Each Monday we collaborate with our building's new and Dual Language staff members for a professional development session based on what they highlight as their needs and/or desires for learning! This week we focused on Daily 5 ideas as all of our staff are currently working hard to get their stations and guided reading up and running! The teachers who attending the session came up with a variety of wonderful ideas and activities that could potentially be used throughout the year in these work stations. I thought some of you may enjoy taking a gander at what they came up with as well! Just a little background... we utilized a strategy many of you may be familiar with called "Round Robin" to gather ideas during our meeting. The staff were given the anchor charts with only the titles and asked to add any activity ideas they were doing, would like to do, etc. based on the title on their paper. We gave each group 1 minute to brainstorm and write their ideas, and then they were asked to pass the poster to the next group. We continued to do this until all posters had made it to all groups. This is a great strategy that you could use with your students as well to assess their background knowledge and/or learning of concepts. You could even do it at the beginning of the year to see what activities they already know and enjoy doing during Daily 5 if they are familiar with it from the year past! This may give you some insight as to what they may want to do in your classroom as well! Alright now onto the posters...keep in mind these were quickly written by our staff and we discussed them a bit after as well, so not everything may make perfect sense! But feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any and I would be happy to try my best to answer! After our meeting, I also took some time to type up all of their ideas onto one page for them to hold on to and refer to throughout the year. You are welcome to a copy if you'd like- just click on the image below :)! (Graphics: Scrappin Doodles, Priscilla Concepcion)
Take a deep dive into the common five structure options for your ELA block with benefits of each outlined in an informative and actionable manner.
Use this color-coded schedule to help your five groups navigate through Daily 5 Rotations. The "meet with teacher" time is built in to facilitate guided reading.
If you’ve read my blog before, you probably know that I use a Daily 5 structure to organize our reading time. I love the freedom, choice, and time spent reading/writing it offers my students. One of the most common questions/comments is “My students can’t handle choice. I’m doing Daily 5 just without the choice. My...
Ever since I started Daily 5 in my classroom, it has run smoother, my kids are reading more, and I am able to teach more. I have begun to search for some organizational products for me and my students. I have been looking for something exactly like these cards. They are compact enough to be kept at their desks. It's going to be so much easier for students to keep track and for me. With just a glance I can see what they have done...and what they may need to be pushed to do. I have no idea who created these. I found them on Pinterest. There are also wonderful instructions on how to introduce each part of Daily 5. I am definitely using these next year! I apologize for not knowing who created these. If you know, would you let me know, so I can give credit. Here's another example of how to keep them really reading, thinking, and writing. This was created by The Fighting Texan. If you want the whole kit and caboodle, head on over here. Holy Cow! This has everything you need! AND IT'S FREE!!! The last thing I'm going to share today is a Daily 5 Rubric Who Knew??? I just love these ideas! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Have a wonderful day!
Today was the first day that we did our Daily 5 stations in class and I am so pleased with how it went! I am currently using 5 stations (rea...
Many teachers make these common mistakes when teaching literacy. Read this post to learn what NOT to do at the beginning of the school year!
To Use: You should begin using a Choice Board once you have introduced two components of Daily 5. This way, students get in the habit of choosing between fewer choices and gradually build up to choosing between five choices. This gradual release will allow students to really master the difficult task of planning out their own schedule in a way that is developmentally appropriate. Visually it will be more concrete and less confusing for students to see a choice board that gradually builds up to all components. This is another way of building their stamina and executive functioning skills at an early age. These choice boards are used from Tuesday- Friday. Mondays are used to prep students for their Daily 5 week. Activities like choosing books for book bags, updating poetry folder, reviewing new choices, sharing writing from previous week, etc, are done on the first day of each week. Included: 4 Choice Boards that help younger students gradually work up to choosing between all 5 Daily 5 activities in a gradual release model. 1 Daily 5 Choice Poster that allows students to identify the Daily 5 choice based on color for each cycle. Border credit goes to Hello Literacy
Today was the first day that we did our Daily 5 stations in class and I am so pleased with how it went! I am currently using 5 stations (rea...
