Daily Five (aka: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread...seriously!)

YAY! It's summertime. I've finally settled into summer and am ready to start blogging again. :)
The post title should give you a good indication of my thoughts on Daily Five (cue the church choir music). I LOVE LOVE LOVE daily five. If you are still using centers in your classroom or haven't heard of daily five, stop what you are doing immediately and pick up a copy of The Daily Five!

During all of my experiences in college, I had only known centers. I had only observed centers. In my long term sub position the class did centers. So I was fine with centers. In fact, I spent the first few weeks of my summer preparing copious amounts of center work so it would be neatly and perfectly organized for my first year. And then, I picked up a copy of the Daily Five. I felt like I was reading the best infomercial ever!!

Are you tired of grading tons of busy work?? YES!
Are you constantly spending all your planning time deciding on what centers you are going to use this week?? YES!!
Are you sick of students asking you what to do when they've finished all their center work in 5 minutes when you needed it to keep them busy for 15??? YES!!!!

In the education world, this was very close to a religious experience for me.
And so I began the journey of preparing my class for the Daily Five. After reading the book, I did tons of research online and on pinterest.

The most important thing about Daily Five is building routines. If you do not devote at least three weeks to a month or more to building the routine of Daily Five it will not be successful or not as successful as it could be. This isn't something I would want to try and implement in the middle of a year (although, you could) but I feel it's best to introduce it at the beginning of the year with the rest of your routines. **I found a great resource for introducing the daily five as a step by step guide, click here for the FREE download.

Like so much of my first year, perfecting my daily five routine was a process and it will probably continue to change based on my students needs.

So here it is: how I do daily five in my classroom.

Daily Five recommends allowing students to choose their own rotation and at the beginning of the year we were doing it in my classroom and, even more amazing, it was working! However, at some point after Christmas break, my kids just couldn't handle it anymore. So I've created a powerpoint schedule that I put up on my interwrite board. For those who have an interwrite board or a board with mobi's (mobile interactive white boards), I use a mobi so that I can change the rotation from my guided reading table. This worked really well for us but I do want to give the students choice. I plan to reincorporate that next year.

I just set a timer and when the timer goes off I switch the rotation using my mobi and I don't have to get up and walk over to the laptop.

About halfway through the year, I felt like my students needed a bit more guidance during some of their rotations so I came up with a "Daily Five Must Do" chart.

So before they could choose what they wanted to do at their rotation (i.e, what they wanted to write if they were at work on writing), they had to complete the must do. They still had a lot of freedom with just a touch more guidance! It worked well for my class. So if needed, I assigned a must-do for writing, word work, and occasionally listening (when they listened to our story of the week).

Read to Self

Before the year began I found some of these cute containers at the dollar store. These became my book boxes. I used wet erase markers to write students names and that held up most of the year (and could be redone if needed). You could also use magazine boxes, Target sometimes has them in the dollar section.
I got the book boxes ready with books that were at their levels.

Read to self runs just as it sounds. Students can pick a spot in the room and they read books out of their book boxes for the entire rotation.

I give each student one day of the week where they are allowed to trade the books in their book boxes during read to self. If they get too loud during this time, they lose the privilege for that day and can try again next week.

My thoughts for next year: I think I will have my students keep a record to the books they read and complete. It will hold them more accountable for their reading. Also, I do super improvers in my class and I could give stickers for students who read more books in one week than they did the week prior (i.e, if they read 14 books this week but only read 11 last week they would get a sticker). That would be a great motivator for them! (If you haven't heard of super improvers, look at my previous post, there's a brief overview) 

Easy enough right? Keeps them busy, yet is so beneficial to them as a learner. Bonus: they LOVE it! 

Read to Someone

Read to Someone is very similar to read to self except they are reading with a buddy. The buddy doesn't always need to be someone of like-ability but can vary. Students can either agree to read the same book (if they do happen to be like-ability) or two different books. One student will read a page, and the other student has to tell them "I heard you read...." (we call this "CHECKING for COMPREHENSION!) :) Then they switch roles. 

