So you know I’m working at moving my class towards Daily 5 right? I mean, in the past I did literacy stations and they were successful and everything, but I never felt like I got enough extended time with my students. It always seemed so rushed. I differentiated those literacy stations but still, I wanted more time. So Daily 5 seemed to be like something that fit the ticket.
Right away, I knew that I would need to do some tweaking for kindergarten. First of all I had 26 kinders!!!!!! Yep that’s what I said. And I have a S-M- ALL . . . SMALL room. So I didn’t want to many kiddos at any one group. Instead of Daily 5. I’m doing Daily 6. (Although we are only doing three of the six on a given day.) The stations will be Read to Self, Listen To Reading, Read To Someone, Teacher Station, Work on Writing, Word Work.
So we’ve been in school thirty plus of few days and here’s where I am in the process of implementation. The first station introduced was Read to Self. Our goal was to get to two days in a row of 15 minutes of uninterrupted, quiet, on-task reading.
Last week we did it!!
So this week we celebrated. A pajama-fort-read in the dark plus treats-party.
How can you not LOVE reading when your room is turned into one big fort.
I always say, if it’s not fun for me, then it won’t be fun for them. This was reading made FUN.
They loved it.
Next in the implementation of Daily 6 I introduced Listen To Reading. I used to have one of those 5-7 person listening centers, but I was determined this year to have my kids more independent, spread out and really working during this time with individual cd players. Yes, it took some demonstrating. (When you have 26 to model for you sometimes you have to climb on a table.)
I’m so lucky that my kindergarten teacher neighbor, Kerri’s, MIL made me these gorgeous bags for me listening center.
Do you love them? I do.
Big enough for a clipboard, cd player book and there’s a pocket for crayons and a pencil. If you missed out on my free response sheets you can get them by clicking below.
I also have Listen To Reading posters and cards that can go right on your bags
Now Working on Writing is something they have been doing since day one. Only I have been having my aide man that station. She has been introducing different writing activities and expectations for these first
couple of weeks so that when it comes time to be independent, they are ready go.
This is kind of the same for Word Work except I have been gradually weaning my time away from Word Work activities to meet with groups. Because the activities are somewhat similar and familiar they are on the cusp of being independent. We are so close.
So the last one to introduce . . . the one that scares me the most . . . is Read to Someone. I have to admit, I’m a bit afraid they aren’t going to be able to handle it. But I’m hopeful. So I’ll check in with you in a couple of weeks and let you know how it goes. Until then, we’re making progress and gains so as Pete the Cat says ‘It’s All Good.’
First of all…can’t imagine 26 kinders!!! I’ll be getting the next new kiddo…and that will put me at 21….and that is A LOT for us. Last year we ended up with 18 at the end of the year. Second…..LOVE the fort idea!! What a great idea to get kids to have fun with it!! Third….I’m still using a tape player for listening but would like to transition to CD players. I’m just so worried my kids are going to destroy them and scratch the CDs!!!
Loving all the good ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Debbie
K is for Kinderrific
Cross my fingers…they haven’t distroyed on thing yet. I really emphasize the importance and urgency of the listening center, make sure they choose a good spot to sit and model model model (as you can see from me sitting on the table).
Marsha
Have a parent copy your original cd’s and then put those away. Use the copied ones for the kids. I have had maybe one cd get scratched in the years I have been doing this.
Love the forts! Read to someone was my last thing to introduce as well. I decided to use my big book/chart area for this instead of their book boxes. I have a separate time of the day when they partner read from their book boxes. If they choose read to self they take turns reading big books or charts to each other. So far this is working for me. I love Daily 5 (or 6) because it’s easy to tweak to fit the needs of your classroom.
Bobbie
The Daily Cupcake…A Kindergarten Blog
I think (due to time constraints) it may end up being something we do all at the same time as when we practiced ‘read to self.’ Kindergarten is such a different beast that tweaking is just absolutely necessary. Thanks for the ideas about the Big Books. Great idea.
Marsha
LOVE this! Thanks for sharing!! How have you from day 1 built stamina?? I only have 18 but some days it feels like 26! lol And I am in a time crunch (we only have about 60 min. for ELA time–DONT get me started!) We have practiced about 10 times since school started when we can and we are making progress!! But I just wondered how you managed ALL the kids to not practice with bad habits. I have a few that would talk and so many that REALLY wanted to work hard and did not like when every 30 sec. or so I was calling them back to the carpet.
LOVE YOUR BLOG AND YOUR PRODUCTS!!
Oh there were days that we only made it 18 minutes. . . believe me. But we just kept at it. It helped that my neighbor was working building stamina at the same time. My kids would get all bent out of shape if they were getting ahead. It hasn’t been easy but I found that by helping certain students out by placing them near me or my assistant, they had the support they needed to make it through. I also bribed them with a celebratory fort/PJ party if they made 2 15 minute days in a row.
Marsha
Love your idea! But I am having trouble downloading the free response sheets at TPT. Would love to have them. Will try again.
Ms. Suzie
Suzie, Try again. I reloaded them and I think they should work (don’t know why they weren’t) but let me know if you have any more issues.
Marsha
I tried it again this evening and it WORKED!!! Thanks!! I’ve been brainstorming all day long, thinking of how I can incorporate some of your ideas to shake up the routine in my classroom. It’s always good to share and compare!
Ms. Suzie
Love the pic of you on the table. Looks like something I would be caught doing! 🙂
Mary
Mrs. Lirette’s Learning Detectives
Just found your blog and I LOVE all your Daily 5 ideas! Thank you so much for the freebies and inspiration!
Have a great year!
Carolee
Our literacy coach told me 20 mins was unrealistic for kinders…what goals does everyone set?. Bags are adorable idea…now to find cd players. Does anyone have any ideas on how to organize the books and cds so they all get used?
What kind of CD players are those? Our kinders do 20 minutes with no problem after they have built their stamina up.
Hi,
Did you find the cd players at a reasonable price?