Word work activities for ANY words! Word work is an essential part of language learning in the primary grades. Make word work FUN while LEARNING takes place! There are seventeen different word work activities included in this pack. They can be used for absolutely ANY word learning! Perfect for literacy centers or sub plans. A must have for Kindergarten- Third Grade! #wordwork #wordworkactivities #spelling #1stgrade #2ndgrade #kindergarten
This product is part of a bundle! Check it out here: First Grade Supplemental Unit 3 Bundle This resource is a supplemental unit for the "Seasons" Journeys First Grade Lesson in Unit 3. This is for the 2011 edition, but can possibly be used with other versions. Please check to see if this resource is compatible with your Journeys edition before you purchase. If you use the Journeys Reading Basal Series, then this resource is perfect for you. Use this resource to make your life easier! The activities are much easier to prep and manage, and they are very engaging for your students. There are centers, work stations, worksheets, word cards, graphic organizers and anchor charts. These can easily be used in small group instruction, literacy centers, whole class activity, cooperative learning, and to differentiate your instruction. This resource includes all of the topics (Common Core Aligned) covered in the thirteenth lesson "Seasons" •Words to Know •Spelling Words •Vocabulary •sh, wh, ph Digraphs •Contractions 's, n't •Words Ending in -s, -ed, -ing •Subjects and Verbs •Daily Proofreading Practice •Writing Prompts •Cause and Effect Here are the activities included: -p. 4 Words to Know Cards -p. 5 Spelling Words Cards -p.6-12 Words to Know Practice -spin-read-write -rainbow write -write three times -sentences -p.13 Vocabulary Practice -sentence writing -p.14-17 Spelling Words Practice -spin-read-write -rainbow write -write three times -sentences -p.18-23 sh, wh, ph Digraph Practice -onset, rime -p. 24-34 sh, wh, ph Digraph Practice -word sort -cut & paste activity -p.35-39 Daily Proofreading Practice -p.40-46 Contractions 's and n't Center -p.47-53 Words Ending in -s, -ed, -ing Practice -p.54-58 Subjects and Verbs Practice -p.59-64 Writing Prompts -p.65-66 Graphic Organizer for "Seasons" -p.67-78 Anchor Charts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may also like my other Journeys Resources: →Supplemental Units →Scope and Sequence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tips for customers: Click on the green ★ above to follow my store! I ♥ and appreciate your feedback. Love this product? Let me know so that I can continue to create resources you enjoy! If you enjoy this product, please leave positive feedback to gain credit for future purchases! If you have any questions or problems please contact me through Product Q & A and i'll get back to you as soon as I can. For more amazing teaching ideas and resources, please visit my: •TPT Store •Facebook Page •Instagram Page •Pinterest Board Mrs. Davidson's Resources are independently authored, and are not affiliated with, authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by The Houghton Mifflin Journey’s Reading Program.
A Kindergarten/First Grade blog
How many tiles does each player start with? How do you win? All your Bananagrams questions, answered Bananagrams is a fast-paced, competitive word game that blends the best parts of Scrabble and Boggle. Like Boggle, gameplay happens...
After being introduced to The Daily Five this past year, I decided to come up with my own version of a Math Daily Five. I took some inspiration by other people on Pinterest and made it my own. The five categories are Paper Practice, Problem Solving, Investigations, Making Meaning, and Strategy Games. Paper Practice - At this station the students work on different types of problems for whatever topic I am teaching in math. This past year I put together packets that the students would work on, however, this year I am going to try and save on paper and laminate a sheet that has practice problems on it and have the students write the problems in their math notebooks. Problem Solving - At this station the students work on different word problems for the math topic. For some topics I bought a box of problem solving cards from Lakeshore Learning Store and the others I found word problems online and typed them up and laminated them on cardstock. The students answer the word problems in their math notebooks. (For the sake of time I do not make them write the word problem.) Investigations - At this station the students use different types of manipulatives to help them solve problems. Depending on the topic, this station is also used to have the students make their own manipulatives or flipbooks. Basically any of the activities need to be hands-on. Making Meaning - At this station the students are using the classroom computers to play games on different websites. A few of my favorites are www.gamequarium.org and www.ixl.com Strategy Games - At this station the students play differnt math games that I have created or found online. Some easy examples are matching, go fish, and bingo. With third graders, I try to keep the rotations to about 15-20 minutes. I always have a small group working with me at my table. Here is the sheet that I use to plan each unit: I bought bins from Target and put labels on them for each station (except for Making Meaning). I put all of the manipulatives and materials that the students will need in these bins.
