helpful to continue certain learning routines for as long as possible! One of my favorite classroom routines is our centers rotation time, especially when we can use fun seasonal activities. These May centers for kindergarten will get your students excited for summer and help them prepare for first grade!
My end of the year centers collection includes 18 standards-based literacy activities that your students will love! Today I’m going to preview some of these centers.
Each activity includes an I Can visual instruction card that encourages independence. These centers also include recording sheets to increase accountability and track progress.
This collection of summer-themed literacy centers has several word-building activities that your students will love! In the Secret CVC Words center, students will use a key to help them decode a secret word. Once they build and read the word, they will find the matching picture and write the word on their recording sheet.
Bubbles Full of Words is another activity that will help students build CVC words. On each card is a jar of bubbles with a picture on the label. Students will build the correct word using bubble letter cards, then write the word on the recording sheet.
Are your students ready to build words with long vowel sounds? They will love A Picnic of CVCe Words! They will use the silent e and letter cards to build words to match the picture on each picnic basket. Students love to watch the ants carrying away the picnic lunch as the word is built!
Hearing rhymes and syllables will be important for our students as they continue to build their reading and writing skills. In the Flip Flopping Rhymes center, students will use their knowledge of rhyming to create a matching pair of flip flop sandals. Then they will write the matching word on their recording sheets.
Students will love preparing a water balloon fight for the Summer of Syllables center! Students will identify how many syllables they hear in the word on each water balloon card. Then, they will match that card to the correct bucket of water balloons. They can also record the number of syllables on the recording sheet.
By the time spring rolls around, kindergarten students can hear sounds in all positions of words. In Shady Beginning Sounds, students will build a pair of sunglasses by matching a picture to its correct beginning sound. On the other hand, the Ice Cold Ending Sounds activity invites students to build popsicles by adding a stick with the correct ending sound to a frozen treat.
The Beginning and Ending Sounds center is a fun challenge for students to build an ice cream sundae! Each ice cream dish contains a picture and the middle vowel sound. Students then need to identify the beginning and ending sounds that will complete the word.
In addition to scooping ice cream, students will be Scooping Up Middle Vowels in this beach-themed literacy center! Students will choose a sand bucket card that contains a picture and a word with the vowel sound missing. They will find the sand shovel that contains the correct middle vowel sound.
In the Surfing for Digraphs activity, students will choose a surfboard card containing a picture. After saying the picture name, students will listen for the digraph sound and match the surfboard to the correct digraph card. They will either hear the digraph as a beginning sound or an ending sound.
Blends Are Sailing in this fun literacy center! Students will listen for the beginning blend as they name the picture on each sailboat. Then, they will match the boat to the correct beginning blend on the water cards.
My end-of-the-year centers collection includes 20 hands-on learning activities! Just like the literacy centers, these math centers for May include instruction cards and recording sheets for each activity.
Number sense activities are always important to continue throughout the kindergarten school year. The Scoops of Numbers center has students model the number on an ice cream cone with multiple ice cream scoops, such as tally marks and ten frames.
The ability to quickly make ten is an important skill for math fluency. The Let’s Make Ten center uses beach balls to help students visualize different combinations of ten.
In the spring, kindergarten students are ready to practice a variety of addition and subtraction tasks! In the Build a Sun center, students will solve multiple addition and subtraction equations and place them on the correct answer. Students are so excited to see the suns that they create by solving these math problems!
Could your students use more practice with a number line? The Roasting Those Sums center comes with a number line card that students can use to solve a variety of addition equations. Once they solve the equation on each campfire, they will find the matching sum on a marshmallow roasting stick and record the answer.
Help your students practice addition in a different way by identifying the missing addend in an equation. In the Seeds Are Missing center, students will use watermelon seeds to help them determine how many seeds they need to get to the sum.
Students can practice identifying 2D or 3D shapes on a fun seashell hunt! They will decide if the picture on each seashell is a 2D or 3D shape, then add it to the correct bucket.
Students can also practice creating and completing patterns in the Popsicle Patterns center. Students will choose a strip of popsicles and continue the pattern shown on the card. This activity also contains blank cards for each pattern type so students can practice creating their own patterns.
Many of the math centers I’ve shared include teen numbers. Here are some additional summer centers to help students practice teen numbers.
In the Numbers Flying High activity, students can practice ordering numbers 1-20 and 18-30. Students will select a cloud card with four numbers out of order and put those numbers in the correct sequence using hot air balloon cards.
The Surfing for Base Ten Blocks center allows students to visualize teen numbers as tens and ones. For each surfer card containing a combination of base ten blocks, students will find the corresponding wave card with the correct number.
Students can also practice counting and sequencing teen numbers with the Counting Seashells math center. They will choose a card with the beginning and ending number of a sequence, then find the seashells that contain the missing numbers for that sequence.
Are you interested in ending your school year with these fun literacy and math centers for May? You can find this collection of 38 hands-on kindergarten activities in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Be sure to save this post to your favorite classroom board on Pinterest! You can quickly find these centers activities when you’re ready to download and print.
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!
