ThrowBack Thursday...My Most Popular Post (Daily 5: Where to Begin)

I have debated all day whether or not to link up in the Throwback Thursday Linky. I wasn't sure I should since I pretty much took 10 months off from blogging. But I figured I would and I'm going to start with my most popular post.

My most popular post is my Daily 5 and CAFE: Where to Begin. I thought now is the perfect time to reflect on this.

Here is my original post from August 2012.

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Some of my colleagues and I met at school today to discuss Daily 5 and CAFE. No one at our school has implemented the management system before and several of us are going to try this coming year.

We met in my room so that everyone could see how I had set up my Daily 5 and CAFE boards. Even though I have been at the school for 2 years, this is going to be my first year as a permanent resident!!! Yay! I love that I got to share all the research and items I had found and made with everyone!

I thought since it went well at school today and I hopefully helped everyone understand it better, that I should do a post about it for other newbie Daily 5 and CAFE users.

Here it is....

First, I shared my set up of the Daily 5 board. I posted earlier that I purchased the headers from Kylie at Down Under Teacher.

Up at the top I have the choice Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Word Work. Down below I have Listen to Reading, Read with Teacher, and Work on Writing. The Read with Teacher choice is not an original choice in the Daily 5 book by the"The Sisters". However, down below you will see why I think it is important to include that choice.

This is a close up of how I'm going to have the rotation work in my classroom. I only have enough time for three rotations. Each little will have a clip with their name on it for each chain. Sorry I haven't done that yet. I will post a picture later that shows exactly what I mean.

When my littles walk into the classroom each morning, one of their morning procedures will be to make their Daily 5 choices. However, one choice will possibly be chosen for them. If I plan on meeting with a guided reading group or a strategy group, their clip will already by on the Read with Teacher. So that little will really only have two other choices to make.

I am also going to require that each little picks Read to Self once per day. So really some littles might have just one choice to make for that day.


Here is my CAFE board...

I haven't had a chance to put up the goal papers for the post-it notes yet, but they will be up. This board is behind my reading table so that it can be referred to during guided and strategy groups.

Here is a close up (Sorry for the glare.) ...

Ok, now here is the best part and what my colleagues all wanted copies of. I have spent hours and hours and hours thinking and planning, thinking again and planning again on how to begin the Daily 5 and CAFE process. I'm not going to lie, I have shed some tears trying to figure this out. At one point I felt like giving up, but I didn't and I am soooooooooo glad that I didn't!

First, using the Daily 5 and CAFE book, I planned out a possible schedule as to what it would look like in my classroom. I wanted to still use guided reading groups because it is part of the reading program in my district so I had to think of a way to use guided reading and strategy groups.

Everyday of the week I will give three mini lesson each day. But the instruction I give to my small groups will look different daily.

On Mondays and Fridays, I plan on having strategy groups and student conferences.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday, I plan on have guided reading groups.

Some of my littles might get small group instruction more days than others because I might have a little in a guided reading group and a strategy group. Remember, strategy groups are to used to provide instruction to littles that need extra coaching on a specific goal and strategy. During a strategy group, each little will be reading their own "just right" book. Whereas, my guided reading groups every little will be reading the same book and at their "just right" or instructional level. Whew, hopefully that makes sense. :/

Click here to get a copy of my general Daily 5 and CAFE schedule.

The next item that I created and shared today was my Where to Begin Mini Lessons. For me, the hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to start the process in my classroom. (This is where I shed the tears :(.) I have created a general plan of my first series of mini lessons. Once I get into the classroom I may find that this is not going to work. But it is a STARTING PLACE, and I love having something in front of me to look at and know that I always have a back up.

Click here for the Where to Begin Mini Lessons.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Jessica Meacham for sharing her frontloading mini lessons. They have greatly helped me develop my own plans.

I would love for you to follow me and leave me a comment if you use anything that I created. I love knowing that I have helped others!

These items are unofficial adaptations of the Daily 5 and CAFE Strategies management system by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. This freebie is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters. Visit http://www.thedailycafe.com for official resources.

 

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Now to reflect on this...

 

I made 3 major changes over the course of the year.

 

I successfully completed my first year of Daily 5...by my standards at least. I definitely had to change some things to meet the needs of my students and my self.

