Daily 5-2nd Edition Chapter 7 + FREEBIES!

 

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.

If you are a blogger, it's not too late to link up to our book study. Please order your book & join us! 

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Daily 5 Book Study-2nd Edition Chapter 5 + FREEBIES

 

Each chapter I read I am getting more and more excited about implementing some changes. The Sister's are clearly geniuses. You know how much I LOVE them! Let's jump right in! 

This chapter scared the bejeezus out of me! The first day!!!!!! Are you kidding me?!?! I usually let them explore the classroom library & observe them picking out their books for their bins. I also let them read just to see how much stamina they have without them knowing I am timing them. 

I guess it all does make sense. The way the first day or the first week goes basically sets the precedent for your entire year. If you let them yell out & follow you around on the first day, they will think they can do that all the time. Nip it & nip it quick! You need to start training them the second they step foot in the door. Remember....they are little sponges and you don't want to change up a procedure or routine out of nowhere. 

You want to have the steps planned out on paper or in your head of the procedures you want them to have BEFORE the first day of school. 

How will they leave their seats? How do they ask a question? What if they have to use the bathroom in the middle of Read to Self? What am I going to do if a student breaks stamina within the first 5 seconds? What am I going to do if they say "I can't read yet!". These are all questions that may or may not come up on the first day but you want to be prepared with answers. 

The Sister's do a nice job of providing solid foundational lessons in this chapter and the next chapter. 

First, you will model "Read the Pictures". The Sister's use a cookbook, a bird dictionary, & a set of directions with pictures. Well.....you know me.....

I don't cook. I hate birds. I don't read directions. 

Therefore, I will be taking a different approach with this lesson. I will probably pull up my Pinterest boards and show them some pictures on a board that will peek their interest. I will go through the pictures and talk about each picture as if I was reading. I use Pinterest all day long in my classroom so they might as well get used to it on day one. 

Next, I will pull out this gem I found. Oh before that we will take a brain break. This is my go to Pinterest board at least 2-3x/day! 

Follow Melissa's board Brain Breaks on Pinterest.  

This is an awesome book especially for this lesson. This book gets your students uber excited about reading. Here is a short & sweet summary.

Principal Wiggins has promised to dye his hair purple and sleep on the school roof if the students read 1,000 books this year, and Miss Malarkey is determined to find the right book for every student, including this story's reluctant-reader narrator. Winning her students over book by book, Miss Malarkey will have students loving to read in no time. This book get's everyone excited for what reading can do for you but also helps them to think about good fit books. 

You're Welcome.

If you have been following me for a while then you know I always read this book on the first day of school. #ITISAMUSTREADONTHEFIRSTDAY! #youmusttrainyourchickens

If you type in "chicken hat" in Amazon you'd be very surprised what comes up. The classroom I had this year had some MAJOR VERBAL OVERFLOW ISSUES! Their class size was ENORMOUS in Kindergarten and we had to undo learned behaviors such as being an "interrupting chicken".

Do I wear this hat while reading???? Why, yes. Yes, I sure do. I even wear it throughout the year and not just while I am reading the book. When I have out of control chickens I simply put this on & start bawking at them. If I bawk at them they have to give me a BIG FUZZY. This pretty much eliminates shouting out. I talk a lot about this particular lesson in my classroom management ebook. I am also working on adding a lesson to this portion of the book. You need to check it out! Keep reading....hint...hint. 

Since I read this book and dressed as a chicken on the first day....I can retell this story on day 2 or 3. They WILL need a refresher & I will give them a few giggles while I'm at it. 

I added these posters as well as the ones below to my Daily 5 freebie HERE. 

 

 Use the 10 Steps to Independence to launch Read to Self. "The sisters" hold three or four practice sessions to build stamina throughout the first day of school. I am really loving this idea. We only practiced building our stamina in Read to Self once a day but this will help my students be more successful and independent quicker. This will also solidify my expectations of how Read to Self looks.

 

This next part is where I probably will not follow the book. Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to have the students to come in with their supplies before school starts. Organizing all the supplies with the help of my students usually takes a BIG chunk of my morning even when I have help. I "might" do an I-Pick lesson in the afternoon or wait until day 2. I don't think I want to front-load too much and totally freak them out on the first day. It's just too much for first graders. It might be more appropriate for older grades. 

