The Sisters recommend launching the next component of Daily 5 after students have built stamina for a certain number of minutes.
Intermediate students is 12-14 minutes
Primary is 10-12 minutes
Kindergarten is 7-8 minutes
Just remember EVERY CLASS IS DIFFERENT. This couldn't be a truer statement. Each class is unique. You will definitely KNOW when your students are ready to move on. Please do not rush them.
I used to introduce Work on Writing last because my students always struggled in this station. We do start out slow and I do not introduce everything up my sleeve at once. Remember, we are just starting to build our stamina. With students getting daily writing time they will become proficient writers before you know it! They will love the choices they have during writing and the choice of which station they CHOOSE to go into first, second, or third.
Since we are at the beginning of the year I always have them do some back to school writing. Usually a writing sample that I need up for open house.
I always try to keep one piece of their writing at least once a month.
1. Email
2. All About Me
3. Interview
4.School Tribune
5. Blogging
6. Shared Writing
7. Monthly Writing (Writing Wall of Fame)
8. Buddy Writing
9. Journal Writing
I always by a TON of spiral notebooks and composition books during all the back to school sales. This will be the cover for their first work on writing journal.
We usually go through a journal per quarter.
I will go over the work on writing I-chart first, review the read to self chart & we will jump right into building our work on writing stamina. Of course, you want to discuss the desired behaviors, purpose for writing, and establish a sense of urgency. If you have materials that they will need you will also take the time to show them how to INDEPENDENTLY gather their writing materials quickly and quietly. I personally have a clipboard for each student and they automatically grab their clipboard out of their seat sack as well as a pencil.
Just remember to stay out of the way. When a student does break their writing stamina, then stop them all & gather in the meeting area. There will be grunts and groans as long as you put something they are excited about in the writing station.
I will have my writing unit displayed to build that sense of urgency. This does take some work to set up so if you are interested in this station, check out the reviews first & buy it while it's on sale. I am about 1/2 way done with the Ultimate Writing Station Set 2. OH-MY-WRITING! I am so in love I can't even stand it. If you own this one the next one is just as good & I am so super excited I will be able to share my ideas with you. Your students will LOVE it!
If you have younger students that are just beginning the writing process, I highly recommend my friend Crystal's new writing unit! It is the BOMB.COM for kinders! I always struggled to teach writing when I taught kindergarten...this is your answer! You're welcome!
My gal Crystal takes you STEP-BY-STEP in the writing process for the littles. She included plans, pictures, examples & more. Where was she when I taught kinders???? Seriously....check it out! She blogged all about it HERE!
The power of choice provided with the Daily 5 is insanely genius. I am about the worst at doing something I am told to do. The hubs can definitely attest to that. For example, if he wants me to do the laundry. Do you think I jump up, do a cheer, & run to the washer? Um, no. I.hate.laundry. I will do it when I am good and ready. It is my CHOICE when I will do it and nobody is going to tell me when and how.
Am I right? Is this how you feel too? I have always been this way.
Don't you think our students feel the same way??? Of course they do!
You will see your students thrive during Daily 5 and it WILL be their favorite time of the day & yours!
I do start my students out with the form before. It's just easier for my students to check in. We keep this in their binders in a sheet protector.
They will move to this new form after we have built our stamina and all stations are running. They will be used to the station names & by this time I will be able to meet with groups of students or individuals.
I get a TON of emails about how I use my Daily 5 choice chart.
It's really simple.....really.
I put student numbers on clothespins & put them on a small container.
My teacher's assistant (student job) gets the pleasure of calling students up. The only reason they would call a certain table is if a student gave me the "Pick first for centers/station" coupon. Otherwise, they look for quiet tables and call them up.
The little nugget in the pink pants is my teacher's assistant. She was the perfect one to have this job to show the rest how it's done! If you look behind her and down by the ugly floor...you will see a piece of tape. I teach the students to stand behind the tape until the student before them chooses.
As they are choosing they are also counting how many clips are on each station. I will only allow 6 in each station at a time.
