Happy Saturday Girls!
This morning I found myself thinking about Daily 5 and where I'm at with that. If you remember this is my first year trying to fully implement it. I've done bits and pieces in the past, but have just wrapped my brain around the whole idea this year...
I'm really a chef surprise kinda girl and can't think of a time I've taken a "program" and didn't tweak it to personalize it and make it mine {I'm sure we all do that}. It seems that almost any classroom you walk into in my school district is doing the exact same things at the exact same time. I know this is common practice in a lot of schools but we were always given a lot of wiggle room in the past and we've become more "cohesive", I suppose you could say, but this definitely leaves me feeling like a Stepford Wife. That's why I tweak.
So, my invisible friend Barb and I had a TNO {Teachers Night Out} a couple of weeks ago. We started in my classroom. Looked around, talked about what I was doing, shared a few ideas and then moved to her classroom in her school. Can I just tell you one of my most favorite things in the world is to look around another person's classroom {and around their school}?! I'm so bad - I'll even take my boys to play on different playgrounds in our community so I can peek inside the windows while my boys play. I keep waiting for somebody to call the po-po. Back to Barb's classroom - she and I are both implementing Daily 5, all of our conversations and sharing of materials has made the whole thing so much fun!!!!!
I was struggling with the whole management piece. I'm not a person who likes to have tons of management dealies going on. Flip this card, move this clip, make this choice....ahhhh, drives me bonkers and makes me twitch. Instead, after some prodding from dear 'ol Babsy, I decided to let them make their choices at will. We all start with Read-to-Self and I've told them to just listen to their body signals. When they start fidgeting, or "pretending" to read, or chatting with a friend it's probably time for them to make a switch. They can make any Daily 5 choice {Read-to-Someone is reserved for Fridays...remember, I tweak} they want as long as there are enough materials.
I also do Book Nooks - click {
HERE} to see what cozy places my kiddos can read or work during Daily 5. During our TNO I was working through how to manage everybody wanting a certain Book Nook {the long striped pillows are a hot commodity} or Daily 5 choice {Listen-to-Reading with the Netbooks are a class favorite}. One of Barb's teaching pals calls a table at a time to make their choices and has a "schedule" for how she calls those tables. To ensure everbody gets a chance to make their Daily 5 choices first I have this schedule: Monday - Table A, Tuesday - Table B, Wednesday - Table C and Thursday - Table D. {I only do Daily 5 with guided reading groups M-TR so this schedule works perfectly}. If you have chosen Listen- to-Reading {Netbook} since there's a lot of set-up involved: get the Netbook, turn it on, log in, get your headphones, open Tumblebooks or Starfall {Our two current listen to reading choices} you have the option of keeping it for the entire Reader's Workshop.
Some other things the kiddos need to consider when making a Book Nook choice:
*What's your plan?
*If you choose Listen-to-Reading you must sit at a desk
*If you want to use clay during Word Work you won't want to choose a pillow
*If you to sit at your desk you can do any of the Daily 5 choices
Honestly, it sounds like a recipe for disaster, but this group of kids do an amazing job being self-directed. They stick with a choice {most of them} for a healthy amount of time and switch when they are ready. No time keeping on my part, no record keeping for them or me, just a natural flow.
At the end of workshop we share. I'll ask kids who I have noticed that morning made some nice choices; with variety, to share with us what they did so they model for my "readers" {you know, the kids who hold onto a book the whole time and really do nothing at all} what smart choices are during Daily 5 and how they help them grow as a reader.
Honestly, I haven't felt this good about reading in a long time. There's a hum in my classroom. I'm seeing kids writing songs in their writing notebooks during Work-on-Writing, I'm watching kids make word wall words with their clay and reading them {That's a big ah-ha for me this year - they MUST read the words they make and if they can't read what they made they must ask a friend...what good is making the words if you don't know what word you made?}, and I even see kids doing Read-to-Self the entire time and they REALLY are reading...the. whole. entire. time.
There was a anecdote Debbie Miller once shared and it stuck with me. How many of you are snug in your bed with a good book, come to the end and roll over to your husband and ask him for a shoebox, scissors and glue so you can work on your diorama?!? I try to emulate real life as best I can within a classroom setting. I'm hoping, by encouraging them to listen to their own needs as a reader, to create life-long lovers of words....rather than those who read and write on schedule as I dictate. Do I really care if they've never done work on words? My goal is to encourage a love for reading. I consider one more word read, one more page turned or one more letter written a step in the right direction {We do word study and writer's workshop at other times during the day - so I consider what they do during Daily 5 dessert}.
On a different note...
I actually had a couple of questions about something on my blog...glory be that made my day!!!!! Here are step by step directions on how to do the turkey flakes. Sorry, I don't have a pattern - but maybe you can free hand one by looking at the close-ups? SORRY!
 |
| Fold a large piece of construction paper in 1/2 the hamburger way |
 |
| Paper clip 1/2 turkey tracer on the fold of your construction paper (paper clips prevents slippage) |
 |
| After you trace, keep paper folded and cut |
 |
| Make your turkey kick its head - fold feet up to head |
 |
| Draw shapes on fold line |
 |
| Cut the shapes out - you'll need your finger muscles for this |
 |
| Voila! |
 |
| Use paper scraps to make the beak and waddle - or can draw. |
Hope that helps!
Kids are going to Granny Camp today and spending the night...can't wait!!!!!!!