**You can find lots of check-mark reminders for checking for comprehension on Teacherspayteachers for free. Sorry I couldn't find the one I used to link. :(

My thoughts for next year: My students early on dropped the Checking for Comprehension piece and I just couldn't get them to pick it back up. If anyone has dealt with this before and has any tips, please leave me a comment! 

Work on Writing

Work on writing was one of my favorite rotations. The kids loved it too! Here's our writing station: 

Links to all my cute posters are on my previous blog post and most of them are FREE! So check it out!

Each of the students had a writing journal and they kept them in a blue fabric container like the one you see the orange pallets in. When they were at work on writing they could write about anything!! This was the great appeal of work on writing! (however, unless they had a must-do in which case they could write about anything after they finished their must do). At the beginning of the year I encouraged students to write me letters and I would respond to them! As you can imagine, they LOVED this and it really helped us build bonds with one another :). 

At the beginning of the year we talked about what to do if you came to a word you didn't know, (uh.... ask the teacher??? ERRRRG Wrong! Because we have nothing better to do than spell a million words right???) students should sound it out the best they can and underline them. I reinforced this strategy a lot and my kids really caught on. It was pretty cute, however, when a couple of them tried underlining words on their spelling tests (nice try, though!). 

My thoughts for next year: I will keep the must-do's but have a day once a week that is purely for free write. Also, I think I'm going to have my students keep their writing journals in their book boxes for two reason: (1) they can go back and read what they wrote and (2) I can use the blue container as a "Look, Mrs. Allison!" box for students to put their journals if they've written to me and want me to respond or they just want me to read something they've written and respond. 

Word Work

My word work station probably evolved the most out of all my stations. I started the year giving students a "menu" to chose what they wanted to do using either their spelling words or words off the word wall. 

Their favorite options were "Text" words (where they write out spelling words and messages including a spelling word on fake iphones--get a free download here), writing on whiteboards, and tic-tac-toe (see example and get a free download here). While I was happy they were staying busy and quiet; I wasn't sure they were making the most out of their time at Word Work. That is when I began my Must Do chart. My must do's changed a bit over time but this is what I ultimately settled on and I think it's really working. My must do's for word work are:

1) Monday- ABC order

2)Tuesday- Rainbow write

3) Wednesday- Spelling Sentences (write a sentence for each spelling word)

4) Thursday- "How Much Is My Word Worth?" (this is a great way to combine math and literacy--get it for FREE from my TPT store here)

We don't always get to Daily Five on Fridays so I don't have a must do for Fridays. 

After making this big change, I felt like the students were much more productive during Word Work. 

My thoughts for next year: At the beginning of the year I gave my students a notebook to keep all their word work and spelling words in. However, I didn't think they were getting it all done so I went to paper copies of the must do's that they would turn in. I don't mind quickly checking through to see it's all getting done but I'm not sure this is the answer. I need a place for them to write and keep their spelling words to reference to and the notebook was good for that but it didn't get much use otherwise. Any ideas??

Last, but certainly not least, especially if you ask the students:

Listening

Ah... for my students this was like the holy grail of Daily Five.

When I started my first job, the teacher before me left me all sorts of goodies! Including an extensive collection of books on tape. I was thrilled! There were even little cassette players and headphones too. I was set. And this worked well for a long time. However, even though my students were able to figure out how to work the super complicated and ancient cassette players (something totally foreign to them), the tapes getting tangled and broken was inevitable. And of course it would happen just as I was teaching an intriguing guided reading lesson. I would have to stop and untangle and restart the students tape. After a while I was fed up. There had to be an easier way. 

I had seen a blog about a teacher who had transferred all her cassette tapes into mp3 files and downloaded them to donated ipod devices. That was all I needed to be persuaded into spending a whole weekend transferring my files. After the files had been transferred I hit up family members and parents of my classroom for donated devices. It wasn't long before I had enough for my listening center and by the end of the year I had collected 7! 

On the iPhones, I made sure to change all the settings so there was no access to the internet or camera or anything besides music (which only had the books on tape) and the recording button (so students could record and listen to themselves reading the books--great for fluency!!) 

