Stamp-A-Word

This Stamp-A-Word center was just the thing to encourage my future writers to interact with print.  Provided at the center are:

• sentence strips with the words 'I see a ________' printed on them
• lower-case letter stamps
• stamp pad (with many dire verbal warnings from me that the ink won't come off little fingers!!)
• Halloween words and pictures that the children can use as a model.  These were placed in pocket charts so that the students could take them out and have them closer to where they were stamping.  It's really hard for four and five-year olds to look up at something stapled on the wall... they need a closer proximity to maximize their success.
• pencil crayons to make illustrations with

Because I wanted the children to take their time and value the work that they did I established some criteria for this center:

• Only 2 students at a time.
• Each student must make 3 sentence strips with 3 different Halloween words.
• Once the stamping was done we would staple a cover on the front and turn the 3 sentences strips into a mini-book.
• Once the student has a mini-book they can read it to a friend or the whole class (everyone wanted to read it to the whole class).
• Every successful author received a Halloween ring (I love the dollar store).