I really love how the Sister's do this lesson in the new edition. They go into it in more depth. I usually do the shoe lesson since I love shoes & they might as well know that right away. I will bring my golf shoes, a baby shoe, a pair of my husband's work boots & I will borrow one of their shoes. I usually put these on & walk around until someone notices & then this begins my lesson. 

One of the changes which I like is how you teach them this concept. You do not teach them to hold up their fingers anymore when they don't know a word. That usually was an epic fail every year. I think it was just way over their head. The students should have 99% accuracy with any book they read to be a good-fit book. 

You teach them how to pick a book. Model how to choose a book in your classroom library. You use the shoes to compare book selections. 

This leads us to the PURPOSE. Would I wear my husband's work boots with my nice chevron top & dress pants???? No, not a good fit. Would I wear my golf shoes to play tennis? Would your shoe be a good fit for me??? 

Then we discuss their interest. I will talk about the shoes here too. Do you think these work boots interest me since I'm a teacher? Do you think I would have baseball shoes in my teacher bag? Um, no. That does not interest me at all. I would have TOMS....those interest me. 

Comprehending and knowing the words can be done as you read through any of your favorite picture books for the beginning of the year. 

Another suggestion that I really liked was having a rotation during Daily 5 for book shopping. I have always had them shop for books as they finish their morning work on Mondays only. The only time they were allowed to go into any of the book bins was when they passed an AR test & they were able to switch out that book only. I might try the shopping rotation and see how it works. 

Usually if a student is off task during Read to Self it's because they are not reading a good-fit book. It might be too hard and they get frustrated. This is another reason to have book boxes for each students so they have back-up in case this happens. 

 The Sister's go into a WHOLE lot in this section and I am just overwhelmed. I will be going back to their first book and not doing all these foundational lessons together. However, I will be introducing Work on Writing as our next rotation. 

I will start my lesson by showing them this digital anchor chart which will find a place permanently in our classroom. Next, we will do the following anchor chart together. 

We will write a story about how I felt the night before our first day of school. I will model my writing using our SMARTboard. 

This is just a sample. I will write this out with them so it will be more authentic. I will include this in the freebie packet for your reference. The Sister's suggest to model your writing and instead of asking every other second "how do you spell?" simply underline the word. 

As I am writing this story I will think out loud to model how writers think while they write. You want to emphasize not getting caught up on the spelling of the words. Don't interrupt your writing flow. KEEP WRITING!

My students do have writing notebooks that we use daily but I will not introduce these right away. Instead, I will have them one of my story papers in my Ultimate Writing Unit. I have several different kinds that you can pick and choose. I will use one with wide lines since this is the beginning of the year. I will put the above sample on our writing board as a reminder to UNDERLINE words we don't know. 

Click on any pic above to check out all the writing options. I am so very proud of this! After 3 years of Daily 5 and all my years of teacher.....this year was the FIRST year that my students fought over this station. There were tears my friends. They could NOT get enough of it. I am working on another set to add even more options. Check out the reviews! 

I am going to include some foundational lesson must haves. Again, I will not be introducing these all at once. I will introduce each skill as I did before. When I introduce Read to Someone, I will do the EEKK lesson. It's so important to model the most desirable and least desirable behaviors during Read to Someone. I do not show pictures during this lesson. I have pairs of students demonstrate. This helps with their muscle memory and I will refer back to this lesson throughout the year. 

Guess what time it is??? 5:00 am & I have been working on this post for 7 hours. I.AM.BEAT. I couldn't even finish the rest of the freebies BUT I will. If you noticed I did not do Chapter 6 either. There is just way too much information and I don't want to miss anything. This post is MASSIVE so I will do a separate post for Chapter 6 and add the rest of the freebies. Don't forget to follow by Daily 5 Pinterest board & our Daily 5 Book Study board. 

I almost forgot. If you would like a chance to win my Classroom Management Ebook, leave me a comment about your favorite part of this post. I will be updating this Ebook & I will also be giving away my Ultimate Writing Station. Stay tuned...........

P.S. I am going to see Chelsea Handler in Chicago tomorrow!!!!! Remember this pic???? That is THE CHUNK!!!!! He did not feel like smiling for the paparazzi. 

 

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