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)

Hey Friends, Happy Tuesday! 😀 I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I LOVE the Daily 5. It is such a wonderful way to engage students in reading and writing independently while you get to work with small groups. In my classroom this year, I had used the Daily 5 instead of center time since I couldn’t use…

FREE Daily 5 Menu / Literacy Station Ideas Printable I have compiled ideas to use for Daily 5. The girth of these ideas stem from Work on Writing and Word Work. I have received a lot of questions from new teachers on how/what to do at those stations! There are so many awesome resources out there that embody these basic ideas. I hope this helps you with planning and organize your thoughts and ideas! I am putting this in my stations planning binder! :) Thank you for downloading!

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... ...

Mix Up Your Daily 5 Work on Writing routine with these FREEBIES!

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

Take a look at how I set up my class and organize my stations for a successful start to Daily 5 in kindergarten.

Use this editable color-coded rotation schedule to meet all your Daily 5 needs.

Use this word work collection to put together homework packets for any word list. Three different sets are included. FREE from The Curriculum Corner!

I started Daily 5 in 2011 and I feel like I am now comfortable enough to blog about it and how I started out. When I first started Daily 5 I was completely lost, I had no idea where to start or what to do. But then I discovered Pinterest, Oh My Word! I was in Education Heaven! I found the Daily 5 for Dummies compiled by Jayne Haenel. Click the picture to grab your copy. It has instructions for the first 20 days of the daily 5 with CAFE instructions also. It's an awesome resource and it has truly helped me kick start Daily 5 in my classroom. ***UPDATE: I found a website where you can download it for free, just click here or click on the picture. Daily 5 asks to incorporate 5 individual anchor charts on how the stations are supposed to look like. You fill out the anchor charts with your students. Once all the anchor charts are filled out it is suggested to keep these anchor charts up throughout the year so students can refer back to them and remember the "rules." My classroom is in a portable and I have limited space, so having all 5 anchor charts up was taking up so much valuable space. I still plan to fill out my anchor charts in the beginning of the school year because it helps introduce Daily 5 to the students. I love how Mrs. Lemons has her anchor charts ready to be used for this school year. I plan on making mine look just like this. Thanks Mrs. Lemons!!! After having the anchor charts up for about 3 weeks or so I will exchange all 5 posters for ONE anchor chart. This anchor chart will stay up through out the year saving me wall space. Once my students have mastered the rules of daily 5 they are ready to start their stations. I group my students according to their reading levels. My students to do not get to choose which station they would like to work on. I have a system that I use that tells them which station they are to work on. I put Velcro behind the labels and names so I can switch them around when necessary. You can download the station labels for free here. I strongly suggest you start off by reading the Daily 5 book by "The Sisters" during the summer just to get your feet wet and get a better understanding of what Daily 5 is all about.

Looking to perk up your Daily 5 Word Work with new ideas? This post is filled with fresh activities for your 1st grade classroom! Read now!

Mix Up Your Daily 5 Work on Writing routine with these FREEBIES!

Made to hold students accountable during Daily 5.

Das "Daily Routines Wheel" kann für verschiedene Aktivitäten eingesetzt werden. Ich nutze es für Speaking Activities aber auch für Writing. Das Rad ist 2-fach d

Are you looking for engaging vocabulary activities? These 10 Fun Vocabulary Activities are sure to be a hit in your classroom.

Hello friends! Today I’m joining a fabulous group of friends for an online book study of The Daily 5. Over the course of the next 8ish weeks, we’ll be taking a close look at the newest …

Daily Routines and Activities List and Example Sentences; (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || ).push({}); Daily Routines…

