The Daily 5: Chapter 2 and FREEBIE

The second chapter of The Daily 5 is what excites me so much and makes me nervous all at the same time. The two sisters write that they are strong believers that when students are told the PURPOSE behind something and are given a CHOICE of what they will do that they will be MOTIVATED to do it.

That makes complete sense. Adults are that way and so of course, so are our kiddos! I think it is great that the kids will know the purpose behind what they are doing. I want them to see the importance (or as the sisters said, URGENCY) behind becoming a good reader and writer. I also want them to understand deeply the connection between that importance and how the Daily 5 is helping them to achieve that. I have been looking at some of the launch schedules out there in the bloggy world and love love love it! I can't wait to study more on these later as I begin to plan my own launch and dig deeper into each component of the Daily 5.

Right now I am focusing on how I will allow my kids to make their Daily 5 choice. I want this to be done in a way that can:
1. Easily become a routine
2. Display clearly what choice they have made for the day
3. Ensures that they visit each component throughout the week
4. Displays for me what order they are doing the components in throughout the week
5. Can be independently done by the students

Of course pinterest has a gazillion wonderful ideas and then there is also the check-in chart provided by the two sisters. I purchased a pocket (below)that has a title pocket, 5 pockets down and 7 pockets across.

I am juggling a couple different ideas right now. 

Idea Numero Uno

I will put each child's picture in one pocket. They also will all have 5 different colored popsicle sticks, each representing a different Daily 5 component. For example, Listen to Reading- red popsicle stick, Word Work- blue popsicle stick, Read to Someone- yellow popsicle stick, Read to Self- purple, Work on Writing-green. On Monday the students will choose one of their sticks to put in their pocket in order to make their choice for the day. At the end of the day that stick will not be removed from their pocket. It should be (if this works) pushed to the left side of their pocket. On Tuesday they would choose one of their remaining sticks and put it to the right of the monday stick. This would continue throughout the week.

Idea Numero Dos

These cards which are about 3"x4" would be put in the first column of the pocket chart.

For this idea the popsicle stick colors would stand for each day of the week and every stick would be labeled with the name of the student who it belonged to. For example a student named Adam would have A red Monday stick, a blue Tuesday stick, a yellow Wednesday stick, a purple Thursday stick and a green Friday stick. All of his sticks would be an "Adam" label on it. Column 2 of the pocket chart would hold students Monday choice, column 3 tuesday and so on. On Monday the students would put their monday stick in the pocket beside the choice the would like to make. On Tuesday they would do the same only in the third column and with their Tuesday stick. 

Lots to think about! But I am hoping one of the two of these ideas will work! What do you plan to do? How do you monitor if students have visited all components? 

If you would like the mini daily 5 cards that match the posters that I made feel free to download those here. 

Also you can still link up with the Daily 5 book study. This will be my first year implementing and I am so super excited to read all of these wonderful ideas. Find them or link up at Primary Graffiti!

See ya soon! 

Dee Dee 

Reading Block. Woah.

This is something I have been tackling since day one and I get the feeling I will continue to tackle for oh, the next 27 years or so. I've been pouring over website after website of people who seem to really have it going on when it come to literacy. I have been working to make mine work like I want it to. Our literacy block consist of shared reading, work stations, guided reading word work, and writing. It's a huge chunk of our day.

The first thing I tackled was organizing our work stations. Mine are modeled based on Debbie Diller's view on literacy. Although my stations continue to be a work in progress I am really happy with the station rotation cards and signs that I created. You can download these at the end of this post. All clipart is from Phillip Martin. You can find it all on his website, Phillip Martin Clip Art

We do two stations a day. The kids have a partner and their two pictures are beside each other on a pocket chart. On the same row as their picture is a blue card first and then a green card. The blue card is their first station and the green card is their second station. They rotate each day. I am still majorly learning how to make these work most effectively!!!

The things I am still working on are:

1. Making sure the kids are confident enough on the tasks found in each station so that they can independently complete them WELL.

2. Making sure the rotation of my station gets each student to each station one time through out a week.

3. Getting a manageable system created for getting the stations ready each week.

Any ideas?

Work Station Cards

Work Station Signs

Talk to Ya Soon!

Dee Dee