Daily 5: Building Stamina

Anyone who uses Daily 5 knows what stamina is all about...before you can expect your kids to sit quietly and work through a round of Daily 5 so you can teach a small group uninterrupted, there must be some guided practice! The kids must practice doing exactly what is expected of them before you can expect them to do it on their own. That's where stamina charts come in...

When building stamina, you should keep a visual of the time so that students are able to see their progress toward the goal. You can do this many different ways. I will be printing off some charts on colored paper, laminating them and then posting them on my white (gray) board. We will color in our minutes each day until we reach our goal:



I decided to add a few more charts with a different goal so that I could share them with you all! I know we all do Daily 5 differently, timing included. If you would like to snag a copy of these posters, head over to one of my stores!

Enjoy!

Listen to Reading

For all of you Daily 5ers out there:

How do you manage Listen to Reading?

I have 4 iPods and 1 iPad that we use for LtR. Last year's group managed it well on their own and I had to interfere very little. They were able to share the 5 devices among everyone without conflict. THIS YEAR'S GROUP--we have tears. And tears. And tears. And tears. And tantrums. Lord, have mercy, my bunch this year is very emotional. :/

SO, this is what I came up with to manage who gets access to the iPods and iPad each day to avoid the tears and tantrums about them.

#1: We do Daily 5 in 2 separate groups.

I split my class in half by ability; during round 1, group 1 works with me for phonics/spelling while group 2 does Daily 5. After 15 minutes, we switch groups. Round 2 is the same except we work on reading in small group instead of phonics/spelling.

#2: You may not have a second turn at LtR until everyone in the group has used the devices once (or at least has had the opportunity to use the devices).

This is our LtR management board:

The colored magnets near the bottom of the board have the kids' names on them, placed in their respective group. Right below the title, "Listen to Reading," you see a sign that looks like this:

This is where the students sign up to use a device. To sign up, they just move their magnet to cover one of the devices on the sign, like so:

Ideally, the magnets for each group would all be the same color. I will do that next year. This year, it was a last-minute idea so the magnets aren't the same because I had to use what I had! Initially, I actually had everyone in one big group so color wasn't a big deal until I decided to split them into 2. Oh, well. It still works. The kids do a great job of paying attention to who is in what group (mostly because they are ALWAYS all up in each other's business) so it works for us. No confusion thus far.

After Daily 5 is over, we simply move the magnets into the pail that sits between the groups of magnets. (If we do run into confusion with colors as described in the previous paragraph, I will just use two different pails to house the used magnets.) 

After majority of the magnets in a group are in the pail, we put them back on the board to sign up again. I say majority because if less than 5 students' magnets are left on the board, then there will be extra free spots for others to sign up.

If a student chooses not to do LtR at all, then he/she moves his/her name into the bucket at the beginning of round 1 so we know that he/she is choosing not to participate. This avoids the problem of waiting for someone to take a turn when he/she does not even want a turn.

So far, this has worked VERY well. The kids even take ownership and move the magnets in and out of the bucket for me! No tears over that yet. :)

#3: You must follow the rules in order to continue to use the devices.

Period. Dot. This will not be a problem to a lot of them at all, so I feel that revoking the privilege is fine for those who are deserving. As a reminder of the rules we came up with together, this mini poster is taped to the management board and to the area where the LtR books and devices are kept:

Click on the above picture if you would like a copy of this mini poster!

LtR is easily a popular choice during Daily 5, so this management system has really helped us keep potential problems under control.

What do you think? How do you manage your devices?

 

Making Sentences With Sight Words

Time to start prepping materials for the new school year, right?! I have been busy making a few things here and there and printing/laminating. I've been trying to finish up all of the abandoned projects I have, too, such as this one below:

I've had this activity for a while and even used it in my classroom for a few months. I wanted to give it a makeover before I shared it with you all because when I prepared the activity for my class I literally threw it together in about 10 minutes late one night! It just needed a little facelift! I finally sat down last night and got it all finished!

Simple game--students will use sight word cards to make sentences. Then, they write their sentence using a marker for the sight words used. On the lower level recording sheet, students will illustrate the sentence. Last year, one of my kids actually suggested that I make this game so of course I had to make it for him! :)  Here is a little preview: 

I plan on using this activity as a Word Work station in Daily 5. You can check out the activity by clicking below:

Sweet & Simple Saturday Post #4

I can't believe this is week 4 of this series already! That means that summer is going by way, way, way, WAY too fast. I haven't even touched my to-do list yet!! Well, mostly because it is still all mental, so technically, I haven't even MADE my to-do list yet. Panic mode just turned on!!

