Daily 5 (ELA) & Daily 3 (Math)

This year, we have the great pleasure of the creator and author of "The Daily 5," Gail Boushey, coming to our school to do professional development.

The Daily 5

Since I was already doing parts of Daily 5, I only needed to tweak a few things. I went ahead and broke our ELA curriculum, Journeys, into lesson chunks. I restructured dailies' time to fit in the new schedule. Each daily is 20 minutes. Each lesson chunk is 7-10 minutes. Finally, I made sure that students were choosing their daily. Before, I rotated and did not give choice. Yes, students love the choosing. I just had to make sure my system was working. I created a laminated poster with each daily and created magnets. Each magnet has their student number (and cute Dojo monster).

How do I break apart my schedule? This year, it looks like this:

10:40 Daily Choice 1 (I work with a group for about 10 minutes and then confer for rest.)

11:00 Lesson Part #1 (Phonics)

11:10 Recess/Lunch

11:45 Transition time

11:50 Daily Choice 2 (Group/Confer)

12:10 Lesson Part #2 (Book Read) 

12:20 Daily Choice 3 (Group/Confer)

12:40 Lesson Part #3 (ELA activity, usually connected with the book)

12:50 Transition

1:45   Transition

1:50   Daily Choice #4 (Group/Confer)

2:10  Reflection

Most of my dailies are pretty self-explanatory.

For "Listen to Reading," I have a variety of websites saved to a symbaloo. The students have a link to it on a Word document, saved on their desktop. The monster on my chart matches the monster link on their computer. (See "More About Stations" post to learn more)

For "Work on Writing," I have a variety of supplies, including lined primary paper, Crayola pens, phonics phones, and a sheet with letters with pictures that remind of sounds (Zoophonics). Depending on the lesson, I may add a writing paper that matches. Right now, we are working on writing messages and letters. I have a writing paper that helps with that format, and students can "mail" their letters with a cute Blues Clues mailbox I have.

For "Word Work," I have a lot of choices. I have a table with letter stamps and a stamp pad, whiteboards and pens, and word sheets. I add and take away. I have had magnets with metal cookie sheets, CVC practice sheets (and CCVC for advanced students), and coloring sheets that have words with pictures that match sounds.

Students also have the choice to do Word Work on their computers. I have a symbaloo with games that match the IRLA reading level of students. IRLA is the program we use to identify a student's reading level and helps us with skills and words students need to acquire for the next level.

When I work in groups with students, we read the stories for the week from Journeys. However, I do a lot of games. You can find my games on https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/My-Products/Category:298011

The Daily 3

I have never tried the Daily 3. Again, I created a laminated poster. This time I created a spot for working with teacher. Unlike ELA, I do not have enough time to conference or do groups with students during my math time due to the schedule. I do not split my lesson into chunks. We have a brand new curriculum, Ready Math, and I wanted to follow it with fidelity. Each daily is only 10 minutes, due to my math schedule.

Here is how I break it down:

8:50-9:20 Math lesson (includes direct instruction/modeling, partner practice, and individual practice)

9:20 If done early, computer practice with selected websites

9:40 Daily Choice (1 group meets with me the whole time)

9:50 Daily Choice (Another group)

10:00 Recess

10:20 Daily Choice (Another group)

10:30 Daily Choice (Another group)

So, students meet with me and then have time to do all 3 choices.

When students work with me or work with someone, I focus on a different math strand every day.

Monday: Counting and Cardinality

Tuesday: Operations and Algebra

Wednesday: Numbers in Base Ten

Thursday: Measurement and Data

Friday: Geometry

For the games I use, I search on the internet. I created one for Numbers in Base Ten that you can find on https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/My-Products/Category:298025 For some of the games with someone, I integrate some of the games from Ready Math, which is our curriculum.

For Math by Myself, students are doing i-ready lessons on the computer. We need to fit in time for lesson work, and this seemed like the best time to fit it in.

Some students might miss a daily in either math or ELA, due to being pulled out for extra intervention. However, I meet with every student every day in both math and ELA. 

Kindness Challenge

Every year our school does a Kindness Challenge. We did a full week of activities right before Winter Break, but I just felt the class needed an extra dose of kindness activities. I plan to have the kids do this throughout January.

I searched Pinterest for challenges and came up with the following:

I got the "WARM" acronym from the following blog: https://www.counselorchelsey.com/products/empathyactivitiesusingwarmwords

I am interested in trying the activities from it.

Since some of my kids cannot read everything on the list, I numbered them and created a picture version for reference:

I made a bulletin board with the title: "Kindness is like Cocoa. It makes you WARM on the inside."

I got the cutest mug clipart from:
https://www.melissaanddoug.com/blogpost?postId=hot-chocolate-sensory-craft-for-kids-and-printable
I added a double "10 frame" inside the mug, so when a student completes a challenge, I can glue a real marshmallow to his//her mug. Kids colored in their mugs.

