Daily 5

Hi all!  I hope this month is going fairly smooth for you so far!  My 2 year old is still exhausting me with not sleeping through the night...  Oh how I wish I drank coffee this year!  (and last year...)  I don't have anything NEW that you could use in the coming weeks, but thought I'd share a little about my classroom.

I know that there is a ton of things out there for the Daily 5.  I thought I'd take a moment to explain how it works in my classroom!  First, I need to say, since we switch our kiddos, I do not set it up as well as it's supposed to be---with building stamina and all that...  If I did, I'd still be working on that at this time of year---and lets face it.  I'd be redoing everything when we get back in January!  I just couldn't.

I found on a blog a few years ago (so I do not have a link to give proper credit...) that a teacher used bookmarks for students to know how to go from station to station.  I decided to do that last year, to save my sanity on moving kids' names, scheduling even more, etc.  I couldn't let them just have "free choice" off the bat either.  I created 25 completely different bookmarks.  Each bookmark has a different "rotation" schedule.  It's designed to have 5 at each at any given time.  {This year I redid them, and forgot about making them ALL different and had 5 bookmarks that I made 5 copies each of... and I realized.  When they travel together from station to station---my room gets louder and louder and they start to lose focus.  LAST year, when I had all different ones, they don't travel from station to station and things were smooth.  I loved it!}

Each student will pick a bookmark either at the beginning of class, or when they are done with work before small group time starts.  This year, I labelled the back of each bookmark a different letter from the alphabet.  This is so they can keep track of these darn bookmarks.  THIS group has such a difficult time organizing themselves and had lost at least 6 bookmarks that I had made in the beginning of the year-that we're not using anymore.  Now that there is a letter, they KNOW which is theirs, and if it's left behind, they can now easily find it---of course, that is, IF they didn't lose it in a book or somewhere else.... :/

 My bookmarks match the posters at each area, so that they have no trouble figuring out where to go!

Click {HERE} to grab yourself a copy of the posters and bookmarks.  

I'll be back later to explain how I work my Word Work area.  

Disclaimer---the above information is what I personally do.  The Daily 5 and CAFÉ are trademark and copy written content of Educational Design, LLC dba The 2 Sisters.  Educational Design, LLC dba The 2 Sisters does not authorize or endorse these materials.