Daily 5!!

Well...I had seen it on Pinterest, I had heard about it from a fellow teacher, now it was time to really do it! 

What do you do first? Purchase and read the book, "The Daily 5" by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. I read the book from front to back absorbing every detail and making many mental notes. Then it was time to go back through book a little slower and make my plans to make it a reality. I think this year it has really caught on in our school district and I even joined a study group with teachers from all over my district in varying grades and got some good ideas from them too.

The 5 parts include:

Read to Self

Read to Someone

Listen to Reading

Word Work

Work on Writing

I plan on introducing each part in this order. As of today, I have introduced the first three. Next week, I plan on introducing Word Work. 

I am amazed at their accomplishements thus far, and am amazed how some of my busiest students have settled down to sit in a cornner and read a book. Below is a picture of lesson I taught about picking books for their basket. The idea came from the book and they really enjoyed it. 

The point of the lesson is to show them that just as the baby shoe is too little for me, some of the books they choose are too little or easy for them. And just as some shoes are too big for me, some books are too big for them, or some shoes may fit just right, but are too fancy to wear to work means that they may be able to read the words, but just aren't interested in it. After they were trained to choose those just right books, they were ready to read to self. 

I used the clock on the promethean board and we started working on our stamina the first week of school. It took about three weeks, but we finally worked up to 10 minutes of reading in one spot without stopping. It was so much fun to watch them pick their spots and listen to the stories they were making up since they couldn't read yet.

Then I was ready to introduce read to someone. I exaplained that when they are reading to their selves, they are preparing to be able to read to someone. We learned to sit EEKK style and they love telling people what that means. "Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee, Book in the middle so we both can see." Coming from 5th grade, I was prepared for picking partneners to be a huge ordeal. I actually only have one or two little girls that are struggling with accepting whoever chooses them.

Reading under the table is a very popular choice. :)

They are taking elbow to elbow to a new level, but so cute!

With these two groups up and running, I was able to start pulling some small groups over for table time. we have listen to reading whole group and I have modeled for them what I expect in their groups. I am a little nervous, but excited to get 4 groups going at one time next week. I will let you know how it goes!