The 5 Best Low-Prep Literacy Centers

In this post, I share 5 of the best low-prep literacy centers for kindergarten, first and second-grade students. These centers are all aligned to the Science of Reading and come in both printable and digital versions.

I love literacy centers, but I know not everyone feels the same way. When I talk to teachers about literacy centers, a major complaint I hear is that they just take too much time to prep. Centers are just one part of the school day. I know you don’t have hours to spend prepping for them. The thing is……you don’t have to! There are plenty of high-quality, engaging, science of reading-aligned center activities that take virtually no time to prep. You just have to find them!

You can always make independent reading and partner reading two of your centers because they require virtually no prep at all. But I’m guessing you want some centers that are more engaging, hands-on, and specifically focus on skills you have taught. That’s why today I’m sharing 5 of the best low-prep literacy centers that are hands-on and highly engaging for students.

These centers are aligned to the science of reading and take very little time to prepare. Once you’ve done a small amount of initial prep work you can use them over and over again for YEARS to come!

All of the centers I am sharing here today come in both printable and digital versions. The printable components are very low prep and the digital components require NO PREP at all. They have all been PRELOADED for you. With 1 click you add them to your Seesaw library or Google Drive and then you can assign them to your students for remote learning or individual centers.

In addition to saving you time, low-prep literacy centers are beneficial for students. We don’t want students to use their mental energy to manage different pieces, cut, and prepare to get started. Instead, we want them to use their time and mental energy on the actual skill they are practicing. Low-prep centers are great for students because they allow them to get straight to work and focus on the task at hand!

So let’s take a look at the 5 best low-prep literacy centers….

5 Low-Prep Literacy Centers

1. Word Sorts

Word sorts require students to think about how words work by drawing their attention to common spelling patterns. Students receive a set of words that all have something in common. They must identify the feature and sort them accordingly.

One of the major pitfalls with some word sorts is that they often require a lot of small pieces of paper, letter cuts, or word cards. They can take a long time to prep, distribute, and collect!

But NOT these activities! The printable pieces require very few cuts for students. There is NO TIME wasted dealing with materials!

Another BONUS is that the structure of each word sort in the resource remains the same. This saves you from having to explain and model every time you assign one! Once your students have successfully completed one sort, you can be sure they’ll be able to independently work through the rest at whatever pace you assign them! And with 38 different word sorts, you’ll have enough to last you the ENTIRE YEAR!

*Note- students should only be using word sorts AFTER a lot of explicit teaching of the spelling pattern. If students are just cutting and sorting words by the letters they see without decoding the words, word sorts become an ineffective activity.

Take a closer look at my Differentiated Word Sorts and download a FREE word sort here

2. Word Ladders

Once you have a strong word sort routine in place, an engaging exercise to continue the development of word awareness is Word Ladders, aka Word Chains.

Word ladders or word chains are a fun and challenging word activity. Students determine the next word in the ladder by changing just one phoneme to make the next word.

To prep this literacy center the only thing you need to do is make copies or slip a single sheet into a sheet protector. That’s it!! Students can use a dry erase marker to complete the ladder, erase it when done and it’s ready for next time!

Take a closer look at these self-checking Word Ladder activities here.

3. Yearlong Phonics Activities Bundle

One of the main benefits of centers is that they give students the practice they need to master the skills you teach. You teach A LOT of phonics skills and you don’t want to have to prep and create something new for each skill you teach! That’s why you’ll love my Yearlong Phonics Activities Bundle. It is a year-long, NO PREP, science-based resource. All you need to do to prepare this center is make copies!

Every unit in this bundle focuses on a different phonetic word pattern. Within each unit, you’ll find a variety of systematically, differentiated designed activities that give students the practice they need for mastery.

Included in the bundle:

CVC
Blends
Digraphs
CVCe
Vowel Teams
R-Controlled Vowels
Diphthongs & Variant Vowels

Additionally, the activities in each unit are consistent. This means once you explicitly teach your students how to complete the tasks in the first unit, they’ll know exactly what to do for the rest of the year. You won’t waste time teaching procedures and expectations for every unit. Students will be able to jump right in and successfully complete the tasks on their own without wasting any mental energy on trying to remember what they are supposed to be doing!

Take a closer look at this phonics center and download FREE printable and digital phonics skills activities from each of the units in the bundle here!

4. Writing Picture Prompts

These Writing Picture Prompts are a single, LOW PREP, year-long writing activity that provides the proper support to ALL levels of students. This bundle includes 25 each Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer picture prompts. enough to last you the entire year! There are a wide variety of prompts that allow you to use the resource to support narrative, informative, or opinion/persuasive writing!

The picture prompts include a variety of supports. For one, there is a list of related words included with each prompt. These are words I predict they may need while writing their story. Not only do the words support their spelling, but they also make it easier for students to add more detail to their writing.

At the bottom of each printable is a student editing checklist. This can serve as a self or peer-editing checklist. Finally, each printable comes in both primary and secondary lines.

The best part??? To prep this center, all you have to do is print out the prompts! It could not be any easier!

Take a closer look at the Writing Picture Prompts and download a free sample here.

5. Write the Room Decodable Sentences

For many years, Write the Room has been a favorite literacy center for teachers and students alike. It is a low-prep and highly engaging activity where students move around the room with a recording sheet to read & write decodable sentences that contain target phonics skills.

The Write the Room includes 2 levels of sentences to make it easy for you to differentiate. The Level 1 sentences follow our SoR-aligned and research-based 1st grade scope and sequence and the Level 2 sentences follow the 2nd grade scope and sequence.

At the bottom of each recording sheet, there is a checklist that students fill in as they read the sentences aloud to build fluency. This ensures students get to practice writing AND reading words with the target phonics skill.

To prep this center all you need to do is print the recording sheets and the sentences and then place the sentences around the room! If you choose to laminate the sentences, you’ll have the center for years to come!

Take a closer look and download a FREE sample of Write the Room Decodable Sentences here!

I hope the information and centers I’ve shared here today will help you see that high-quality, SoR-aligned literacy centers do NOT have to require a lot of prep work! Don’t worry about implementing them all at once, but go ahead and choose one and give it a try! Let me know how it goes!

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