What other social/emotional activities do I do?
1. Our school adopted 2nd Step lessons. I teach one lesson a week.
2. ClassDojo has fantastic videos: https://ideas.classdojo.com/
3. I also teach lessons from https://www.emotionalabcs.com/. It is free to teachers and matches really well with both 2nd Step and ClassDojo concepts. I do one lesson a week.
4. I try to do Class Meetings. I do admit I am inconsistent, due to having to fit in so much curriculum.

What do you do for social/emotional learning that has worked well for you?

Student Self Assessment

When we switched to our current teacher evaluation system, student self assessment was the big concept my team wanted to focus on.

In Kindergarten, we created bookmarks for math and ELA that focused on the main skills we wanted to track throughout the year. We mount them on construction paper. We highlight the areas they have accomplished and review often with the kids. They can tell us what their next goal is and where they are now with their skills.

Our math bookmark focuses on 3 skills: oral counting, counting objects one by one, and counting objects in a set:

 Front:

Back:

Our ELA bookmark is based on letters, sounds, and sight words. We have reading levels, which are based on IRLA.

Front:

Back:

Stapled to back once letters and sounds are completed:

Another student self assessment piece was found by my new K partner, Leah Marsland. The original idea used sticky notes with student's name to mark how they felt they did on a lesson goal. We improved the idea by getting magnets. Each student in our class has a number, so we marked their number on each magnet.

Red means "I need a lot of help with the skill."

Yellow means "I did OK, but I might still need some help."

Green means "I did great." 
Purple means "I did great. I can teach this to someone else."

You can use this concept for any lesson goal. We can also take a picture of it and send it as evidence to our principal.

You can purchase magnets at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DCMTMXV/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_awdo_86AxCbWEC51JB

More About Stations

When people come to my room, I get a lot of questions about how I do stations. You can read my previous posts "Games, Games, and More Games" for ELA and "Math Stations" for math to get a detailed description with links.

I have set alarm clocks every 10 minutes for math stations and 20 minutes for reading stations, using https://www.timeme.com/alarm-clock-50.htm. Students have a Word document on their laptop. Each monster stands for a different station. II link the monster to the website/file that matches the station (dailies) activities. Here is a description of what each monster means.

Math:

Reading:

Here is what a student's computer doc looks like:

You can see that the monsters match the different stations/dailies. Math links are a little different.The Green monster is the "Math by Myself." I put that image because it is the one they see when they go to the link (Ready Math). If you zoom in on "Math by Myself," you will see a very tiny i-ready monster.

Monster Themed Classroom Reveal

I am almost completely set up after 3 days of work. I only have some minor things to do. This year I added a little more to my monster theme. My colors are black, white, and yellow accents.

One addition was my title for my Focus Wall: "Our Monster Plan"

I simplified this from last year. I had a lot more of Journeys ELA content posted and realized I didn't need all of that. Now, I just have words for the week, letter, shape, number, and my learning targets/success criteria. Up in the right corner, I added a blueprint of Mojo (from ClassDojo) to add to the idea of a "monster plan."

A small detail was changing the numbers above my backpack hooks to Monster University nametags. I bought a new Sulley stuffed animal. Also, I added "doors" to my back bulletin with my new theme: "We gain because we train" (inspired from "We scare because we care").

Here are several pictures of the rest of my room:

My last touches will be adding a Disney quote on my back cabinet with white chalk pen and add Mike somewhere in the class, either on the door or on my window.

Hope you enjoyed my tour.

Any final touch suggestions? Let me know.

Math Stations

I explained how I go about my Reading Stations, but how do I do my math stations?

They are very similar. I do a modified Daily 3.

1. I put students in flexible, differentiated groups. I usually end up with 4. I try to limit them to 6 students in a group, if possible.
2. Students rotate with their group.
3. I set a timer for when stations are done. I use: http://www.timeme.com/alarm-clock.htm My stations are color coded to match the clock. I usually use "drum" for the end of a station and "Ba Dah 16 sec" for clean up.
4. Each student has links on their computer. Here is a sample of what it looks like:
   
   
   
   
   
5. Each day of the week I focus on a different domain of Common Core. Each station will focus on that domain for the day.
1. Monday: Counting & Cardinality
2. Tuesday: Operations & Algebra
3. Wednesday: Numbers in Base 10
4. Thursday: Measurement & Data
5. Friday: Geometry
6. Done with work: Math Fact practice
6. Stations:
1. Teacher Station: I play a lot of games that focus on the domain for the day. They are gathered from a lot of different sources. My favorite is: Fishing. I use her template for math facts but also for sight words. I needed a good game for Numbers in Base Ten, so I created Feed the Polar Bear (Teen Numbers). Students use printed fish with ten sticks (Get it? Fish sticks. 😁) and cubes to make a given number. If they get a polar bear card, they have to feed the bear that many sticks and cubes. The student with the most fish cards wins. I have a version that is more difficult and an easier version in my store. 
   
