Daily 5 and Cafe' Linky Party

Kelli at pray teach love( http://prayteachlove.blogspot.com/ ) is having a linky party about Daily 5 and Cafe'.

Last year was our first year implementing this glorious system.We wish we would have had these books when we first started teaching. Our lives would have been SOOOOOOO much easier, and our classes would have become even better readers.

In my class, I only have time for 3 rounds of Daily 5. Read to self is a NON-NEGOTIABLE, and it can be done during any round. The other two choices are their preference, however they have to complete word work at least 3 times per week, they have to read to someone at least 2 times per week they have to do computer reading(listen to reading) at least 2 times per week, and they have to do work on writing at least 2 times per week. See my schedule in the previous post to see how I fit in my 3 rounds of Daily 5 as well as my Cafe' and Houghton Mifflin mini lessons.

In order to seem not so long winded *smile*, I am going to write about Read to Self today, and other dailys in the next few days.

Read To Self- at the beginning of the year, I provided my students with cardboard book boxes from Ikea.

On the first day of school, the students decorated them, and they were REALLY cute, but they fell apart relatively quickly. I sent a letter home with the students in hopes of them bringing in their own book boxes. 16/18 students actually did, so it worked out well.
Inside the book boxes, my students keep 4-5 good fit books from my classroom library, 1-2 good fit books from the school library, the text book from Hougton Mifflin, and 3-4 guided reading books on their correct DRA level.
I taught this daily first, and we practiced it for a while before we brought other dailys into the mix. I wanted to make sure they understood the urgency of why we read to self. They got it, and by the time October came, their stamina was up to 25-30 minutes.
Since I am looping with 15 out of 18 kids , I hope to just pick up where we left off this past year. I will probably gain 3 new students so I will rely on my old students to be mentors to those new students. I will still take it slow in the beginning, and I will make sure any bad habits that they had from last year are squashed.

Check back for more Daily 5 and Cafe' postings! I am working on editing my pictures so I can post them.

Happy Blogging!!
-Jackie-