We♥Daily5

I follow the Daily 5 routine.  During our Guided Reading Rotations, students Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and do Word Work activities weekly.  These predictable tasks remain consistent each week with writing or Word Work tasks looking slightly different week-to-week.  It is important that students understand what is expected of them during this "rotation" time and then, whether the activity changes or not, they adapt!  MUCH training happens at the beginning of the year to ensure positive habits are formed and students can work independently when the teacher is otherwise occupied.

Students complete these tasks when they are not meeting in small group with Mrs. Soderberg, Mrs. Manz, or myself.  Building independence is SO important in first grade and these activities do that and more!  

Below is a picture walk of this time.  Rest assured, it’s a VERY busy time in the classroom but the engagement of the students is exciting to see!

Each Guided Reading session begins with reading something 

familiar—either a mini-book or text that was introduced 

the previous day in small group.

Students choose a Word Work from their checklist each day.  Sometimes we sort words and record them in our Reading, Writing and Words Notebook.

Listen to Reading is ALWAYS a favorite rotation.  We just relax and listen to fluent readers reading great literature!

Puzzles are a GREAT way to learn without knowing we're even learning.  

"It is significant to realize that the most creative environments in our society are not the ever-changing ones. The artist's studio, the researcher's laboratory, the scholar's library are each deliberately kept simple so as to support the complexities of the work-in-progress. They are deliberately kept predictable so the unpredictable can happen."

Calkins, 1983