I am excited to be into the nuts and bolts of the Daily 5. I am getting more and more pumped to start this with my class. Which by the way, school starts on August 1 for us! CRAZY! I will have….are you ready…FOUR (4) days to set up and organize and clean my classroom. Anyone in the Nashville area who would like to volunteer to help out, holla! hehe I am also excited because another teacher in our building is going to do the Daily 5 so we can support each other!
As I was reading chapter four, I had a huge AHA moment (Oprah is my idol, so I love AHA moments!) The authors talk about MODELING how to read the pictures. DUH! Seriously I had never thought to model this. It’s funny that as a teacher I am always modeling but this is one thing that never even occurred to me. The students need to see what it looks like and sounds like to read the pictures because they won’t know what it means or how it looks. This is also a great way to talk about imagination and using our creativity to tell stories and make the stories full of details and excitement! In fact, we will be creating an anchor chart for how to read pictures!
The other ideas from this chapter that are really sticking in my mind is the idea of using a student or students, who seek attention to model the inappropriate behaviors and the wrong way to read to self. Powerful! Not only do they get attention but they also get to show the correct way to read to self. This is something that could be applied across my school day! And the rest of the class gets to laugh and learn a lesson from a friend!
As for the nuts and bolts, I will place them where I want them for at least the first week or two before allowing them to choose their spots. I think kindergartners need more time to practice and adjust to the new environment before being turned loose. And honestly, even after two weeks, we still haven’t learned about all of the classroom areas so it’s hard to let them into the library area. After we have learned the rules and procedures for all of our classroom areas, I will turn them loose. I create a reading nook in my classroom so this will be a special treat for read to self! The reading nook is simply an extra table pushed up to the wall and wrapped in purple sequined fabric. Under the table I glued white Christmas lights and added pillows. It’s a cozy and fun spare for read to self! I am going to come up with super spectacular way to decide who gets to read to self in the reading nook! I also have an awesome rocking chair that the kids love to read in so that’s another great place for read to self.
And for your freebie, I threw together these labels to make the I Chart for read to self. I am going to use labels for all of my I charts and anchor charts, because, um hello, let’s face it, I am a boy and my handwriting isn’t so pretty. And it’s fun to create!!! I hope someone can use these! Click on the picture to download your freebie!