I made this form that I will use this year. I was a hot mess this year with keeping track. I also made a form without numbers as well. This form will help me keep track of what students I have worked with each day and who still needs to come to me. Before my teacher's assistant starts calling tables, I will let the students know who will be with me and what they need. Most of the time when do do come to my table, they do not need anything.
If you missed this.....CLICK HERE
I list everything I keep in this bad boy which sits at my small group table.
Here are my students during Read to Someone throughout the year. You will always have students that flock to this station. This will be their first choice. As long as they are reading the whole time and staying in one spot.....GREAT!
This has helped some of my struggling reader's with their vocab and word attack skills and even my really fluent readers improved with their fluency and expression. You will have certain times where you will need accountability sheets whether it's for a grade or you just have one of those classes.
Read to Someone always gets better every year. It motivates me seeing them choosing different stations and gravitating towards different things. This year my students loved reading chapter books together. One book shared.
Other students loved reader's theater (we love Teeny's & First Grade Blue Skies), close reads (we love Lyndsey's & Tara's), non fiction science passages (we love Kristin's) and poems (We love Fun in First's poems)...I keep all of those choices in different binders. They just grab and go.
Since my students became such proficient writers this year and published books and wrote plays, this was also made an option in Read to Someone.
I just compiled these freebies all into one pic...otherwise this post would be a mile long! I will be using interactive journals one day a week during our writer's workshop. I included all of the above as well. You're welcome.
For whatever reason this is the station that bombed this year. Last year, they fought over those headphones. This year, not so much. The only time they really wanted to be in there was when I had Dr. Seuss books there.
I wrote a grant several years ago for this wireless headset. They drive the kids crazy! I am thinking I might need to liven this station up but it's going to be so much work.....wah! I have gobs of CD books that I have collected throughout the years & I am not ready to give those up or even put them on an mp3 player. I do think these kids did not flock towards it because they were pretty fluent readers coming in to my class & didn't rely on the model of fluency and expression that the CD books offer. I do think if I had ebooks or let them go onto the computer, they might of liked that better. In the meantime, while I figure this out, here are some accountability sheets for your listening center.
Like I said every year is completely different. This year, I ended up moving all my center type games into my early finisher station. They did not want to do those during Daily 5. I have no idea why, they just didn't like centers...at all.
I would still use them if I saw they needed some help on certain things & then I would just do a literacy center set up and pair them up in partners, like I do for math.
Their go to for word work was Candy Land. Every year since I have been making these, they have loved it. I usually would only allow this game to go into word work a few times a week. Well, that changed this year. As I started making more difficult games that they can handle independently, they went into our word word station. They were O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D. Over the years I have made over 100+ games with many more to come. Check them out HERE.
These games are fabulous because they can be done independently or in small groups with me or pull out reading groups. Our reading recovery teacher uses these daily with K-4 during her intervention groups depending on their needs.
Even though this is hands on & super engaging I would like them to manipulate more things than Candy Land cards and game pieces. So I made the following that will be given one day a week throughout the year.
I will blow the above sheet up and print on bright paper & laminate. This will stay posted near our word work station along with one big die. You will want to have "station captains" so that they monitor which number they roll because I can already predict they will have their favorites & will say they rolled a certain number and actually didn't. I know I should trust them but.....I don't with this...ha! With having only one big die, this will help the station captain keep an an on each person's roll and keep mental notes. I will keep these sheets in my word work cart (labeled) so they can just grab and go.
You can grab any sheet above HERE. If you have less or more words, for now the sheets are staying the way they are.....they are FREE. I wish I could accommodate everyone's needs but I can't. These are how many words my students have for Journey's weekly. I might be in the middle of a Journey's word work project so stay tuned. In the meantime, grab these FREEBIES.
Last week, I gave away a copy of my Classroom Management Ebook. This week I would love to give away my Ultimate Writing Station. Please leave me a comment about your favorite thing from this post & I will pick a winner tomorrow at noon (CST)....if I'm up.
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