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! 

Dr. Jean Song Book Giveaway!

So yesterday evening I was just reading this wonderful post by Fabulous in First about Literacy! I am switching to first this year and was loving her morning routine, in fact I am thinking about just follow her schedule and then tweaking it to work for me as I go! My team does not work together so I am starting from scratch. During the post she mentioned Dr. Jean's song books. I have almost all of Dr. Jean's CDs but didn't realize she had song books too! What a great way for students to work on fluency!

If you click on the picture above it will take you to Amazon where you can buy this set for $56. I added it to my wish list immediately because I was so excited. Then I wake up this morning to find that she is GIVING away this set! Oh my goodness was I excited... so here I am sharing about this wonderful giveaway even though I hope I am the one to win ;) Go to Fabulous in First and sign up for this awesome giveaway today!

Must Have Books

I just finished up my Chapter 5 post and came across this fun linky about Must Have Books. I will share a few and am excited to see what other books I may be missing out on. The host of this linky idea has some GREAT books, most of them I haven't read! 
Hosted by the teacher wife.

Here are my favorites:

     

    



OH and there is also a blog giveaway here:

Daily 5: Chapter 5

Read to Someone


So this part of the Daily 5 says you should spend 6 days introducing the concept of Read to Someone, my question is... do you complete the 6 days simultaneously with read to self or are these done at separate times?


So far I love the little story of EEKK and how to talk about voice level. I know there are tons of posters on Pinterest that have the cute EEKK poem. An example can be found here.

I am very much into my new superhero theme, but I like the clipart on this poster because of the kiddos being elbow-elbow and knee-knee AND the book is even in the middle! We'll see!

The Check for Understanding is key here. I think this is what I will plan on really, really practice and model for the kids. I like the idea of having a tangible check mark the student holds as a reminder to check for understanding. Hmm... add that to my project list! The ones below were handcrafted, but I also saw ones that were laminated paper.

Complete I Chart with student ideas of what Read to someone should look and sound like. 

Modeling then takes place, just as we did with Read with self. Start with undesirable model and then have the students correct their behavior. Allows for 3 minutes or first distraction for everyone to get a chance to practice. And again the most important part is to come back together and review the I Chart- REFLECT!

When I first saw the 3 ways to read to someone I was confused, but now that she breaks them down through modeling I've got it. I think this a great variety to choose from and allows different levels of students to read together. Check for Understanding- One Book, I read/You read, and Read two books.

Again do some modeling and practice, trying for 4 minutes this time. 

The biggest issue of partner reading would be CHOOSING the book... so that's why we prepare kids with strategies. Let's Make a Deal, choose "read 2 books," or the good ol' Rock, Paper, Scissors! Us 4th grade teachers always told the kids, "Rock it out!" The next day we talk about choosing spots (the previous days I practice teacher has designated spots) and now it's the kiddos turn to choose a spot. The 5th day we talk about choosing partners. The last day is all about coaching. I like the idea of coaching sheets, but what good it is going to be if the students aren't able to read it? I suppose if we practice them enough most of the kids will just know them?

Listen to Read

This section was very short, because most children enjoy this. It is also something that we do not have to work on stamina as much because it tends to be more engaging. I will say the book mentioned not needing headphones and teaching them appropriate volume of the CD player, but I have to say I have tried this in the past and kids get squirrly. It's much easier to manage with headphones! I found headphones for $5 through School Specialty and they are great quality! Never had an incident of Lice, I like the idea of each student having a pair in their book box!

Best Giveaway!

Check out this awesome giveaway! I cannot believe someone is going to win ALL of this great stuff!
Go to Faithful in First and enter yourself!

I would love to have a substantial start of materials going into my first year in the first grade world!
Good luck to all those who enter!

Behavior Model

Okay so I am in a school that follows the PBS... or more lately know as PBiS. I am not a big fan at all, in fact, I found an example from someone a while back that sums it up. It goes something like this...


A boy comes to school with a gun and the principal hands a bear slip (positive reward slip) to every student standing around him without a gun and says Thank you for keeping our school safe.


So anyway I really got motivated today with creating... I love when I get these creative winds!! I spent most of my day creating labels, notebook covers, etc. to match my superhero theme. I purchased the clipart from Jaime from her Digital Bake Shop on etsy! Love her clip art... simple but cute! I purchased "Super Boys" and "Super Girls," I also grabbed "Out of this world" and "Cute Bugs." Now this behavior idea does not have any clip art included but I think what I will do is have the kiddos pick their favorite superhero out of the clipart and I will put their number on the superhero. After attaching a magnet to the back of their superhero we can use that as they place holder for where they are at that day.


So here's the plan...
They would start at Ready! every morning. They can move up throughout the day for positive reinforcement. The only spot down they can move is to uh-oh! At this point they would fill out a think sheet, and sit away from the group. When they are ready they can go back to Ready! and join the group. The reason I chose to do a color system is so that I can easily communicate to parents daily behavior. I know in 1st grade parents always want to know. So each night I would mark in their take home folder what color they landed on! If they had any think sheets they would need to be signed and returned.


You can check out my color coded idea here, it's still superhero themed :) First time I am using dropbox to share something, so let me know if it doesn't work!

Ho hum, a new blog design?

Well what do you think? I am going with a superhero theme this year and I have never designed my own blog, just used the templates. I am so jealous of all the cute blogs I see out there and decided to take a stab at it. My husband is a web designer and would probably laugh at me if I showed him what I had done. But I am proud of my creation even if I did waste over an hour working on it just to avoid working on portfolio entries for class. We'll call it a work in progress as I am not completely satisfied with the header... it's still kind of blah and I don't like the font, but I didn't want to spend too much time until I made sure how this whole designing a blog thing worked out. 


Well anyway I went into my classroom yesterday and felt good about what I accomplished in a little less than 4 hours! Organization is underway... I spent most of my time labeling, and sorting books!

This will soon be our meeting/reading area. Still working at the logistics and look at those sad, bare, black walls :(

This is the area I am most proud of clearing out. Almost everything that is laying out does not belong. Curriculum we no longer use, 4th grade books that need to come home, and questionable stuff that I need to discuss with our reading specialist! However all MY stuff officially has a home in a cabinet!