Daily 5

I love the whole concept of Daily 5...students engaging in authentic reading and writing activities while the teacher is working with guided reading groups. I have implemented the Daily 5 the last two weeks and love the work the students are doing (they've been leaving me some great stories in my mailbox)! I read the book by the two sisters and highly recommend it! I love their perspective on literacy! I've added some unique components to the Daily 5 with interactive boards and technology (that's one thing I love about the Daily 5...you can make it your own!) so here is a picture walk of my Daily 5:

1. Work on Writing:

I accidentally chopped it out of this picture but I have container with fancy pens they may use.

The pencil (from The Teacher Wife) has suggestions on what writers could write. The yellow envelope has story starters written on sticks. The pictures (from What the Teacher Wants) are there to give them possible topics they could write about.

I wrote high frequency words they are required to learn in first grade on post-its. I decided to include weekly describing words too to encourage them to make their writing more interesting.

I encourage the students to use their "writer's eye" (Mrs. Phippen has a super cute bulletin on using your "writer's eye") to look for basic writing mechanics such as capital letters, punctuation, etc. Teacher's Pick is an activity I post each week. I don't require them to do the activity, it's just an option. I've used different squiggle stories the last two weeks, and they love them!

They may do their writing in their writing journal or they may use the Alphasmart pictured above. The Alphasmart is a portable keyboard that can then connect to the computer via USB for you to upload documents. I love the Alphasmart because it gives the students practice with keyboarding outside of the computer lab.

Writing in action!

2. Read to Self 

3. Read to Someone

I want to add more to the Read to Self side but haven't decided what else to put. The bottom of each side (where the blue post-its are) is a section where the students can recommend books they've read by writing the title and author on a post-it

This EEKK poem can be found everywhere! I designed this one to coordinate with the rest of the board.

Reading in action!

 4. Word Work

Sorting!

Sorting!

I have gotten my sorts from Mrs. Pollard, Kerri B., and Mrs. Bainbridge. Word sorting isn't the most fun thing to do but the fun pictures and creative formats of the word sorts attracts the students! I also have a composition notebook with all the word sorts written correctly with features highlighted for the students to check their sort. At this choice, I also have grammar activities like Mad Libs and Noun Land (from The Teacher Wife).

5. Listen to Reading

The students may listen to reading on the computer with a list of websites I created using Jog the Web. The ITRT at my school showed us Jog the Web...anyone can create a list of websites you want the viewer to visit. It's free and easy to use!

The students may also use the LeapFrog Tag pens to listen to reading. They LOVE these! I own one pen myself, I borrowed two from the Reading Specialist, and two from my university supervisor. I love the Tag pens because of the one-to-one correspondence and certain books focus on specific vowel sounds. 

This past week was Spirit week... three of the students asked me to be twins with them so we were quadruplets! As you can see we wore grey bottoms and a blue top.  I love them. :)