This product is part of a bundle! Check it out here: First Grade Supplemental Unit 2 Bundle This resource is a supplemental unit for the "How Animals Communicate" Journeys First Grade Lesson in Unit 2. This is for the 2011 edition, but can possibly be used with other versions. Please check to see if this resource is compatible with your Journeys edition before you purchase. If you use the Journeys Reading Basal Series, then this resource is perfect for you. Use this resource to make your life easier! The activities are much easier to prep and manage, and they are very engaging for your students. There are centers, work stations, worksheets, word cards, graphic organizers and anchor charts. These can easily be used in small group instruction, literacy centers, whole class activity, cooperative learning, and to differentiate your instruction. This resource includes all of the topics (Common Core Aligned) covered in the seventh lesson "How Animals Communicate" •Words to Know •Spelling Words •Vocabulary •Short i •Clusters with r •Subject and Predicate •Using a Glossary •Daily Proofreading Practice •Main Idea and Details Here are the activities included: -p. 4 Words to Know Cards -p. 5 Spelling Words Cards -p.6-11 Words to Know Practice -roll-read-write -rainbow write -write three times -sentences -p.12 Vocabulary Practice -sentence writing -p.13-18 Spelling Words Practice -spin-read-write -rainbow write -write three times -sentences -p.19-25 Clusters with r Practice -onset, rime -p. 26-32 Short i Review -word sort -p. 33-44 Clusters with r Practice -sort center -cut and paste sort -p.45-49 Daily Proofreading Practice -p.50-55 Sentence Parts Practice -p.56-57 Using a Glossary Practice -p.58-62 Writing Prompts -p.63-64 Graphic Organizer for "How Animals Communicate" -p.65-69 Anchor Charts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may also like my other Journeys Resources: →Supplemental Units →Scope and Sequence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tips for customers: Click on the green ★ above to follow my store! I ♥ and appreciate your feedback. Love this product? Let me know so that I can continue to create resources you enjoy! If you enjoy this product, please leave positive feedback to gain credit for future purchases! If you have any questions or problems please contact me through Product Q & A and i'll get back to you as soon as I can. For more amazing teaching ideas and resources, please visit my: •TPT Store •Facebook Page •Instagram Page •Pinterest Board Mrs. Davidson's Resources are independently authored, and are not affiliated with, authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by The Houghton Mifflin Journey’s Reading Program.
Hi y'all. Currently I am in the process of reading the 2nd edition of Daily Five. I have found that implementing Daily Five framework to be very successful in both my kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Let me admit this, I don't do everything that the two sisters recommend. I make changes and adapt in order to make it fit for my classroom. For the past 3 years, I never gave students the opportunity to make their own choices about where to go for literacy. I, the teacher, would make the choice for students. However, at the end of last school year, I gave students the opportunity to make choices. The students were much more engaged during literacy because they got to choose where to go. I did however told my students that they needed to do iRead, a scholastic computer based program, everyday. I did have some sense of control :) When I allowed my students to make structure choices, I seen a lot of positive changes in my literacy block. I think for next school year (in a month or so), I will begin by telling students where to go for the first month and then move to student choices. I am crossing my fingers that it goes well. To make the transition from teacher to student choice, I have made several things to help hold students accountable. I made a literacy rotation check off sheet for every student. To download a free copy of this checklist, click here. I am going to laminate these so students can reuse them every week. Here are some questions people have asked me about my literacy block: What is your literacy block schedule? 8:45-9:00 Reader's Workshop Mini-Lesson 9:00-9:20 Rotation # 1 9:20-9:40 Rotation # 2 9:40-10:00 Rotation # 3 10:00-10:05 Closure/Share How do you hold students accountable? At the end of each rotation, students will mark their checklist. Also, all of students "work" will be placed behind the checklist on their clipboard. How often do you pull small groups? I pull small groups during every rotation. I see my lowest readers every day and highest readers 1-2 times a week. Because I was blessed with a student teacher last school year, we were able to see all the groups everyday. How do you launch your literacy block? Hmm....I try to take away the memories of the first month of school. Kidding! We start off with read to self (suggested by the two sisters). Then as soon as students build their stamina, I launch the next choice. Remember, it is important to MODEL MODEL MODEL and step aside. I do not pull small groups until I know my students can be INDEPENDENTLY during literacy. To help build stamina, I have a poster size read to self stamina chart that I use to keep track. It is 18x24 so it is HUGE! I am all about making things electronically. All I do is going to staples.com, print services, and upload this bad boy. You can print this at staples for only $1.79 by clicking on engineering prints! It is VERY affordable. Here is the link: http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/copyandprint/engineering-prints.html If you would like a copy of this to print, click here. In order to use this, you will need to print on 18x24 size paper though. Where do you get your mini-lesson from? To be honest with you, EVERYWHERE. We did not have a require literacy program so I used a combination of CAFE, Teacher's College Reader's Workshop Curricular Calendar, and Common Core State Standards. We started off the year teaching students about CAFE strategies. I really like starting off with this because students had the opportunity to learn about reading various reading strategies. Then after all the strategies were taught, students will set reading goals and pick 1-2 strategies to work on. I created these reading strategies cards for my classroom. To purchase the kindergarten CAFE strategies cards, click here. To purchase the first grade CAFE strategies cards, click here. Please let me know if you have any further questions! Happy Sunday!
