Daily 5: Chapter 6

Whew! Only 2 more chapters and right now I am feeling more confused about Daily 5 than excited. Thanks to Misty Dawn I did find page 119 to be very helpful in laying out all these "days." I wish there was someone in my building who had implemented Daily 5 in the past, but other than my blogger friends I am on my own!


So here it goes Chapter 6: Writing and Word Work


In this chapter they continually mention that by now the students are aware of Daily 5 and these routines become easier to teach, however looking at page 119 "The first five weeks of Daily 5." The writing portion is introduced right after Read to Self. I feel like the writing part might be a little more tricky. So is page 119 an Idea, but not necessarily a guide for how to start Daily 5. Ahhh, I am confused :(


Anyway, the writing portion is a great time for students to work on their creativity with writing. I love the time taken to discuss spelling words... I always make a point encourage students to use the words they want to and worry about spelling later. I like that they underline the word so they know we are not just going to ignore the word. 


Word work sounds like a fun, hands on time for the kids. I need wikki stix! My question is do you have resources like spelling list, sight word list available for kids to look at or maybe this could be something that is in their book box for the week? 


I am also thinking of making a kind of checklist for students as they have completed a part of the Daily 5... here are a couple of ideas I am contemplating for that.

I like this so I know what they are currently working on and it holds them accountable. However, this does not "record" what they have already done that day.

Or I was thinking something like this on the side of their book boxes.

These are the book boxes I ordered, which are obviously going to need some sprucing up... I was being a penny pincher, but now I wish I would've just ordered the colorful ones :(

And then I think, hey why not both? HA... maybe if my order comes in soon and I can get busy right away I will be able to accomplish both of these ideas!

So my sister came up and helped with my classroom yesterday! She is only 14, but I put her to work! We got a lot accomplished. Here is a picture update.

My library is getting there, and I finally hung my calendar. :)

This is what I really needed her help with... hanging all the blue and black material... we also created the city outline down below the whiteboard. I was going to us it for my behavior system, but I still can't make up my mind!! It's cute either way. I am going to get a silver paint pen and outline/draw windows on the buildings!