The Daily 5 - Chapter 9 and a Freebie

This is the final chapter of the Daily 5 book.  If you don't have the book, you can still pick up the book below and go back and follow the book study from the beginning.

Chapter 9 is all about returning to your core beliefs.  

A big part of the chapter is about barometer children (those children that have trouble attending) and how to support them in building stamina.  

The sisters outline 4 levels of support:

Level 1: Reflection

You need to take a look at yourself and make sure that it’s not something you, yourself are doing to set off the barometer child.

Level 2: Extra support

Have the child stay in for a few minutes each day at recess to practice the most desirable behaviours.

Level 3: In-class modifications

Provide the child with sand timers and small manipulatives and a carpet square or laundry basket.  

The carpet square or laundry basket is to give the child a visual and physical reminder of their space and where they need to stay. I have some of these squares that fit together.  You can make the size different depending on the child's need.

The sand timers are to work on stamina.  Start with one minute timers and increase to two or three minute timers as the child’s stamina increases.

The manipulatives are to give the child a brain break without having them disturb the rest of the class.  They must stay on their square.

I made a stamina chart that you can pick up for free.  The children can use it to keep track of their stamina.  The visual will help some children. Click on the picture to grab it.

Level 4: Gradual release of in-class modifications

This level involves checking in on the child in-between working with the other children.

Following these 4 levels should allow even your most needest child some success.

Thanks for following along over the past few weeks.   I hope we have inspired you to try the Daily 5 or given you new ideas if you are already a Daily 5 user.

For more Chapter 9 ideas, click on any of the buttons below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 8 and a Freebie

It’s time for the Daily 5 book study again.  If you don’t have your copy of the book, you can click on the link below to grab it.

This week is Chapter 8 and this is a new topic for the Sisters. 

The Math Daily 3.

The three rotations of math are:

Math by myself

Math with someone

Math writing

The past few years I’ve been fairly happy with my literacy block but my math block, not so much.  Last year I did a calendar binder and loved it. 

I think I’ll do that again next year but I haven't been able to coordinate my math centers as well though.

I had planned centers, and the children choose which one to go to but I didn’t have the opportunity to work with small groups and I didn’t have the greatest assessment procedure.  I didn't have a way to focus on those kids that needed extra help.

The Math Daily 3 is the same management system and works the same way as the Daily 5.  It starts with a short focus lesson and then the children go to a rotation.  When the children’s stamina starts to wane, they are brought back together for another focus lesson. This is repeated for the three rounds. 

The math differs in the fact that it uses the gradual release method.  The first focus lesson concentrates on “I do”, the second lesson focuses on “We do” and the third lesson focuses on “You do”. This slowly makes the children more independent while again giving you the opportunity to have the children actively engaged while you are working with a small group of children.  I’m hoping that this will give my math block the “umph” it needs.

The Math 3 also uses the same method of learning; the 10 steps to independence and I-charts; as the Daily 5.

I have made up I-charts for the Math 3 that coordinate with the I-charts for the Daily 5.  You can grab them for free by clicking on the picture below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily 5 - Chapter 7

Well school is finally out for the summer.  My husband says it’s time to relax but all I can think about is finally having the time to do all the things I didn’t have time to do during the school year.  Next year will be a different class for me.  They will be more academic and for the first time, I will have a grade one student that is working on the grade one curriculum. 

This will be a challenge for me.  How do I make sure that I can provide a rich grade one curriculum for this child while providing a rich kindergarten program for everyone else?

I’m looking forward to the challenge and I think that The Daily 5 is a perfect way to get in some of the differentiation that I’m going to need to do.

Remember:  If you don’t have the book yet, you can grab it here and catch up.

This week I'm behind again.  I will be doing chapter 7 today and then chapter 8 tomorrow.

Chapter 7 was all about launcing the next Daily 5.  I think that the I-charts are the key to laying the foundation.  If you didn't grab my charts, you can get them for free by clicking on the picture below.

Following the same outline when launching each of the Daily 5 will ease the transition time into each of them.

One of the important parts of this chapter is introducing choice.   The Sisters state how important it is to give children choice and to work on independence.  One of the big focuses in the Kindergarten program in Ontario is self-regulation.  Introducing choice and allowing children to have that responsibility, is a perfect opportunity to work on self-regulation.

This was how we worked our literacy block last year.

The children were divided into 4 ability groups and because we had two teachers, we were able to provide two teacher directed sessions.  The children had a choice of what center they went too but we never did any teaching around what to do, how to take care of material etc.  We just dove in and got started.

As a result, the materials were always in the wrong boxes, or missing.  They were a mess.  There was no process for who was responsible for adding more response sheets so they were often missing too.

