Daily 5 wrap up {freebies!}

Hi Friends!
I will be wrapping up my Daily 5 series in this post.  

ps.. did you like the posters that I had each time?  I have a variety of them as a facebook freebie.  Head to my FB page and click the purple box to get them all! 

I've had the BEST comments and heard the nicest things.  I am so glad that the posts have been helpful to you!
In case you are just finding me, you can read about all the posts here:
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Work on Writing
Word Work
Listening to Reading

I just wanted to share a few more things.  First, I went to my school and took a picture of my anchor charts.  Now...I CLEARLY was in a hurry when making these this past year.  Usually I try and cutesy these up a bit more.  But you will get the idea.

And my handwriting is all wonky too! Ugh.  Don't tell anyone I showed you these ;)

When creating these charts with my class I actually have a "cheat sheet" that I use to help me remember the way to guide the discussion.  It is a flip book and it looks like this:

Now It is not this colorful- this is just a sample of what it would look like.  I have the printer friendly version for you.  Just click on the pic above and it will tell you how to make it.
(I haven't printed this one yet as I made this one fresh and new- can someone please print it out and tell me if it worked- my printer is not working--- boo!!  THANKS!!)

We also talked about the word collector that the kids keep in their book boxes.  I FORGOT all about the giant class word collector that I have hanging on my door.  This was just made from poster board and laminated- kids love it! :)

Again, ignore the shape this is in... usually it's full of colorful words! :)

Here is a pic of my stamina graphs that we talked about.  These graphs look pretty good- usually the kids last a minute before we have to stop.  I laminate the graphs and use them year after year.

It will be important for you to create a signal for your class -especially when you are building their stamina.
I use this wand that makes the best chime sound.  It is only $4.95 and you can check them out HERE.


Finally, I mentioned CAFE here and there.  I highly recommend you get that book and read it!  I describe D5/CAFE as ....

Daily 5 is the bones and CAFE is the meat.

  I LOOOVE CAFE and it has really transformed the way I teach reading.  And you get to create a cute bulletin board!

Get the book, read it, and do both Daily 5 and CAFE- you won't be sorry! :)






So I leave you with something that I wrote when I did a presentation to our school staff.  I hope it gives you a little taste of how I truly feel about Daily 5!

What really drew me to the Daily 5 was my struggle with constantly needing to create cutesy center activities or copying stacks of worksheets to keep the kids “busy” while I pulled guided reading groups.  The 5 choices of Daily 5 just made sense- I thought “why didn’t I think of this!”  Giving the students the choice of reading and writing time was an ah ha moment.  I’ll never forget the time when I was first letting the children make their choice and we were on our second round, I had a child say to me can I choose “read to self” again?  I was like YES, yes you can!  How amazing that feeling was that I had students choosing to READ and wanted to READ!  My students now beg for daily 5 and are thrilled when they get to curl up in the corner with a book in hand- it is such an amazing thing to look around the room and see the entire class so engaged in such meaningful activities and know that all these activities will enhance their reading skills.  Now during my guided reading time I don’t have to worry about a center finishing too early or if I explained the list of worksheets well enough so they don’t interrupt me, they all know what to do and they are completely self motivated and independent workers!  Last thing-just the other day I was with a group and I heard noise coming from my reading corner so I thought… OK, here we go.. it’s December and my “D5 routine” is coming unglued.  So I get up and I see where all the noise was coming from… one of my ELL students was outstretched on the rug and half on the beanbag chair trying his hardest to sound out the words on the page of a book.  Then I smiled and thought… yes, this is what it is all about.  If the only noise I am worried about is a child trying hard to read, then my job is done here.  It was a proud moment. J

p.s... up next.... "What's in the box?"  

hmmm... I wonder!! :)