Week 8 of the Daily 5

Happy Monday!  What a day...I think I say this at the end of every Monday but I really do love Mondays.  My students always have so much to share from their weekends and they are truly excited to reconnect with their friends. I totally take advantage of this during our Work on Writing time.

Every Monday we talk about our weekends as a class.  We share with our neighbors and then I do a shared writing with my kiddos about my weekend.  This jumps starts our Work on Writing session of the Daily 5 for the day.  So far this has been working really well!  I am really enjoying this "mini-lesson" each week.

Speaking of mini-lessons, I am loving this part of the Daily 5!  The format of the Daily 5 allows me to teach the same lessons to my whole class that I otherwise might be teaching 4 different times to 4 small groups.  Before the Daily 5, I ran stations or centers in my classroom.  I grouped my students in homogeneous groups.  I found that even though my students were in levelized groups, I would teach the same lesson to each group.  Of course, I varied it a little and tried to individualize my instruction as much as possible in my short station time.

Now, I find that I am not only able to teach ALL of my students 4 mini lessons, but I also provide targeted instruction to students during my 2 hour Daily 5 block!  It really is amazing!  My  students work independently at valuable activities.  These activities are not busy work, but valuable, engaging activities.  My students "Read to Self", "Read to Someone", "Work with Words", "Work on Writing" and "Listen to Reading."  I've adapted this framework to fit the needs of my students, even further.  My students use iPads during their "Listen to Reading" time.   During this time they work on lessons using the LexiaCore5 app.  If you aren't familiar with Lexia, it's a great reading support program.

It's taken some time to get used to not having a small group designated to "rotate" to my table ever day.  But today I realized the pay off!  I worked with 2-3 students at a time to unscramble sentences.  I not only taught these students discreet skills, but also introduced a new "Working with Words" activity.  While I worked with these students, I had a parent volunteer work with 2-3 students at a time playing a game reading cvc words.  All the while, every student was engaged in authentic, independent activities.


Here are a few of the new activities I introduced to my students for this week:

I worked on this with students today and will put it into Word Work tubs for practice this week.

I also finished this little set for Thanksgiving!    

I would love to hear from other teachers who use the Daily 5 in their classrooms!  

One last thing, and then I'm off to bed!  I am participating in the October Facebook Frenzy again!  It's coming up in a couple of weeks.  I'll keep you posted on the dates!  Have a great rest of your week!

P.S. The first three people to comment will get their choice of the above products for free! YAY!