Anywho, today's simple freebie is a phonics/spelling sort for the sounds of suffix /ed/:

The students will cut out the words at the bottom, sort them, and then write a sentence using one of the words. Short and simple. Just click on the picture of the document to download it! 

I hope those of you that teach phonics/spelling in the early grades are able to use this!

Happy Saturday! :)

Throwback Thursday

These Thursdays keep getting closer and closer together, which means summer is getting shorter and shorter! :(

So here is a throwback that is just from a few months ago, but shows what one of my favorite subjects looks like in my classroom--and no, not math (this time), but WRITING!

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My Math Block Mini-Series will conclude tomorrow (gotta get more pictures!). In the meantime, enjoy reading about writing in my classroom! :)

Writing has always been one of my favorite subjects and I am loving that I get to teach it this year! My kids have become such super writers over the past few months! Here is how it goes in my classroom...

Writing in Daily 5
We use Daily 5, so writing is one of the choices my students have each morning. When they choose Work On Writing is up to them UNLESS the Work On Writing sign is out, which it usually is 1-2 times per week (mostly on the days we do not have Writers Workshop).

My students really love to write, so most of them choose it whether the sign is up or not. (By the way, I made the sign out of construction paper; it's a little smaller than a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper.)

Work On Writing is extra special for two students each week! Each week I choose 2 writers of the week and these awesome little authors get to sit at the special writing table during writing in Daily 5 and during Writers Workshop work time: 

 Above the table hangs this awesome little star I got from The Dollar Tree! In the background, you can see the The "Writers of the Week" bulletin board. It has the names of the super writers with some writing samples. I write their names on the coconuts.

The writers also get to use these special materials to write/color with:

Everyone's writing is displayed in the corner behind the writing table. (The writing table actually used to be over here but I had to make room for two more computers so out it went.) After students have published a piece, they can choose to put it in their writers notebook or display it on the wall.

On the other side of the classroom is our Writing Center. In the Writing Center, you will find rough draft paper, publishing paper, publishing bookets, and revising and editing tools.

The students are required to complete a rough draft before getting fancy publishing paper or a booklet (which is no problem for them!).

They draw and write on the rough draft, revise/edit, and then turn it in to the "Ready to Publish" bucket. I check all of the papers that come in and will either hand it back marked "Publish" or I will individually conference with them if need be. In an individual conference, we usually revise/edit a little more though sometimes this time is spent discussing handwriting, conventions, or reviewing proper procedures for those still struggling.  Since I do not immediately return papers because I am involved in small groups during Daily 5, the student knows to start another draft until the paper turned in is handed back to be published.

I have custom-made all of our publishing paper. I used frames, borders, and shapes to make some of the pages (easy peasy). 

I had a bunch of weird colored paper at home so I took it to school and copied lines on it! There are about 6 or 7 colors to choose from. They LOVE it and I got to get it out of my house (win-win).

Gotta have big erasers for big mistakes.

Colored pencils to help us revise and edit. They are GOOD at it! We also sometimes use these to help us color.

We will start letter writing this week, so I will add letter paper and envelopes to the station after we finish. I will update you on that when the time comes!

Finally, friends, I hope you have been able to use the little writing activities and freebies I have posted in the past few months! Click here to access all of my writing freebies, in case you missed out. Over the last few weeks, I have been working on a writing notebook package that will be finished sometime in Octember (Seuss fans will appreciate that joke). In the meantime, I have made some little writing packs:

Each pack includes graphic organizers, charts, prompt pages/publishing paper, literature list, and a craftivity related to the subject. I have started making several of these and will be releasing them as I get them finished. I really hope this is something you can use because I am excited about them! I will definitely use them in my own classroom.

I would LOVE for some of you to take a peek at it, so leave your name and an email address and I will send 3 of you a copy of your choice. I will randomly choose tomorrow evening. Now, go forth and write!

The winners have been announced. Thanks for your interest! :)

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I will see you on Saturday for Sweet & Simple Saturday, if not before!! :)

Wintry Words Freebie and a Free Font!

Happy Sunday!! Hope you are having a great LONG weekend! :) I made a quick little word work center last night and decided to offer it as a freebie to you!

In Wintry Words, students will manipulate letters from winter words to create new words. This is a great opportunity to learn how to look for patterns in words!

You can download it from either shop:

Also, I hope you stopped by last night to check out my font freebie for you!! Here it is, in case you missed it:

I'm super excited to use it! Feel free to grab it and then let me know what you think! Use the font for whatever you like (commercial products, freebies, etc.); just be sure to include a link to my blog! :)