Next year I’m hoping to refine this process and follow the Sisters 10 steps for independence.  The children will still have choice but it will focus on the Daily 5 choices.

Do you give the children choices or do you pick for them?

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapters 5 and 6 - Freebie

Welcome to the next installment of the Daily 5.  Sorry this post is late.  I can’t believe that this is my last week of school.  The countdown has begun and I think I have a million things to do between now and then.

Remember:  If you don't have the book yet, you can grab it here and catch up.

This week is Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

Now I haven’t really done Daily 5 before so this is a huge chapter for me.  I’m already thinking in my head what the first day will be like (and I haven’t even finished this year yet.)

I really like the idea of foundation lessons and one of the first ones is “3 ways to read” a book.

I think it’s so important that children know that they don’t have to be able to read every word at the beginning.

They can

I’m going to make this into a large chart to hang in the room.  We are going to need a lot of practice in order to build up our stamina for this.

Another important lesson is

One of my favourite things to do is to go to the bookstore and look for that “just right” book. I could spend an hour or more looking at books.  I want my students to have the opportunity to pick those “just right” books without feeling rushed. The sisters use the acronym “I PICK” to help children remember how to pick that perfect book. 

I would like to find some time within the class schedule for the children to do that.  Maybe at the beginning of the day?  I have a ton of books in my class and want to spend the summer organizing them so the children can access them better.  I want them to be able to spend time looking and not feeling rushed.

Chapter 6 includes the foundation lessons for each of the Daily 5 sections.

One of the foundation lessons for Read-to-someone is EEKK!

I can definitely see my students loving this part of the program but I can also see needing a lot of modelling so that the noise level does not get out of control (that’s another lesson).  I’m hoping that this particular round will help with fluency. 

If you want any of the posters found in this post, you can find them by clicking on the pictures below.

Don’t forget to click on the links below to find more posts on Chapters 5 and 6.

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily 5 Chapters 3 and 4 and Freebie

Have you been joining in our book study of the Daily 5 with my friends from Freebielicious ? If you haven't gotten your copy, you can still grab it below.  This the second edition of the book and they have made some changes and refined the program since the first book came out.

The more I read, the more excited I'm getting about trying this next year.  As you know, I was going to try this after the our book study a couple of years ago but for various reasons, I couldn't get it up and running.

Next year, my group is looking perfect for trying this new way of thinking.

This week is all about chapters 3 and 4.

Chapter 3 was all about the 10 steps to Teaching and Learning Independence.  These include:

Step 1: Identify what is to be taught.

Step 2: Set a purpose and create a sense of urgency

Step 3: Record desired behaviours on an I-Chart

Step 4: Model most-desirable behaviours

Step 5: Model least-desirable behaviours, then most-desirable

Step 6: Place students around the room

Step 7: Practice and build stamina

Step 8: Stay out of the way

Step 9: Use a quiet signal to bring students back to the gathering space

Step 10: Conduct a group check-in, "How did it go?"

Since I'm just starting out, I was most taken with the I-Charts.  Of course, the I-Charts really encompass some of the other 10 steps such as teaching the children how to find a spot in the room and building stamina.

Since I teach special education so I thought it would be important to add a picture to my charts for each of the steps.  

You can grab my charts for free by clicking on the picture below. These match the posters from last weeks post.

Chapter 4 talks about what you need to get started.  

1. The first thing is a quiet signal.  I don't really have one right now.  I was thinking about something like this:

2. A chart rack or interactive whiteboard.  I have this chart stand and I do have a Smart board.  I want to make these I-charts permanent so I will probably transfers them to chart paper to post in the room.

3. Tool, not toys.  This I will have to work on.  I need to a few thing together for those students struggling with stamina to keep them from turning to the toys.

4. Book boxes.  I just grabbed these boxes at the dollar store.  They were 2 for $1.50.  I'm not sure how long they will hold up but we will see.  They didn't have any boyish colours so I hope the boys don't mind the purple flowers.  I'm planning to put their names on the boxes and maybe their pictures.

I would have preferred solid colours like this.  Maybe next year.

5. A gathering place and focus lessons.  I'm really looking forward to doing the focus lessons.  I haven't decided on a gathering place yet.  Probably in the front of the Smart board.  

6.  I-Charts.  I talked about these up above.

7.  Classroom design.  This is something I'm still working on.  I been slowly decluttering my room and I hope to do more organizing over the summer.  I just created a little area for my books and added some stuffed animals to sit on. The children are going to read book so much more now.  I still need to organize my books though.  That will have to wait.

Thanks for reading.  Below are some more ideas for Chapters 3 and 4.  Happy reading.

An InLinkz Link-up