I will be honest......I have always struggled getting my firsties to love writing. I am confident they leave my classroom with a love of reading but my goal last year was to do that with writing.We are giving them the foundation for reading and writing and it's our job to prepare them for the dreaded "writing" portion of state tests. If you have been following my blog then you know I use warm fuzzies. Last year I actually started taking warm fuzzies if they forgot a capital or punctuation. They would get so frustrated but it did work. Daily 5 provided my class with the opportunity to write daily and they ended up being the BEST writers I've ever taught. You have to make it exciting for them & change things up. As soon as I sniffed out any boredom at all I would change things up. There are so many resources out there in blogland and on TPT that I took advantage of this year. I start out discussing the following chart. Of course you need to provide them … [Read more...] about Daily 5 Chapter 6 Book Study & a Lakeshore Discount!
Daily 5 book study
Daily 5 Chapter 5 Book Study
On day 1 of Read to Someone I introduce the concept of "EEK". We also demonstrate the right and wrong way to Read to Someone. Click on any D5 pics below to grab your FREEBIE Read to Someone & Listen to Reading packet. After you are done modeling this you proceed to discuss the various ways to Read to Someone. I READ, YOU READ! One student reads a page or two & then their partner reads. Some really awesome books that our HSA bought for us. CHORAL READ Partners read the same page or section at the same time. READING ONE BOOK One book is shared between the partners. I use the following books for this as well. These two little cuties are reading the "You Read to Me, I'll Read to You" books. … [Read more...] about Daily 5 Chapter 5 Book Study
Daily 5 Chapter 4 Book Study & a TON of freebies!
I start out the D5 by going over 3 ways to read a book. I will use the following digital anchor chart to explain this concept. I have all kinds of reading levels mixed into one class as many of you do. Until I know their reading levels I demonstrate the 3 different ways to read a book. This makes the ones that are struggling more confident to actually attempt to read. The sisters suggest demonstrating how to read the pictures & read the words on day one. The next day you will demonstrate how to retell the story that was read the day before. You want to chose a book where the pictures closely math the words. On the second day we will go over the 3 ways to read & also the above chart. I will demonstrate the right & wrong way to act during "Read to Self". Providing a visual of the right & wrong model is key. I also through in a lot of dramatic praise when I see improvement in stamina. This is a picture I will show my … [Read more...] about Daily 5 Chapter 4 Book Study & a TON of freebies!
Daily 5 Chapter 3 Book Study
Melissa Freshwater from Mrs. Freshwater's Class & Jana from Thinking Out Loud are hosting Chapter 3 of our book study. If you choose to participate through your blog please link back to the chapter hostesses. Establishing a Gathering Place: Part of D5 is establishing a gathering place in your classroom. The space above is my classroom library where we gather when I don't use anything digital. I am not one to have big anchor charts, I use them but they are digital & displayed on my Smartboard. When I am using my Smartboard the gathering place is at their seats. I will pull up certain anchor charts through my Smartboard or simply through them on my Elmo or Luna Projector. With the way technology is going I don't feel the need to waste the paper on an anchor chart BUT there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with doing that...I just don't have the space. This is the only picture I could find of my calendar area. This will be changing … [Read more...] about Daily 5 Chapter 3 Book Study
Daily 5 Chapter 2 & Memories of My Beloved Nephew
I'd first like to share a photo of my beloved nephew, Jordan Robert, who we buried yesterday. The days seemed to have rolled together this week being put through such a tragedy. I am finding comfort in knowing that Jordan is now in my brother's (his father) arms on Father's Day. Jordan was a kind & gentle soul who taught me so many things in his time on Earth. I want to be more "Jordan-like" and be strong for those around me. Being a strong person emotionally is not my thing, but I am really trying. Last Father's Day my grandfather went into a coma. The anniversary of his death was June 20th, 11 years to the DAY of my grammie's death. He started to have her come to him in his dreams & he took it upon himself to make his own arrangements a week before he died. He had 5 daughters who he didn't want to have to deal with all of that as well as the grief of losing him, he just knew it was his time. Unfortunately, none of us were prepared for Jordan's death … [Read more...] about Daily 5 Chapter 2 & Memories of My Beloved Nephew
Daily 5 Book Study: Chapter 1
I am hosting Chapter 1 (Introduction) of the Daily 5 (D5) by the brilliant sisters' Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. I read this book last summer to prepare myself for the 90 minute literacy block our district was implementing. I had read about the D5 in blogland but didn't think much of it because I never educated myself about it. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did! I am absolutely IN LOVE with the D5! I implemented it this school year & it blew.... my..... mind. One of the MOST important things about this program is doing it the correct way & a few teachers learned that the hard way. The sisters developed this program as a way to change the atmosphere of their classrooms from micro-managing students, to creating routines and procedures that fostered independent literacy behaviors that were ingrained to the point of being habits. Independent??? Really? First graders?? Yeah...right! That is truly what I thought after reading the first chapter. After … [Read more...] about Daily 5 Book Study: Chapter 1