The Daily Five

The Daily Five has become my favorite part of the day!  I love reading and literacy (so much show I'm attaining my masters in it :)!  My kiddos have quickly fallen in love with participating in the Daily Five as well.  Since I learned about the Daily Five by browsing through teachers blogs (and then purchasing both books and attending a conference put on by The Sisters) I decided to share my own twists to this WONDERFUL literacy block!

First things first... the "Sisters" rave about the importance of creating a warm and comfortable environment within the class, much like a home environment.  In 'revamping' my room I was looking for all sorts of different lights.  Without having a lot of extra outlet space I found these nifty stick-on lights at Bed Bath and Beyond for only $10! (I had a coupon too, so it was even less).  I choose places around the room where I knew those little kiddos would crawl and hide to read.  They simply press the light to turn it on and off!  They love and I do too!

These are our "book luggage."  I snagged each basket from The Dollar Tree!!  The tags were die-cut ovals that I wrote their names on and laminated, then attached with some cute ribbon.  Inside their book luggage you will find "just right books" that I have selected for them, as well as their library books (that are also on their reading level), our little decodable books, their magic reading glasses (also purchased at the Dollar Tree-lenses popped out), and a reading strategy bookmark!

 These little check marks were handcrafted by my one and only, most amazing, FATHER!  :)  Since I KNEW my husband would never get around to it, I talked my crafty father in to whipping these up for me.  This was an idea taken straight from The Sisters themselves!  The kids use these check marks during their "Buddy Reading" time.  There are three ways in which they can read to each other.  If they choose to 'check for understanding' then they grab one of these check marks to use during their reading time.  It's such a cute way to help them remember what they are suppose to be doing and really helps them stay focused!

 This is our CAFE menu.  I realize now that it's just not quite big enough to fit ALL the strategies that we will be placing on our wall!  It's also hard for the kiddos to be interactively involved in placing items on the board, however, this is the only space I had available half way through the year and it seems to be working well so far!  

 I added two more 'helpers' in our book luggage this week.  A coaching sheet, which simply helps them remember how they can help their buddy during reading time and another cute bookmark that gives them great questions to ask when retelling a story!  The bookmark I snagged from The Mailbox Companion and the coaching sheet I created using information provided in The Daily Five book!

 Floor pillows are a MUST during my first grades Read to Self!  They eat these little guys up!!! I have five little pillows, two rugs, three large floor pillows, a small couch and chair.  It's little things like these that really get the kids excited to go curl up and dive into a book!  I purchased my pillows at Hobby Lobby with a 50% off coupon (YAY!!!!), my mother made some - yes, I'm spoiled still - (however, pillows are SOOO easy to make), got some from TJMaxx ($5 for the large floor pillows), and "stole" from teachers who were getting rid of their "trash!!"

 My sweet first graders are such visual learners.  I decided the best way for them to remember the three ways to read a book would to have our anchor chart made in the shape of the number three!!  It has worked marvelously! 

 As I have spent many countless hours browsing other amazing teachers blogs I've noticed that EVERYONE does the Daily Five in a different way.  For me, a pocket chart is the simplest way to operate (granted, I haven't tried any other way)! :)  After my kiddos decide where they're going to go, they find their name and place it in the correct row.  We do this during each check in.  It's another great visual for some of my students and for ME!  I can quickly glance up and see where each student should be!  I made the Daily Five sign out of cute paper on top of round magnets!  Easy as can be!!  The cute illustrations to go along with each component of The Daily Five is from, none other than, ThistleGirl Designs!  I LOVE HER STUFF!!!!  

Any other great ideas out there?  I would love to hear how you're doing the Daily Five too!! :)