Daily 5 Literacy Block

After all that we do with math in the morning it is amazing that that is only the first hour of our day! The next 90 minutes are focused on Daily 5.

During Daily 5 the kids are doing one of six things:

Read to Self

Read to Someone

Work on Writing

Listen to Reading

Word Work

Teacher Time

The kids sign up for their rounds themselves so there is a component of personal ownership in their Daily 5 time.

Read to Self

During this choice studnets become better readers by reading books that they choose at their reading level. It is during this time that they may also pick new books to put in their browsing bags (bags they read out of throughout the day).

Read to Someone

During this choice student read with another child from their group. The kids work on reading the same book together so that they can help with words that their partner gets stuck on and they can discuss the books that they are reading.

Work on Writing

Just like with our reading choices students become better writers by writing every day. Studnets have their very own journals that they write in, and during this time they are able to free write about whatever they want to. I do put in a word wall with theme words that they can use in their writing (fall words, school words, friend words etc.).

Listen to Reading

By listening and following along with stories on the computer and CD players studnets are getting to hear what a fluent reader sounds like. They are also able to expand their vocabularies by hearing stories that would be too difficult for them to read on their own. Students also get to experience technology and problem solve when technology doesn’t work the way they want it to. : )

Word Work

During this time studnets have 3 activities that they can do with our sight words. Right now they are able to clip words (using ABC clothespins), read & write the room (walk around looking for words they can read around our classroom), or spell words using letter beads. As we go through the year I will add to and change their choices.

Teacher Time

Finally, I pull small groups during this time. I meet with groups of 4-6 studnets to work on specific reading strategies. These groups are based on ability of a reading strategy, not necessarily grade level.

When kids are working at all their different stations I am able to concentrate on the group at my table knowing that everyone is immersed in a reading or writing activity. 


(NOTE: I will try to add more pictures! I can't find the ones that I thought I'd taken)

Math Time!

At the beginning of the year we do a lot of assessing to find students math levels so that we can split into math groups.

For Kindergarten students we checked number identification, one-to-one correspondence, patterns, shapes, colors…Whew!!

The major part of 1^st grade is addition and subtraction facts! The first graders this year are really great at addition already so we have been learning some subtraction strategies.

We also do calendar every morning. The students all follow along and fill in calendar journal with the days of the week, months, seasons, counting the days of school, filling on graphs, working on tally marks and doing the weather each day. Throughout the year we will be adding in money, fractions, story problems, and some addition and subtraction.

I will do another post about our 4 math choices later, be looking for it! : )

A Quick Catch-Up

It always seems with the change of seasons and months that things start to get crazy, so sorry about the delay in posts!

My sister came in the week before Labor Day to work with the class and I. The kids had fun doing writing and reading activities with her.

We started learning our Math Centers so that I can pull small groups during math time.

The kids can go to paper pencil, where they have a worksheet to do. This is always something that we have already done so that the kids can work independently.

The kids go to math computer as well. At the math computers the kids go to pbskids and are able to do any of the math games on the site. As the year goes on I will introduce some other math applications that we have on our computers.

Math games is our third center. This center will contain review games for concepts we have already learned (shapes, patterns and colors right now).

The final center is math books. The kids and I brainstormed some ideas for books that they could write. They came up with addition and subtraction books, color books, shape books, pattern books and counting books. Sometimes they will also be working on their Zero the Hero journals or class books at this center as well.

While the kids are at centers I pull small groups of students to work on enrichment, teaching new concepts, or extending learning.

In reading we continued with Daily 5 and started learning the Sight Word Chant! If you want to make your own List 1 sight word chant based off of this picture you are more than welcome to make it and have your child teach it to you.

We started our learning about Pumpkins! This is one of my favorite projects because the kids really learn a lot and are super excited about the topic!

We started by drawing our pumpkin memories and making a list of pumpkin words. We then took those words and webbed them.

The finale to our day was a DANCE PAR-TAY!!! One of our students won the prize of bringing in a CD of music he likes so the kids and I took the last 15 minutes of the day for a dance party. Some of these kids have moves! : ) It was so fun!