Do you reinvent the wheel every single week when it comes to centers, word work, stations.....whatever you happen to call them? Yeah, me too! I know better, I swear I do but it just never fails. I am here today to tell you that there IS A BETTER WAY! Let me begin by saying I am a big fan of Daily 5. I run my room about as closely to the Daily 5 model as possible but this is one area I just never could give in on. The sisters suggest having out materials for students to build words, write words, and work with words during this choice. It is that simple. It is called word work after all right? I have always felt the need for my work work choices to be very specific so that students could be working on what I wanted them to be working on. Wait a minute.....that's the opposite of Daily 5 philosophy. It's all about CHOICE and becoming a BETTER READER so why am I making all of the choices? So here is what I did. I put as many random materials as I could find in my classroom and made them available to students. THAT'S IT! Along with a sight word list to use as a reference and one fun morning of showing them what it was all about and I haven't looked back since. They are working SO HARD during our word work time because they are truly using materials they love and making good choices to become better readers and writers. It has been amazing! Here are a few simple, simple examples. Again...simple! I did not go out of my way for any of these! #1 Magnets I have a couple of really organized sets of magnets and then these just thrown in a clear shoe box. Guess which one gets picked the most? You guessed it! Maybe it's the bright colors or maybe kids are just drawn to chaos. Either way it's a win! #2 Wiki Sticks I lied. I did go out of my way for this one just because I've always wanted to use them. My students think they are really fun! One of my kiddos who struggles the most during word work time (and refuses to use a sight word list) spelled out "tatr tot" last week using these. He was pretty impressed with himself and I was too! I got these from Amazon. You can see them through my affiliate link HERE. #3 Pom poms I've used these for fine motor before but I've never just included them in word work. They get picked every round! I didn't originally tell them to use a cookie sheet to build on but I like how it keeps everything in one space. They came up with that idea. #4 Beads I had these from the Dollar Tree for my fine motor bins too so I just included them in word work for now. They are REALLY interesting to build with because you have to pick up each bead and set it on its side so it won't roll away. The cookie sheet came in really handy for this one. #5 Plain OLD white boards I have really old yucky white boards. Guess what? They don't care! I set them all on the shelf and they pick one, a marker, and a sock (they are baby socks) and write their sight words. Marker dry? DON'T COME GET ME! Just throw it out and get a new one! I put an old assortment of markers in here so we could weed out the bad ones. TIP! Put your sight word list in a sheet protector and students can cross off words as they write them. My students figured out that organization tip too. I love when they help me figure things out! #6 Letter Tiles These came with our Reading Street materials and they are really fun for building CVC words because there are so many vowels included. I encouraged them to work on sight words but I noticed one student building CVC words, blending them together, and then sorting them into real words and make believe words.You better believe I had him share out at the end of word work to show his classmates and now everyone is doing it too. Instant center.....no prep! #7 Scrabble Tiles Seriously though. I have been collecting these forever and I NEVER use them because well.....honestly I didn't know what to do with them. It bothered me a little that they were all capitals but guess what? My kids don't care! They love using the little stand to build words with and it does not matter one little bit that they are all capitals. #8 Letter Stamps I had these already and they are always a part of our word work so this was a station that just stayed the same. I do like that they have to focus on our new words of the week for this one. I have to be in a (little) bit of control sometimes! But my 2nd grade colleague just has blank paper at this station and they stamp any word they want. I'm sure my kiddos would love that too! I might switch it out and have them do that next week. You can get the STAMPS HERE and the STAMP PAD HERE. These are affiliate links which means I get a small amount if purchase through the link at no additional cost to you. Seriously love these though and they have lasted a long time! #9 Paper Centers Yes....I still need a little bit of control and my theory is that some kids will totally love using all of the hands on stuff but some kids still want to complete a paper like a cut and glue, word search, or write the room. I didn't do away with all centers, I just added all of the fun word work centers into what we already had going. BUT! This has already saved me a ton of time in the planning department. I put out 4 papers for the week and that's it. All my centers are planned for! You can see the centers I have available that are aligned with Reading Street stories HERE. This week our story is The Little Engine That Could. You can see the four paper choices on top and then all of the materials stored below. I love these containers from Walmart because the handles on the sides lock the lids down tight and keep beads, wiki sticks, tiles, and pom poms from flying everywhere. I have reflected a little bit on whether these were just working so well because my students are UBER independent right now or because this is just a great fit. I mean really, they are almost 1st graders after all! But I think that these would have worked great at the beginning of the year with some alphabet options just as nicely as they are working now. I put out similar items at the beginning of the year anyway, this would just be some added options. Would I overwhelm my students with all of this in one day. NO WAY! My students have been exposed to all of these items in one way or another (through fine motor stations, word work, or in small group with me) except for the wiki sticks. Those were brand new. I waited a couple of days to add those in to make a BIG deal about them. If this was the beginning of the year I would put out 2 choices until we were really solid with those choices and then add more in. Get the sight word list shown in the pictures that aligns with Reading Street Kindergarten words HERE. These types of centers work great with these Rainbow Word Sight Word lists too! Want to save this post for later? Pin it here! P.S. Get a FREE ALPHABET ACTIVITY when you sign up for my newsletter HERE!

One of the most frequent questions I get is all about how I teach sight words and what I do for the kids who continue to struggle with retention and application. That’s a tough one, isn’t it?! Especially when kids aren’t developmentally ready to retain and apply what they’ve learned….but that’s a whole different post. …

Yesterday I offered some advice about daily 5. I forgot another very important piece of advice: Make Daily 5 your own. I'm a strong believer that all teachers are different, and their teaching styles reflect this. What works from me may not work at all for you. As much as I love "The Sisters" (the D5 gurus) their model of D5 may not work for you. Make it your own! I promise you'll be a much happier teacher girl when you let go of the "right way" to do Daily 5 and find the just-right way for you! So....As I mentioned yesterday I decided to try out a rotation system for my daily 5 block so that I can give my little budding writers some small group attention. Eventually I hope we'll move to a whole group writing workshop but right now it's a little overwhelming. So last night I did some brainstorming, and this is what I came up with: I'll break the kids into five groups (ability based), and we'll do three workstations a day. One will be a writing stations with teacher assistance (I have two teacher assistants but a parent helper could be work too!), three times a week they'll meet with me for reading, and the last work period will be either a choice (listen to reading, read to self, read to someone, word work, work on writing) or computer. Here's a look at the rotation chart I made (you can click on it to see in google docs): Will this work? I have no idea...but I'm going to dive in next week and see how it goes. I'll let you know if this idea is a winner or not. How are you making Daily 5 work in your classroom? Happy Friday! Jessie

This is a fun worksheet to practice talking about daily routines in English.

Are you looking for ideas to use during the Work on Writing portion of your Daily 5 block? Take a look at these ideas and resources.

Email after email, I hear “How do you do word work? I want to expose my students to lots of different words but that’s a lot of prep. I do want to spend hours each week trading out words!” To this, I say – “PREACH!” So, I’m stopping by with a picture-heavy post all about...

They are doing it! My kids are actually doing daily five and really enjoying it. My grade level partners and I tried this a few years back, but honestly we