There are six principles essential to implementing Daily 5... TRUST. This principle develops as mutual respect between student and teacher is formed. The start of my school year begins with district anchor lessons and goals of building positive behaviors in reading and writing. Through these lessons, my students will gradually sustain more control of their learning. With each lesson introduced, students will activate their schema and rely upon their previous learning experiences to have confidence in their newly acquired skill. I've worked to incorporate balance in my district anchor lessons and Daily 5... CHOICE. The only choice I've provided students would be literacy tubs adapted from reading Debbie Diller's Literacy Stations. Each tub has a variety of scaffold activities for student to choose from. This is called a controlled choice. Students are still assigned a station to attend and rotate throughout the week. I love the idea of choice as presented in Daily 5. I'm still working on putting all the pieces together but found a few wonderful ideas through pinterest and wanted to share... The idea pictured below can be used with the Captain Kid posters. I can start the year with controlled choice and slowly release control as routines are established and trust is mutual. Response to Intervention Website The next picture is linked to the how-to post. You can learn how the poster was created and how the poster is used. I love this concept because it incorporates meeting with the teacher. She has offered her icons as a free download. =D Fabulous Flamingos in Second Grade The next picture is my favorite. I love using the smartboard as an option for students making a choice about their learning. Once independence has been established and trust is mutual, I can see opening up this decision with 'big kid' technology. The only problem presented would be the use of the board as an option for word work. Tales from a K-1 Classroom Just as I was going to publish this post, I found a wonderful files free for you! Mrs. Meacham provides lots of freebies, pictures, and a smartboard file (pictured below) on her website. Yay! Choice begins with students understanding their plan for the day with five important questions. What are my goals in reading and writing? Whom will I work with? What will I accomplish? What was I working on yesterday that I want to continue? Purpose + Choice = Motivation COMMUNITY. The concept of building community is not foreign to me. I'm big on creating a sense of "family" and work to understand my students in and out of school. One of my favorite books to help build character and routines at the start of the year is Seven Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey. We learn through our reading that accountability and synergy is key for success! SENSE OF URGENCY. Humans are ingrained to ask why? I was speaking to my colleague who says her two year old ask why so many times that she runs out of answers. Getting results from students comes when we create a sense of urgency in learning by explaining why we do things. When students understand the reason behind the task then they become motivated and won't let anything get in the way of their success. STAMINA. I love the analogy that stamina needed for the Daily Five is much like the stamina needed for physical exercise. Understanding students fatigue in reading is similar to that of a person working out for the first time. I've worked on student accountability and stamina for the past few year. The kids maintain their own data notebooks. SO I'm eager to incorporate class stamina charts or personal stamina charts this year. Ms. Fiorini's Stadium: All Star Ideas Teaching with Style STAY OUT OF MY WAY. Oh.my.goodness. I never thought about my interruptions throughout their independent practice. While building stamina, I would circulate the classroom checking the progress, encouraging through praise, and giving reinforcement for on-task behaviors. I interfered with their personal growth as the children looked for my acknowledgement to sustain reading. It's no wonder I had a wonderful class but challenges with subs. This chapter was enlightening! I see many areas of focus for the 2012-2013 school year. I'm eager to reinforce these positive behaviors in Kindergarten and grow with the kids as we loop back to second together. So my question for you... How would you incorporate the questions highlighted in pink above with Kindergarteners? Don't forget to link up your Daily 5 Chapter 2 post. I'm eager to read your reflections! You are welcome to link if you responded to other parties about Daily 5 Chapter 2. Please take the time to link the post and not your blog.
Made to hold students accountable during Daily 5.
Hello darlings! This post is an overview of the Word Study Program I use in third grade. Stick with me though, because you could do the same thing in your classroom, you just need some word lists. These pics will take you through the program step by step. It is a mash up of Words ... Read More about Differentiating Spelling in the Elementary Classroom
FREE morning work for second grade. These second-grade worksheets include a math spiral review and ELA spiral review for 2nd grade.
Is anyone in need of some Daily 5 station cards, posters, and anchor charts? Just send me an email! [email protected]
Hey Friends! I have been SO impressed with the comments left on these posts- thank you so much! The winner from the last post is... ...
