Reading Center Activities Teaching Resources
Do you need new classroom reading center activities to kick-start literacy learning in your classroom? Explore a collection of thousands of reading activities, games, worksheets, printables, and more that have been created by teachers specifically for you to use in your literacy centers!
What Are Reading Centers or Literacy Centers?
Haven't set up centers in the classroom before? That's OK! The teachers who review every resource on the Teach Starter site before it ever makes it to your subscription have put their expertise together to create this guide to setting up reading centers to ensure your students get the most out of them!
First things first: What are centers? These spots in the classroom are designated spaces where your students can work individually or in small groups practicing decoding, blending, reading comprehension, and any other needed literacy skills. You might think of reading centers or literacy centers as practice areas for students to take the concepts you've been teaching and start tackling them independently.
If you need to differentiate instruction, classroom centers for reading can engage mixed-ability groups or academically-similar groups. You can also use your centers to focus on particular reading areas such as phonics, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension.
Centers are typically student-led and great for diverse learners to work at their own levels and paces. When group work is involved, the groups are limited to no more than four students.
What to Include in a Reading Center
Just as learning centers can be set up for various subjects (check out our math center activities while you're here!), reading centers can include various activities! That's why you'll find that our teacher team of experts has created everything from task cards to sorting activities to include in your reading centers.
Explore the collection to find the right activities for your students and your centers!
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Lowercase Letter Formation Task Cards
A set of task cards for younger students to learn how to accurately form all lowercase letters.
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Uppercase Letter Formation Task Cards
A set of task cards for younger students to learn how to accurately form all uppercase letters.
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CCVC Word Dominoes
Practice decoding and spelling CCVC words with this set of 28 dominoes.
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FIND IT! Long and Short Vowels - Task Cards
Practice distinguishing between short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds with this set of 16 task cards.
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Author's Purpose SORT IT!
Analyze 24 text examples and determine which of the 5 purposes of writing each of the sorting cards belongs to.
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FIND IT! Rhyming Words Game
Practice recognizing rhyming with pictures and words using this set of 20 cards.
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BUILD IT! CVC, CCVC, and CVCC Words
Encourage your students to practice decoding and spelling CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words with this set of 15 task cards.
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Literary Element Task Cards (Primary Grades)
A set of 12 task cards for primary students to use after reading a picture book.
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Onset and Rime Match-Up or Interactive Clip Card Activity
Practice forming words by blending onsets and rimes with this set of 15 rime cards that match their picture/onset card.
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FIND IT! Letter Sounds Board Game
Develop letter-sound relationships using this engaging multiplayer board game with 26 alphabet cards that players match to recognizable pictures.
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How Does It End? - Final Sounds Printable or Interactive Activity
Practice spelling CVC words with this set of 15 fill-in-the-blank word cards and their matching missing letters.
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Compound Word Smash Up!
Help students practice creating compound words by matching 15 compound word cards with their corresponding decoded word cards.
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Long and Short Vowel Sort
A set of 40 sorting cards to practice long and short vowel sounds.
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Rhyme Time - Match-Up Activity
A set of 32 match-up cards for students to practice rhyming.
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Vocabulary Match-Up
Print an engaging picture-word memory game that gets students actively reading while matching images to their words.
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Syllable Count Sorting Activity
Practice segmenting and counting syllables in words with this set of 24 picture sorting cards.
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What Does That Mean? Game
A board game where students identify the correct definition of multiple-meaning words.
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Vowel Sounds Sort - /i/, /o/, and /u/
Practice distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds for letters /i/, /o/ and /u/ by sorting this set of 24 picture cards into categories.
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Vowel Sounds Sort - /a/ and /e/
Practice distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds for letters /a/ and /e/ by sorting this set of 24 picture cards into categories.
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Beginning Sounds Sorting Activity
Practice identifying beginning sounds of words by sorting this set of 24 picture cards.
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Setting-Plot Relationship Worksheet
A worksheet that explores the connections between setting and plot.
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Alphabetize the Aquarium Activity
A set of 4 mats for students to practice alphabetizing.
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Short Vowels or BUST! Card Game
This phonological awareness activity awards points for correctly identifying the words with short vowel sounds.
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Grade 5 Magazine - "What's Buzzing?" (Issue 1) Task Cards
A set of five literacy rotation task cards to be used in conjunction with issue 1 of Teach Starter's Grade 5 magazine.
- Reading Center Activities Worksheets
- Reading Center Activities Games
- Reading Center Activities Task Cards
- Reading Center Activities Board Games
- Reading Center Activities Sorting Activities
- Reading Center Activities Templates
- Reading Center Activities Interactive Activities
- Reading Center Activities Matchup Games
- Reading Center Activities Puzzles
- Reading Center Activities Dominoes
- Reading Center Activities Card Games
- Reading Center Activities Dice Games
- Reading Center Activities Magazine
- Reading Center Activities Flashcards
- Reading Center Activities Mini Book
- Reading Center Activities Color by Code
- Reading Center Activities Graphic Organizers
- Reading Center Activities Bingo
- Reading Center Activities Cut and Paste Worksheets
- Reading Center Activities Posters
- Reading Center Activities Instructional Slide Decks
- Reading Center Activities Tarsia Puzzles
- Reading Center Activities Writing Templates
- Reading Center Activities Active Games
- Reading Center Activities Flipbooks
- Reading Center Activities Projects
- Reading Center Activities Craft Activities
- Reading Center Activities Mazes
- Reading Center Activities Word Walls
- Reading Center Activities Book Review Templates
- Reading Center Activities Fortune Teller Templates
- Reading Center Activities Checklists
- Reading Center Activities Word Searches
- Reading Center Activities for Pre-K
- Reading Center Activities for Kindergarten
- Reading Center Activities for 1st Grade
- Reading Center Activities for 2nd Grade
- Reading Center Activities for 3rd Grade
- Reading Center Activities for 4th Grade
- Reading Center Activities for 5th Grade
- Reading Center Activities for 6th Grade
- Reading Center Activities for 7th Grade