Station Sticks

Station sticks are laminated 'sticks' that have specific reading rotation activities on them.  The directions are very self-explanatory, so the students will be able to use them on their own after they have been introduced to them.  You could also have a parent-volunteer use them in small groups, or you could use them yourself in a small group.

You can make as many or as few as you wish, and you can also level the 'sticks' as needed.  I keep my sticks on a ring because I use them myself in my small groups, but you could keep them in a cup and have the students pull 'sticks' if you didn't want to assign certain sticks to specific groups.

I printed out the spis and placed them on the back of each card, which is handy when writing lesson plans or for an evaluation.

The following skills are on my "sticks".  You could put a variety of skills on your sticks, depending on you prefer and what is needed in your classroom.

• Letter from the Reader (write a letter to the main character)
• What Do You Hear? (listen for words with 1, 2, or 3 syllables)
• What's the Word? (Identify interesting or unknown words)
• Take My Word For It (generate a list of words the contain specific sounds)
• Fluency (read passages for fluency)
• Welcome! Welcome! (create a mini-poster advertising the setting of the story or passage)