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 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.
A while back, I asked some Facebook friends if they knew of some websites where I could find storybooks read aloud to children online, and ...
The Daily 5 in Primary Classrooms Over the last 8 weeks, we have covered a lot of ground. We’ve explored each other’s classrooms, traded ideas, asked questions, and remembered why The D…
According to our class Days In School Chart we are in 33 days! I finally feel like the mounds of work are dwindling and I am able to leave the classroom at a decent hour. Luckily there has been no surf, so I have devoted more time into my class. I know that sounds horrible, but if there are any sort of waves near me I leave school as quickly as possible to be in them!! I wanted to share with you how my Daily 5 rotations have been going this year. I started out slow by taking it step by step just like The Sisters advise. We started with Read To Self and really worked on that. The book bags have been a great help and I love that they don't break or fall apart when the kids drop them. We worked on choosing our Just Right Books and I displayed this cute poster in our reading center, along with our rotation chart for exchanging books. The kids love the book bags and it is amazing to me how quickly they progressed and are reading to themselves. They don't wander around the room, go get drinks or head to the bathroom. They sit there and read. Often they get so excited about what they are reading they want to share with a friend, which leads to our next area Buddy Reading. The Sisters call this Read To Someone, but that sounds a bit boring so I changed it. This class loves Buddy Reading. We worked on this as a whole group for awhile and they really have it down. To make it easier during our Daily 5 time I set up these buckets with lots of book pairs from the library. The buddies grab a bucket and find a quiet spot in the room to read. (I got those cute little Daily 5 labels from a link on Pinterest) Word Work is another favorite choice. I have given lots of options for this area and I ask that they work by themselves to make sure they are on task and doing the work. They can ask for help from a friend if they need it, but it is amazing how engaged they are, especially when they make their own choices! Work on Writing is one area that has taken some time. I started Writer's Workshop this year and it has been very successful, but it did take time to get the kids to make choices about what they wanted to write. When they have their own choice, they suddenly draw a blank. So I gave them some options during this time. They can finish something they have already started, they can write in one of our Message Books, or they can choose a Topics To Write About card. I saw this on Lori's blog Teaching With Love and Laughter and I just had to have it!! Click here to go to her great post on this!! My kids love choosing a card, taking it to their seat and writing about it. What I love is that they can physically take this little card (the size of a business card) to their seat and look at it to keep them on task. So simple, yet very effective!! The most popular area is Listen To Reading. This fills up quickly because the kids get to go on the computers. Right now they are going to either Starfall or Silly Books. I haven't really focused on setting up more sites for them to go to. Our school also uses Kid Biz which focuses on non-fiction articles which they listen to and answer questions about. This is very difficult for many of my students right now, because they need lots of practice with non-fiction. It is perfect though for those new CCSS. But the problem is this is my noisiest center!! They are all over there talking and laughing and it disrupts the rest of the class. Well I am excited to tell you that my Donor's Choose project for individual CD players just got funded!! Hurray! Now I can have students choose a player and go sit somewhere on their own to listen to stories. My biggest problem with my Daily 5 has been giving the students their choice of where to go. I love this clip chart. I made it simple to see the pictures and they clip right on it to have a spot. Well this took FOREVER for them to get. They all clipped on Listen To Reading even though there was no spot. They stood there staring at it for 10 minutes before making a choice. I almost decided to just make a chart as to who would go where! I just couldn't take the fact that so many were just standing around for almost the whole time. Well after lots and lots of practice they have learned to make a choice and get started. I just pop on my teacher hat (a big straw beach hat) and get started with my group. The kids know that when my hat is on, they cannot disturb me! The kids who were standing around discovered that they had wasted their time and didn't get to do an activity. They were bummed, but the next time they chose a lot faster. We also had to really work on how to fill out their chart to know where they were supposed to go. Many of them had no concept of what to do with this. So we had to go step by step and write our name, the date and talk about it over and over again. I had to physically show many of them exactly how to fill it out. Once they finish all 5 areas then they can go where they would like to. Some are still confused with it, but it's coming along. All in all I am happy with the way my literacy block is going. I think all the students are highly engaged and really like all of the activities. I had an EA walk in one morning and I didn't even see her come in. She dropped of some papers onto my desk and told me about it later. She said she looked over and I had my big beach hat on and was working with my group, while all the of the other kids were hard at work. She said "Wow, I would love to be in your class, it looks so fun!!" That made my day:)) Now if I could just get my math time to be as engaging!!
Made to hold students accountable during Daily 5.
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 …
Keep your students engaged and reading during reading center time! In this post learn about 12 essential reading centers for lower elementary students.
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.
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 …
Before I start this chapter review, I need to preface it with the fact that Daily 5 has been successful in my classroom mainly because I have been able to adapt it to my kindergarten students and their needs and behaviors. You can’t be afraid to do the same. Just because something doesn’t work, don’t…
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
Ideas and resources for early elementary teachers - First grade printables - classroom organization tips - classroom management tips -
Hi friends! This is my first year doing daily 5 so I thought this might be handy for both me and the students! Fonts are from Amy Groesbeck! Thanks for stopping by!
I love the structure of Daily 5 and CAFE, I've made these signs for my classroom and wanted to share these all with you! I hope you can use these! Come on over to my blog to pick them up!
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...
Is anyone in need of some Daily 5 station cards, posters, and anchor charts? Just send me an email! [email protected]
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!
Hello Everyone! It is not a secret that I love the Two Sisters Daily Five set up for my literacy block. It is my goal this summer to share some of my organizational strategies that I have found to be successful with my firsties. One of my favs is our Daily Five Song. I use this to get kids going on their dailies. By the time we're finished singing the song, each kiddo should be settled in and ready to begin their first Daily, or transitioning to the next choice. After learning the words and adding the poem to our poetry folders, transitions are a breeze! As we get into the routine of things, sometimes we even just hum the tune (The Ants Go Marching). It works! Stay tuned for more! Get your printable here! :) Let's get reading! Joyfully! Nancy
I hope you enjoy this 40 page Daily 5 freebie. You will find illustrated posters and anchor charts to hang up in your classroom to remind your students about the expectations. "The Daily 5 and CAFE are trademark and copy written content of Educational Design, LLC dba The 2 Sisters. Educational Des...