I even took pictures of the covers so students could recognize their favorites just by looking at them. 

I'd like to say this ended all the problems with listening and everything was perfect, but lets be realistic. Of course, my students argued over the iPhones (there's only two iPhones and the rest are ipods or mp3 players) but it definitely saved me time in the long run and my students love it. 

This wasn't the only change I made to listening. 

Near the end of the year I found a website that has our Literacy program (Treasures) weekly story online that students can listen to. I had been looking for this since the beginning of the year! I was stoked. I put an icon on the student computers that lead them directly to the site and once a week my students would listen to their weekly story on the computers. They loved getting on the computers as much as they loved getting to listen to the iPhones! I was a bit surprised by that. There are still changes to be made but we've come a long way in just a year! :)

My thoughts for next year: (1) I definitely need more books on tape. I thought forty was plenty and was thrilled to have them but now I see it's just not nearly enough!! (2) I'm thinking about having my students complete a listening worksheet after they finish listening to a story but I'm not sure if that's just creating work when it's unnecessary. We'll see. (3) Lastly, I am going to get some shower caddies from the dollar store and use them to organize the mp3 players. I will number the players and the container. In each container there will be a player and headset. This will help my need for organization and keep students accountable wrapping up their headsets so they do not tangle. 

Anyways I LOVE Daily Five, in fact, I've just order the second edition on Amazon. Who knows, I could have a whole new take on it by Fall. :)

Room Tour

This Friday, my school had it's 50th Anniversary. We opened up our rooms for school tours to the public. This was a great opportunity to get my room looking nice and clean (you know, like it's not actually may and we don't just have three weeks of school left). So, I wiped everything down and taped down all the nametags that have been coming up since February and took this chance to get some good pictures of my classroom.
First, I'd like to say I've put a lot of work into the setup of my classroom. It's changed many times throughout the year as I discover what works best for me and my students. I finally feel like I've got it where I want it and I only plan to change a few things over the summer.
Here we go:

Here's a view from my desk. Click here to get my welcome banner for just $1! :)

Here's my guided reading table. I made the crate seats myself :) (with help from my husband and brother). I have a bucket of quiet headphones and pvc pipe "telephones" under the table. I have two clear shower caddies, one with math tools and one with reading tools.

Here's my word wall. Click here to purchase this from my Teachers pay Teachers store for only $1!!
You can also see that I keep my art drying rack underneath a table. I LOVE this rack for drying all of our wonderful art projects. Anyone who has ever lived without one before, like I did the for first half of the year, knows the struggle of trying to place drying artwork all over the room. I love keeping it under the table like that because space is precious in my classroom.

Here's my birthday board. I really loved this idea when I saw it on pinterest over the summer; however, I will not do this again next year and here's why: it is very difficult when you have a new student to take a whole new picture and include them. Also, it takes up a lot of room.

Here is my Math Corner. You can find my calendar here for just $1. Click here to get a combo for my days of the week, weather, and days in school for just $1. My district uses interwrite boards instead of Smartboards so it was about halfway through the year before I was able to create my own Interwrite calendar to be used on my interactive board. Now I love it and I can't imagine using anything else! Find it here.

Here are my book boxes for Daily 5. I got these from the Dollar Store for just $1. I write their names in wet erase vis-a-vis until they have a chance to create own their name tags. Also you can see our posted schedule. You can download the "personal best" sign for FREE by clicking here! I wish I knew who to give this adorable sign credit to, but I just found the link on pinterest.

Here you can see our weekly spelling words, our daily objectives, and our Daily 5 must do board. I plan to post about my Daily 5 routine later (I LOVE DAILY FIVE!).

Here is my desk. My students are often confused when I say "desk" because I am literally never over there unless my students are out of the room. I'm sure a lot of teachers feel this way. I used black curtains on my bookcases to hide my mess. :) I use magazine boxes to distribute papers I plan to use during the week (there's one for each day of the week). I have three file folders I could never live without: grade, file, and copy. I've seen some people use little three drawer organizers for this but I just don't have the space for one, so the files work best for me. Click here to download the "3 before me" sign for FREE from 3rd Grade Thoughts.

