Daily 5 Update and Choices

We are in the middle of ANOTHER blizzard up north.  This is was the worst yet this winter, and on top of that, we are asked to turn our thermostats down to 60 because of the pipline burst about 100 miles from us. It’s a bit chilly in my house! It’s another week of subzero temps this week, so hopefully they are able to repair the pipeline soon!

We’ve been busy in our house in January…

with birthdays….

and dance….

and winter fun…

 

But, in the classroom, our Daily 5 rotations are going fantastic!  I think that it has really helped that the children had a very solid foundation of what they are supposed to do during our literacy rotations.  The only difference is that they are now working independently rather than in a group.

Here is a reminder of what my rotation chart looks like:

Here’s the details…

It looks a little tricky, but it’s really simple, and the kiddos caught on super quick!

There are 6 activities for each daily choice (we are not doing partner reading yet).  The number next to the child’s name corresponds to the activity that they will do.  I rotate the names across the top after each round (we are doing 3 rounds).

The children take the cards from the chart and find their corresponding activity.  They either velcro the card to a clipboard or leave it right next to them.  So far, they are doing a fantastic job remembering to put the card back when they are done!

At the end of each day, I rotate the name cards.  I know that this was day 2 of rotations because the cards are orange.  The next day the cards were yellow, and then green, and blue, and so on.  On the 7th day, I let the children choose which activity they want to do (either for the 2nd time or if they missed it because they were in reading groups).

(The cards are from A Year of Many Firsts, by the way – they are free on TpT!)

All of the activities are kept here:

Each drawer has the corresponding number and picture card.

Choice 6 for word work and work on writing are kept in these baskets:

I keep clipboards with a velcro dot right by the activity so they can put their choice card there.

Listen to reading is kept in these bags:

There are 2 bags with portable CD players, 2 bags with ipads, the 5th bag has the book in it and they will go to a classroom CD player, and listen to reading #6 is located in our class library.

One of my most favorite finds this round were these:

I have a set of ipads, so these were PERFECT.

I just add the QR code for the book to the bag, and the kiddos scan with the ipad and listen to the book.  They do a super quick response activity afterwards.  They LOVE this new twist on Listen to Reading!

Okay, onto the goodies inside the drawers.  Here are a few things that I have in the drawers:

These 2 are both from my January word work pack – I REALLY hope to get a February pack done too….it will be very similar to this one – super easy to prep, and very predictable activities for the kids.  The goal is independence, so I want them to know how to do it without asking for help!

This is from my Short E intervention pack.  The children are really enjoying the activities from these intervention packs – they are great for small group work as well as independent centers and whole group.  We use our word sliders every day to review blending!

This activity is part of the January Word Work pack.

 

Here is another super amazing activity from Sue Lynch.  We LOVE this!! 

If you want this recording page, you can download it {here}.

These next 2 are “in the works” on my computer.  I am working on a couple of super easy, predictable activities for word work and work on writing.  These will be part of my Frugal Teacher Series of activities.  (I have a lot of these started, but finding the time to finish has been tricky this year!)

This app is called Jumbled Sentences, and it is a free one! The kids put the words in order to make a sentence.  When they finish level 1, I have them write 2-3 more sentences on their own.

Stay warm friends! I’ll be back with an update of what we are working on during our math centers!

Letter Confusion?

Do you have some babes that still struggle with letter confusion?  No matter how hard we work, there are always a few that will forget and write a letter backwards.

I’ve tried lots of different strategies, but the one that always works for me is simply directing them to to the alphabet chart or alphabet line.  They just need to check and validate it for themselves! Eventually they do get it right? (I hope!)

 

But, now, I am super excited to try something new with my RTI group.  It’s from my super sweet friend Holly from Mrs. Ehle’s Kindergarten Connections, and it is AMAZING!!! I love how kids really have to look CLOSELY at the letter, and refer back to the anchor – either on the paper or on the alphabet line – to verify that it is actually the letter.

Here’s a little background showing the thinking behind this amazing product:

How amazing is this?!

You can find it right {HERE} or by clicking the product image above.

I’ve searched around a bit and gathered up some ideas that you can try in your classroom too.  (Click on the image to go to the source!)

 

Oh, Holly also has a number confusion pack too! Yippee!!

Trying something new….Project 365 & Daily 5

I guess I have been MIA for a while, huh?  I’ve been so busy with life, and I needed to spend a little time away from this little old blog.  I apologize.  My updates may be fewer and more far between these days.  My girls are keeping me busy these days. My husband has been travelling for work a lot.

Life has been busy.

One of my goals this year is to try to slow down – less time on the computer, more time on life.  I want to share with you a little project that I’m doing for my family.  Have you heard of Project 365?  The goal is to take 1 photo a day of anything that happens in your life.

A local photographer has been participating in it for the past 4 years, and I’ve loved how she captures everyday moments in her children’s and families lives.  I’ve always wanted to do it, but found it hard since I don’t always have a camera close by.  But, I do always have my phone close by, and phone cameras are pretty good these days.

So, on January 1, I started chronicling the day by day of my family on Instagram.  Not my Growing Kinders Instagram, but my personal Instagram. 

FYI – My personal Instagram is set to private – I like to keep some things private, and the idea of my kiddos faces being all over Instagram kinda scares me. (That’s why you don’t see my posting too much personal info here either!)

Periodically, I’ll print out my Instagram pictures at Printstagram and add them to my Smashbook.  I printed some before Christmas, and they made me SO happy.  I love looking at them.  I love how I’m chronicling my family’s life in such an easy way. 

There are also a few apps available on itunes if you don’t Instagram!

Want to do Project 365 with me?

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Okay, onto the school stuff.  I’ve been dragging my heels about starting Daily 5 for a long time.  I’ve always firmly believed that the Daily 5 is a way of managing literacy centers, and I had such a great handle on my literacy centers.  Kids worked well, the rotations worked great, we loved the activities, I could manage literacy centers  really well.

Well, most of my school wasn’t doing literacy centers.  So they decided to jump on the bandwagon.  My administrator always told me that what I was doing was great.  But, in the back of my mind, I thought I should do more to prepare my kiddos for the “language of the Daily 5.”

Since they already understand literacy centers and rotations, I thought I might as well give it a go.  If I can do it with 25 kids, I can do it with any number of kids, right?

So, I want to visit my colleague Lexy.  She is teaching 1st grade this year, but started using Daily 5 last year in Kindergarten.  She explained to me her rotation chart, and a light went off. 

I can do this.

This chart is the brain child of Lexy.  It’s all her thinking. 

I take no credit for it.

I looked at it a few times, and it made NO sense to me.  I’ll explain in more detail in another post how the structure of the chart works.

Oh, and the super cute cards are from {here}.

I store everything I need here:

Except for listening to reading – I forgot to take a picture of my storage for those.  I’ll try to snap a picture tomorrow!

Many of the activities in the drawers are from this brand new unit:

I also have activities in the drawers from other units that I’ve put together.  You can find those {here} {here} {here} and {here}    

  

You can find blog posts about these activities {here} {here} and {here}!

I’ll be back with more Daily 5 ramblings later this week!

Stay tuned!