As a fifth grade teacher, I was excited and hopped on the bandwagon of the Daily 5 in 2010. I loved the structure, loved the purposeful activities, and loved how it seemed that my students were engaged from the get go. But as the first few weeks of establishing routines, and building stamina came to a close, I noticed that not all of my fifth graders were engaged or using their time wisely with all the choices. I knew right away that changes had to be made. When looking at The Daily 5, I analyzed what choices seemed to be the most troublesome as far as classroom management. "Read to Someone" came right to the forefront of my list. Yes, "I" charts were made, routines were established, and stamina was practiced. But as soon as I started my guided reading groups at the back table, read to someone became an issue. I could see that students were not always fully engaged with their reading partner, and I sometimes had to interrupt my group to remind the students what their job was during this time. It became clear to me that this choice would be abandoned in my fifth grade classroom. They just didn't need to read aloud to each other anymore. The second Daily 5 choice that I eliminated was "Listen to Reading." This choice involves having devices in the classroom that students can use to listen to literature. My first dilemma was that I did not have anything to start with. I had to get a radio that had a tape player, then find tapes to go along with books. Once I had that set up, only one student could use it at a time. My school district purchased a device that would allow four students to listen to literature at the same time, but this became a management issue as well as I could see students not using their time wisely sitting next to each other. This was my second Daily 5 choice that went by the wayside. I was left with three choices: "Read to Self," "Word Work," and "Work on Writing." These became the foundation for my Daily 3 rotations during the school year. Below are some helpful tips and ideas that I have used to implement these three components in my classroom. 1. Read to Self This option is the most important one to me. This is a chance for my students to read books of their choice independently and to practice fluency and comprehension. This is a must choice every day for my students. The only requirement I have is I would like them to read from a variety of genres throughout the school year. They keep track of the books and genres they have read on a simple log in their reading notebooks. We have a free chart that you can download here. It is easy to get the students excited about books for read to self, either from my personal classroom library, or books they could check out in the school's library. I do book talks and even sometime show book trailers that you can find online. Click here for one such website that has numerous titles. This gets them fired up to read! 2. Word Work Word work has evolved quite a bit in my classroom. What started out as daily task cards has turned into a weekly word study. On Monday students are given a set of words based on a spelling pattern at their level. They are to determine what pattern(s) the words can be classified into. On the next day, they write down those words onto paper based on the categories they discovered. The third day is dedicated to sorting the words once again and using them in meaningful sentences. The sentences have to have at least five words and cannot begin with "I." The fourth day is two-fold. Students once again sort their words, but then they write them in cursive. You may hear moans and groans, but the practice of sorting and writing them in cursive will help them remember. The fifth day is always quiz day. You can match up partners from different lists and have them write their sorts on paper to be handed in. I can then check the papers and if there are any students that struggled with the sort, I can meet with them and see what issues they were having. This option basically ran itself after I got it up and running in my classroom. 3. Work in Writing The number one goal of work on writing is for students to continue to work on the piece that they were doing during writing class. However, there are times that students are either done or that there was no assignment. During these times, I love for students to have the freedom to write about what they want. To give them a little guidance, I created 40 engaging writing choices that my students could pick from. They loved the variety, and it made writing time during Daily 3 more exciting for them. You can download the writing choices for free here. If you would like 15 FREE Daily 5 Resources (that does include read to someone and listen to reading), you can access them by clicking here or on the image below! Here is to a successful Daily 3 schedule in your upper elementary classroom! Follow us on TPT! Pin from our Pinterest Page!
