Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Beginnings of a Great Year? and Daily 5 Praise Necklaces {Freebie}

Holy Moly! Today I just finished day 5. The last 5 days have been a mix of emotions. Sad that I have to leave my little man for the first time since April, but extremely excited to start this year long adventure with my new 25 little ones.
 
 
I have been M.I.A. since the beginning of school because I have been trying to adjust to my new busy life. I was so used to coming home from school to just crash on the couch, eat dinner, do some school things, and head to bed whenever I felt. Ummmm not so much anymore. I have definitely had to become more efficient with my spare time. The good news is that I feel like I'm also getting more things done during the school day. I am getting way better at managing my time.
 
 
I am still working on finding time to take pictures of the things we are doing in the land of first grade. That is a goal that I am working on. I have taken a few but nothing really worth sharing.
 
 
I did want to share some milestones that my little ones and I have reached in the 5 days that we have been together. I was so proud of them this morning. Yesterday, we began our first day of Daily 5. We started with Read to Self. We began by creating an I-Chart and then we began working on our stamina right away. My little ones made it 3 minutes on the first try. We only practiced once the first day. I wanted to keep it positive and as short as possible so that they didn't get burned out on the first day.
 
 
But today! Holy Moly! We practiced building our stamina twice. The first time they made it 5 minutes and the second time they made it 7 minutes. The only reason we had to stop was because someone came into the room and it threw them off task.
 
 
I think what really helped today was my introduction of my Daily 5 Praise necklaces. Today, I showed them by Stamina King and Queen necklaces. Actually, one little girl noticed them hanging on the board and asked what they were for. I had completely forgotten about them. So, I introduced them, gave it a whirl, and BAM, we built our stamina to 7 minutes!
 
 
I was so proud of them and I think they were more proud of themselves than I was. Some of the first graders did Daily 5 in kindergarten and I can see a huge difference in my little ones this year compared to last year.
 
 
Here is the link to my Daily 5 praise necklaces. Check out this FREEBIE!
 

 
I am so excited for this group of little ones. I can already tell that they are strong readers and writers. Here's to the beginnings of a great year! Yippy Skippy!

2 comments:

  1. Wow, working on the 7th day of stamina for my 1st graders - we usually can get about 30 sec to 1 min. The most we made was 3 minutes 26 seconds - and that is when one friend was absent. This is my first year of Daily 5 and I'm kind of regretting it. When I have 2 autistic and 5 ADHD (unmedicated) students - we are lucky to get 1 minute.

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  2. I'm loving all the freebies! Thank you!! This is going to be first year doing the Daily 5. What excatly do you do when ya'll are working on stamina? You just have them read and time them?? In small groups? One on one?? I'm nervous to start the Daily 5! EEEK!!

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