   
2. Math with Someone: Students play a game on the floor.
3. Math by Myself: Students do games on the computer. They mainly use the website, MegaMath, which is part of our curriculum, Math Expressions. I have symbaloos created for each domain. If you use Math Expressions, you can use the following links:
1. Monday: https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABM3HrbwAA41_k-YVkg==
2. Tuesday: https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABNKfe1AAA41_k-YsUg==
3. Wednesday: https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABNKs6JQAA41_k-YsXQ==
4. Thursday: https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABNK229cAA41_k-YsgA==
5. Friday: https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABNK-zQEAA41_k-Yskw==
6. Done with work: https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABPYJsVkAA41_k-cGbA==
4. Math Writing: In the past, I have had several SMARTNotebook files that have students solve problems and create their own. I am always updating these files. I have a file for each domain. Right now, we are required to do 20 minutes a week of the program, i-ready lessons. So, I changed my icon to have students practice that instead of doing the files.
5. Friday Special: I have my Friday Teacher Station and Math with Someone Station focused on a STEM activity. I do 2 stations because they need more time. 

Games, Games, and More Games

Over the summer, I spent time creating another game for my reading groups. Last year's group kept me challenged. I had to keep creating higher level games because they kept soaring through reading levels. If you come and observe me, I will tell you that I am firmly convinced that games are my main reason for kids reaching goals. Last year's K group were all on level or higher in reading!

How my reading groups work? I meet with every group every day. My kids are in differentiated, flexible groups. I end up having usually 4 to 5 groups.

I do a modified Daily 5. What do you mean?

1. Kids are put into differentiated groups and rotate the stations together.
2. Students rotate to a new station every 10 minutes. Partly due to my ELA block and partly due to attention span.
3. I set colored timers off so they know which station. I absolutely love http://www.timeme.com/alarm-clock.htm. I set timers to match my station colors. At the end of the station, kids hear the sound I set on the timer (usually drum) and know to go to the next station. Clean up? I set a separate sound (usually Ba Dah 16sec), and they know to put everything away. It is truly magical!
4. Stations:
1. Teacher Station: 
1. Monday: I focus on our Student book stories (Journeys) and leveled readers (Journeys).
2. Tuesday-Friday: We focus on letters, sounds, and/or sight words.
2. Word Work: 
1. Monday: Students work on phonics activities with a Journeys Smartnotebook lesson.
2. Tuesday: Students do activities on a created Symbaloo: http://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABMwVhqsAA41_k-WRFA== If you use IRLA, feel free to use the link, but be aware that I tend to update this one quite often.
3. Wednesday: Students rainbow write our sight words in the program "Pixie." The nice part of Pixie is that it will read words.
4. Thursday: Students do Symbaloo again.
5. Friday: Students do the special section I created on Symbaloo called "Friday Fun." The games are still educational, but they are different for variety. https://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABC_0WSsAA41_lGWHiQ==
3. Listen to Reading: Another Symbaloo: http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/listening87 If you have a great site you use, let me know. I did transfer all to the computer because the kids really struggled with books on tape/CD.
4. Work on Writing: Kids use the program "Pixie" to have a continuing journal. I am able to look at it via my computer, which is really nice.
5. Read to Self: I only use this station if they are done early or I need another group station. We have plenty of time during the day they are reading by themselves or with someone else, since we have to have a focused reading time. I use leveled books for this. 

Yes, I do a lot of computers. Our school is lucky to be one-to-one. Each student has shortcuts in a Word document. I have created a shortcut on each desktop, so I can change stations from my main computer. Here is a pic of what they might have:

If the student is to do a station on the computer, there is a link on the station's symbol.

Yes, I do math stations too. I teach them which station matches which character. The color tells them which station, which matches my timer.

Wednesday-Friday, I play games at my Teacher Station.
My favorite go-to game has been "Apple Orchard." I created it similar to Hi-Ho Cherry-O. Students spin a wheel. If they land on a number, they get that many sight word cards to read. If they read it correctly, they keep the card. If they land on a bird, they lose a card. If they land on an apple basket, they lose all of their cards. I printed my cards on colors depending on the level. That way if I have a group of readers who are reading at different levels (like my higher reading group), they can all play and at the end I can easily sort the cards back into their appropriate levels. Our current reading program has set sight words that are linked to colors.

My new game? Old Maid. I am hoping it is a hit this year. We will see.

Other games I play? Candy Land Sight Words, Chutes & Ladders Sight Words, Cookie Crunch Sight Words, and Fishing, which I got from: http://differentiatedkindergarten.com/colorize-your-classroom-with-editable-sight-word-fishing-fun/?m I really love fishing. I use her template for my words and for math facts. My letter and sound games I have gained from a lot of different sources. Crocodile Snap is one of my favorites.
You can find my games at my TPT store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pamela-Wray

I recently created my existing games into editable pdfs. That way if you don't use our reading program you can create your own cards.

TPT is having a big sale August 1-2, 2017. My items will be on sale, too.