Have you heard of or are interested in trying Daily 5 centers for your literacy block? Quite honestly, I was SUPER-DEE-DUPER scared to try this when I had first heard of it many years ago. Now, I would never go back to my traditional reading centers! Why? Because kids like the consistency of Daily 5 every day. They know exactly what to do. They know where all the materials are. They know my expectations for them. They feel confident in themselves. And it makes them better readers and writers. Before I switched to Daily 5 centers, I was constantly switching out my reading centers. I used to stay after school to work every single Friday just so that my reading centers were ready to go for the next week's Monday centers. Not anymore! Woohoo!!! Once I knew that I liked Daily 5 centers, I made different sets of task cards for my class. I first introduced the task cards one set each 2-3 days. With 5 task card sets, it took me about 2 weeks to introduce the cards, model how to complete good responses to the cards, and have the kids practice them. What does the teacher do while the students are at their Daily 5 centers? I conduct small guided reading groups. I'm able to focus on my small group, and the kids are off rotating through their choices of INDEPENDENT, RIGOROUS, and MEANINGFUL Daily 5 centers. So, are you ready to learn a few Daily 5 tips and tricks that I use in my classroom? Here we go... Let's start off with the basics: Each of my students has a book box (or book baggy). Inside their baggy is a reading strategy bookmark (that comes in this set). The bookmarks have reading strategies with visuals on them. Click on the picture for more info about the reading strategy bookmarks: Each of my students also has at least 3 "just right" leveled books in their book box. The kids can have a maximum of up to 6 books in their book boxes (though they can change them out weekly so that they don't get bored). Students also have a pencil and a reading journal inside their book box. This is where the students write their responses to the Daily 5 task cards. For my kiddos, each student has a composition book as their reading journal. The pages don't rip out, and they're super cheap during back to school sales before the school year begins! Now let's talk about the 5 Daily 5 centers. 1. WORD WORK There are 35 EDITABLE word work task cards. The students have differentiated spelling word lists that I post on the board each week. This takes me less than a minute to write on the board on a weekly basis! Woo hoo!!! I use sight words as their spelling words, though you can choose to use whatever spelling words you'd like. When I say differentiated, I mean different word lists for different kids. My purple group might be working on "words with suffixes or prefixes," my blue group might be working on "primer words," and my red group might be working on "pre-primer words." The students know what color words they are supposed to complete because their name is written in that same color marker on my centers chart. Now that the students know which words they will be working on, they can grab a WORD WORK TASK CARD. The kids simply need to follow the directions listed on the card. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. They show their work in their reading journal (composition notebook). After they finish that task card, they grab another card. The cycle continues until time is up. TIP: Have a word work supply station in your classroom with different tiny baskets or tubs so that your kids will always know where to get supplies to complete the word work task cards. Examples of things to keep inside baskets/tubs: markers colored pencils crayons magnetic letters & cookie sheets magnetic tiles & cookie sheets dry erase markers & dry erase boards stampers playdough letter beads & pipe cleaners magazines (so that kids can cut out letters to make words) As you can see in the picture above, the task card set comes with center directions. Most of the word work task cards also have examples on them (for kiddos who might not know how to read very well.) Click on the picture below for more info: 2. READ TO SELF There are 28 EDITABLE read to self task cards (17 task cards for fiction books and 11 task cards for nonfiction books). For this set of task cards, I actually separated them into 2 sections for you. One section of cards is for fiction books, while the other section is for nonfiction books. Because of that, I actually put them into 2 separate baskets (or pencil boxes). One has the title "for fiction books" and the other says "for nonfiction books." See pictures below: The students grab their book box, reading journal, and a READ TO SELF TASK CARD from the "read to self" basket. First, the student will read the book. Then the student will respond to the task card in his reading journal. After the student writes the response to the task card, now he can illustrate his page to match his words. TIP: Teach your students to write "I read ____________" (title of book) before responding to the task card. That way, when you look over their reading journal (or kids are reading their own reading journals on a different date), everyone will know which book the student was responding to. See my example in the picture above. TIP: I teach my students to always write their reading response in their reading journal BEFORE illustrating. A few reasons: Some students write very big. If they draw first, they might not have enough room to write their reading response. Some students like to write a lot of details. If they draw first, they might not have enough room to write all of their thoughts and details. Some students are future Vincent Van Goghs. They love to draw and color. If you allow them to draw first, they might not have time to write their reading response. (However, this is not always the case. Teachers, you all know your students the best. You may have some students that need to get their creative juices flowing by drawing first and then writing...it's up to your discretion.) Once a student is done responding to that task card, he can either get another task card and complete it about the same book, or he can read a different book and respond to a different task card in his reading journal. This cycle continues until time is up. Just like all other task card sets I've made, this