Low Prep Kindergarten Centers for September

As the school year gets into full swing, you can really start to see the benefits of a consistent routine in your classroom! A centers rotation is one part of the daily routine that can help your students become more independent learners as they practice important math and literacy skills.  Here are some Low Prep Kindergarten Centers for September that will make it easy for you to get this routine up and running in your classroom!

Low Prep Centers for September

Low Prep Literacy Centers for September

Your new kindergarten class likely has a wide range of literacy knowledge and skills. This is when literacy centers can come in handy!  Youโ€™re able to strategically choose activities that will best meet the needs of your students.  Many literacy center activities can also be modified or extended to support all of the new learners in your class.

Rhyming

These rhyming clip cards are a great way for students to practice phonemic awareness.  Students will begin by identifying the large picture on the card. The word is also written below the picture for students to reference if they are ready for that. Then students will identify the smaller pictures to find the one that rhymes.  They will then place a clothespin or small manipulative on the correct picture. This is great fine motor practice!

Task cards for a rhyming activity

If you use clothespins, you can increase student independence by making this a self-correcting activity. Just put a sticker on the back of the card, directly behind the correct picture.  Students can then flip over the card to see if their clothespin is in the right spot.

Alphabet Practice

Since students are already learning how to navigate a clip activity from the rhyming center, it will be easy for them to catch on to this letter-matching activity.

Adding a clip to a lowercase letter

Students will place a clothespin on the lowercase letter that matches the uppercase letter on the task card.  To switch it up, students could also use small manipulatives or dry-erase markers to identify the correct letter on each card.

This additional alphabet practice activity gives students the chance to practice many skills in one task!

Alphabet sentence task cards on a binder ring

Students will trace the letter and word on each card, giving them important practice with letter formation and pencil grip. Students can also use the predictable text on each card to practice reading a simple sentence. Repeating each sentence out loud will reinforce the concept of beginning sounds for your students.

Sight Words

This activity brings even more fall fun to your literacy centers as students practice sight words! They can choose a sight word card and then find the apple letters that will help them build the word on the apple tree task card. This activity is also editable, so you can target specific words that your students need to practice in September.

Building a sight word with apple cards

For students who need an extra challenge, you can give them the entire alphabet in apple letter cards!  They can practice putting the letters in alphabetical order or even try their hand at building their own words.  

Low Prep Math Centers for September

If youโ€™re looking for some low prep math centers for your September learning stations, check out these hands-on math activities!  Just like the literacy centers above, you can adjust many of these tasks to best meet the needs of the students in your classroom.

Colors

First, students can practice identifying items by color. Each task card features a student holding a crayon in the focus color. Students will then find all of the items on the task card that are the same color. They can do this by circling the items with dry erase markers or covering them with small manipulatives. 

Small blocks added to a task card for the color yellow

This activity also has space for students to trace the color word for additional letter formation review and fine motor practice.

Counting

In this activity, students will add the correct number of apples to match the number on the tree. You can adjust the difficulty of this task by choosing different task cards for your students to use. 

Adding small apple erasers to a numbered tree card

One option has the apples already on the tree, so students can practice counting as they cover each apple with another manipulative. The other option is blank for students who donโ€™t need that level of support with counting.

Ten Frames

Learning how to use a ten frame is a skill that will help students understand future math concepts, so itโ€™s helpful to start using ten frames as early as possible in the year! 

Adding play dough balls to a number task card

In this apple basket ten frame activity, students can choose a number card and trace the number on the apple using play dough, dry erase marker, or tiny manipulatives like beans or counters. They will then fill in the ten frame with the correct number of play dough balls or manipulatives. 

Another ten frame activity is this number-building center, where students will create a number using LEGO blocks. Then they can show the number on a ten frame using a dry-erase marker or manipulatives. This activity is great for your studentsโ€™ hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills! 

You can also use the number task cards to extend either of these activities. For example, you could invite your students to put the task cards in numerical order if they have extra time before switching to the next station.

Low Prep Kindergarten Centers for September

You can find all of the activities mentioned above in one easy-to-download resource. It includes all of the task cards you need to set up these Low Prep Centers for September.ย  Just print, laminate for durability and add any manipulatives that you need. The task cards are designed to fit in the plastic photo boxes, so everything you need for centers can be organized and ready to go each day. You can click the button below to take a closer look at everything included in this resource.

Save These Low Prep September Centers

If youโ€™d like to find these centers later, be sure to save this post!  Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest.  Youโ€™ll be able to quickly find these ideas when youโ€™re setting up your kindergarten centers for September.

Kindergarten Centers for September