I love my writing area. I think it invites creativity for the kiddos. :) You can find the posters I used for "writers eye" from Miss Nelson for FREE by clicking here. The pencil poster can be found for FREE here, from Heather Parmelee. I absolutely love the "What Do Writer's Write?" poster from The Teacher Wife. Click here to download it for FREE. We also have a writing goals chart and at the beginning of the year my students determine what they want their writing goal to be and it can change throughout the school year. See the picture below for a close up. 

Here's the close up of our writing goals. 

Here is our math manipulative cabinet. The students keep their "tool kits" on top in zip lock baggies. I use the ones with zippers at the top because its hard for my students to get the regular ones zipped securely. I got the containers from Wal-Mart. 

Here is my Super Improvers board on my front door (again, space is precious--gotta use everything I can). I LOVE super improvers and my students love it as well! It focuses competition with the student against themselves rather than against the other students. Anytime my students improve at anything they get a sticker for their star. This is usually related to academics but can be tied to behavior as well. When they have ten stickers they move up a level; when this happens they get a new star and their name is written in the color of their new level (some teachers use different colored stars but unless you have an abundance of construction paper, this just worked better for me--plus I only had to cut a bunch of white stars). If someone gets to "Living Legend," they will get there name on my classroom wall FOR-EV-ER (I'm doing my best to channel "Sandlot," can you tell??). It's super easy and doesn't cost anything but REALLY motivates the kids, especially those on intervention. They can't wait to see if anyone is going to be a "Living Legend." 

I got my Super Improvers scale off of teacherspayteachers for free but unfortunately can't find the link anymore, :( sorry! 

***Super Improvers comes from the book Whole Brain Teaching and if you haven't read it, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Here are my class rules. They also come from Whole Brain Teaching and you can find them in here for FREE! Again, I LOVE Whole Brain Teaching. Number 5 is my favorite rule :). At first, I thought, hmmm... keep your dear teacher happy??? That doesn't sound like a student centered classroom. But this rule serves a much larger purpose. Have you ever told a student that hitting that other kid wasn't making a smart choice (rule #4) only to be told that it, in fact, WAS a smart choice because said student hit them FIRST? Well, you just hit them with rule #5! Hitting that student did NOT make your teacher happy. Rule #5 acts as a catch all so that you don't have to spend your precious time arguing with a student. Did I mention I LOVE these rules??? :)

Okay, I saved my favorite for last! :) Cue the choir bells. This is my library. I made all the pillow covers myself and tried to make this a really fun place for my students to be. They love it too! My library took me the longest out of everything in my classroom to get organized but it was definitely all worth it. My library labels are my best selling item from my store for just $1.50. Find them here. 

You can get my 3 Ways to Read a Book sign for FREE here.

And my I PICK sign is also FREE, just click here. 

So there you have it, I LOVE my classroom and I've put a LOT of work into getting just right. I spent most of my summer last year scouring pinterest for the best classroom ideas. I hope my classroom can serve as inspiration to someone whose planning out their first classroom! :) 

Welcome!!

I suppose I should start by introducing myself (although, most of who reads this will probably be my family and friends... Hi mom!!). I am a first year second grade teacher at the BEST elementary school in Oklahoma. I have been extremely blessed with the best class ever as well as super supportive parents! Okay, so maybe I'm a bit biased but I truly feel like I won the first year teacher jackpot. I love teaching second grade! The students are at such a great age and they are so fun to watch as they grow and learn.


So you wouldn't know based on my many blog posts.... (HA!) but I started this blog back in August with the intention of blogging through my first year. Well, in case you haven't checked the calendar lately, it's May and this is the first post I've managed. About that first year of teaching... SPOILER ALERT: you have like zero free time :). Although, my many trial and errors haven't made it on a blog yet, I've learned a ton this year. I can't wait to start sharing some of my ideas, thoughts, and questions with the blogging world.