task card set comes with center directions. Click on the picture below for more info: 3. BUDDY READING There are 28 EDITABLE buddy reading task cards (17 task cards for fiction books and 11 task cards for nonfiction books). For this set of task cards, I actually separated them into 2 sections for you. One section of cards is for fiction book, while the other section is for nonfiction books. Because of that, I actually put them into 2 separate baskets (or pencil boxes). One has the title "for fiction books" and the other says "for nonfiction books.) See pictures below: The students grab their book box, reading journal, and a BUDDY READING TASK CARD from the "buddy reading" basket. TIP: Be sure to model how students should buddy read together. They should be able to help each other read their books. They should be close enough to talk to each other about their books without having to yell. At the beginning of the entire school year, during the first week of school, I teach and model how to buddy read. Elbow to elbow, knee to knee. I found this cute chart somewhere on TeachersPayTeachers, though I forgot which store I found it at. Sorry! The good thing, though, is that I DO have the "elbow to elbow, knee to knee" directions listed on the buddy reading task card center directions (as shown in the basket picture above.) For this center, students should be paired up in groups of 2. Each student has his own book box. The team of 2 students will share 1 buddy reading task card. Student 1 will take out 1 book to read to his partner. Student 2 should have NOTHING in his hands. Student 2's book box should be on the floor beside him. Now, they're ready to buddy read. Student 1 will read a book aloud to Student 2. If Student 1 has trouble decoding a word, Student 2 can help! Besides...what are buddies for?! After Student 1 is done reading the book aloud to Student 2, now they read the buddy reading task card that they are sharing. They TALK about their response to the card. After they are done talking about their response to the buddy reading task card, now it's Student 2's turn to read a book aloud to Student 1. Repeat as before. Student 2 reads the book aloud to Student 1. If Student 2 has trouble decoding a word, Student 1 can help! Then they grab another buddy reading task card and talk about their response to the card. This cycle continues until time is up. TIP: For this center, I do NOT usually have the kids write their responses in their reading journals. Though, you CAN choose to have your students write them down. It's really up to you. The reason I don't do that is because these are still young kiddos. They're still learning a lot about language, how to interact with peers, appropriate ways to discuss books with peers, etc. My students get tons of time to practice reading and writing during the other four Daily 5 centers, so I use this buddy reading center as a way for the kids to practice oral language skills. Just like all other task card sets I've made, this task card set comes with center directions. Click on the picture below for more info: 4. LISTEN TO READING There are 22 EDITABLE listen to reading task cards. I'm fortunate enough to have 5 Ipads and 5 Chromebooks for my class, so I have more than enough technology devices for the kids to use. However, many years ago, I wasn't so lucky. I still made it work, though. When I first started using these task cards, I had 4 students hook up their headphones to a splitter that was connected to 1 cd player. The students would take turns flipping the pages of the book and they would all listen to the same book at the same time. When they were finished listening to the book, the kids would each get a task card and write their own reading response to their task card at their own desks. It worked out just fine! For those of you who have at least 2-3 technology devices for students in your classroom, it'll be a lot easier:) The students grab their technology device, reading journal, and a LISTEN TO READING TASK CARD from the "listen to reading" basket. First, the student will listen to a book, then the student will respond to the task card in their reading journal. (See the example above from the read to self task card set.) After the student writes the response to the task card, now they can illustrate their page to match their words. Once a student is done responding to that task card, he can either get another task card and complete it about the same book, or he can listen to a different book and respond to a different task card in his reading journal. This cycle continues until time is up. TIP: Make sure that your students plug the headphones in ALL.THE.WAY. Trust me on this one. If you don't have them practice plugging them in all the way, the room will get loud very, very quickly! TIP: Make sure your students know the computer login information. I usually have it posted all over the room. I also have each individual students' login information taped onto their desk for easy access. You definitely don't want your kiddos to waste instructional time looking around the room for login information, ya know? Just like all other task card sets I've made, this task card set comes with center directions. Click on the picture below for more info: 5. WORK ON WRITING There are 23 EDITABLE work on writing task cards. For this center, you can choose where you want your kids to respond to the task cards. I give the students a choice of different kinds of paper from my writing center, or you could choose to have them write it in their reading journal. Different kinds of paper might include: single-lined paper, primary-lined paper, blank white paper, construction paper, notebook filler paper, etc. The PRO to using different kinds of paper is that the students like choices...and also, you can easily grab this paper and frame it (or highlight it as your writer of the week work). The PRO to having the students write their response to the work on writing task card in their reading journal is that the students are already used to grabbing their reading journal each and every single day during Daily 5 center time (since that's where they respond to the other 4 task card sets.) Once the student knows where he will write (paper or reading journal,) now they can get a WORK ON WRITING TASK CARD from the "work on writing" basket. First, the student will read the card. Then the student will do what the card asks him to do. After they are done writing, now they can illustrate their page to match their words. TIP: If you are going to give your students different choices of writing papers, buy some cheap stackable trays and put different papers in each tray. Keep all of the different papers in a writing center so that your students will always know where to get writing paper to complete these task cards. Once a student is done responding to his first task card, he can either get another task card or add more details to his words and/or pictures from the existing writing. This cycle continues until time is up. Just like all other task card sets I've made, this task card set comes with center directions. Click on the picture below for more info: A FEW MORE TIPS: During those first 2 weeks when you're modeling how to grab a task card and where to respond to it (reading journal most of the time), MODEL closing your eyes and NOT LOOKING at which card you chose. You get what you get and you don't get upset! Believe me, I've tried allowing the kids to read through every task card and find a good one that they might like the best, but by the time they do that, reading center time will already be over! My students know that you BLINDLY CHOOSE ONE CARD and complete it. If they have extra time left over after completing that task card, then they are able to find their favorite one and complete it as an extra task card. Laminate the cards!!! You're going to love using them year after year. The students get a lot of literacy practice with them and they use them daily. You definitely don't want them to rip! WHERE DO I STORE THESE TASK CARDS? Now, you might be wondering...where do I store all of these task cards? What should I do with them? You can store them in baskets (I taped the directions page to the inside of the basket.) Then just lay out all of the cards inside the basket. OR... You can store them in pencil boxes (I taped the task card cover to the front of the pencil box so that kids know which cards are inside each pencil box). Then just put the task cards inside the pencil box. OR... You can also hole-punch them and put them on binder rings. I don't have a picture of that because I don't suggest it. If you put them on binder rings, only one student will be able to have the whole set of task cards at a time. That would mean that you would need to print at least 5-6 whole sets, and I mean...who has the money to pay to print 6 colored sets of the same task cards. Let's do some math... 6 copies of 1 set of task cards, multiplied by 5 sets of task cards, equals out to 30 sets of task cards. 😮 No way! Too expensive! (Or am I just cheap? haha) One last thing...did I mention that I speak, read, and write Spanish fluently?! Yep! I also offer all of these task cards in SPANISH! See below: Click on each picture for more info about each EDITABLE set (or save some $$$ and get the whole bundle): That's all I have for you today. I hope you were able to find something useful! Bye for now😃
Many teachers make these common mistakes when teaching literacy. Read this post to learn what NOT to do at the beginning of the school year!
Here are my 10 must have read alouds for introducing Daily 5 in the primary grades. These books are sure to start your year off in the right direction!
Teachers ask all the time how they can become more organized during their Daily 5 time. Check out the answers to my FAQ and see how I organize my Daily 5.
In my school, we use daily 5 for reading instruction. I set up daily 5 a little bit different. I teach third grade and there is just so much to fit in! When I was trying to fit in all daily 5 rotations a day I was not getting to the important stuff and I was not having enough time with my students. So, I do one rotation a day for 20-30 minutes. The students do each rotations for daily 5 once a week and they meet with me once a week.
Literacy Rotations for guided reading can be challenging to set up. These are my favourite tips for daily 5 rotations that run smoothly.
In my school, we use daily 5 for reading instruction. I set up daily 5 a little bit different. I teach third grade and there is just so much to fit in! When I was trying to fit in all daily 5 rotations a day I was not getting to the important stuff and I was not having enough time with my students. So, I do one rotation a day for 20-30 minutes. The students do each rotations for daily 5 once a week and they meet with me once a week.
This full color pack is zebra print themed!! It includes: * A full color poster of programmed "I Can" statements * A full color poster of BLANK "I Can" statements * A full color set of pocket chart cards * A full color set of matching zebra number cards Disclaimer: This Daily 5 resource is an unofficial adaptation of the Daily 5 by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. This is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters.
Hey there friends! I am seeing A LOT of back to school posts for this upcoming week so I’ll stay hush when saying that I don’t go back until the 24th! I’m excited but still in denial mode for sure! 😉 Alright, today I would like to answer a question that I get a lot...
Take a look at how I set up my class and organize my stations for a successful start to Daily 5 in kindergarten.
Hey all, I apologize for the lack of posting this last week. My momma has been here and we have been beachin’ and craftin’ like crazy! I can’t wait to show you some of the things we made! My freebie today is a set of center icons I created for my work board. I print out four sets so that I can assign them across all four of my reading groups, like this: And if you are wondering, the reason I have two game centers is so that I can differentiate the games. The more challenging games go into center A for the the higher kids and the review games go into B for the kids who need more work on the concept. I was inspired by Deanna’s icons, which are what I used last year. So I hunted down those cute icons at Thistlegirl, bought a license and made my own with my coordinating blue and green backgrounds. I hope you like them! I have yet to decide if I am going to do Daily 5 yet or not, so I also created graphics that would work with the Daily 5. Get yours HERE!