 

First off, the first 6 weeks of introduction were a success. My littles loved Daily 5 and even went back to their kindergarten teachers and told them all about what they were doing in first grade. It made my day!

 

However, over time I did change some things. Eventually I weeded out Listen to Reading. I just didn't have the resources available to make this as meaningful as it should be. I definitely recommend having more that one CD player.

 

I also stopped the strategy lessons after the first month. It just didn't fit into my plans and I couldn't keep up with everything. So this was a fail on my part. Next year I am just going to stick with guided reading groups.

 

Another change I made was to make the Daily 5 choice for my students. They didn't mind a bit and actually like the excitement or wondering what choice they get to go to next. Next year I am going to start off the year with making the choices for my students.

 

I'm still by no means perfect at implementing the Daily 5 but I do what is best for myself and my littles, and I think that is what makes a great teacher. FLEXIBILITY and flexible I am!

My Teacher Always Says...

I love summer and I love linky parties! I'm having a hard time coming up with things to blog about so I'm going to join in with the linky craze all summer long. That is until August, when I get to start setting up my room and really get going for the upcoming school year. I have decided that I'm going to enjoy as much time with my little man as possible. Time is going way too fast.



I love this linky party idea! I say so many crazy things I say. Sometimes I worry because I don't know if my littles go home and repeat some of the things I say. :/

This first one I say Every. Single. Time. we go into the hallway. I think I need to retire this one. I'm getting bored with it. I'm thinking of trying a new hallway behavior management tool next year. But I'll save that for another time. Hint. Hint. It might just be my Monday Made It for next week! ;)

 



 

I like how... is something I say when the class is getting a little restless. I use it to point out a positive behavior. Once I do that the rest of my littles try and mimic that behavior. It's just something plain and simple, but I like it. It's kind of old school.

 

"Jiminy Crickets" is something I say when I'm getting a little frustrated. I used this one a lot last year. With being pregnant and a VERY difficult class I needed something to keep me calm. I always said it in a silly voice, but when I used it my littles would just smile and change their behavior because they knew I wasn't happy.

 

"Oh bejesus (spelling?)" is a what I say when a little one shocks me with one of their crazy stories and I just don't know how to respond. Which happened quite often last year. For example,  Little - "Mrs. Eddleblute, look I can dance like a dead spider." Me - "Oh, bejesus!" (This really happened, with movements and my little laying on the floor wiggling.)

 

I used this saying A LOT to get my littles attention. I mainly use it during Daily 5 to get their attention when I need to say something, but I also used it to stop partner work and independent work. It works great because my littles repeat back by saying "one, two, eyes on you!"

 

I always call my littles smart cookies. Especially when they shock me with something that I am surprised that they even know. This always puts a smile on their face!

 

I don't know how many times I say this along with "stretch it out". I very rarely will help my littles spell words. I am all about inventive spelling and using resources in the classroom to help you spell. By the end of the school year, my littles know not to ask because I will not tell them. They will either get "use the word wall" or "stretch it out".

 

This saying I say when a little asks me a silly question. I say it in a squeaky, silly voice. Once I say it they realize that they already know the answer.

 

There are many other quirky things I say. Just the other day I called me little man a "pumpkin noodle". How I came up with that I have no idea. My husband is starting to say silly things too, but most of the time he just laughs and calls me crazy! But oh well, it is me and I like being me!

 

 

Yours in Teaching,



Monday Made It: Lesson Plan Template

This week has gone by so quickly. I feel like I was just posting about my new anchor charts that I made last week.



I have yet to get crafty this summer, but for this week's Monday Made It I think I have my final copy of my lesson plan template for next school year. I tweaked a couple of things to make it more teacher friendly.

Last years template didn't have a whole lot of writing space. This year I am going to write more detailed plans. I also want to write little notes. Like what worked, what didn't work, and how I could improve a lesson for the next time.

For the mornings, on the left side of the template, I have my master schedule. Since I'm still doing Daily 5 my mornings are pretty much the same every day. I added a mini block for my guided reading plans (I also have another template for just guided reading). I generally meet with three guided reading groups each day. I always begin with my lowest reading group and they get reading instruction every day by myself and our Title One teacher. I also meet with my average group every day. My third time block rotates my high/average and my high readers every other day.

I do not do Daily 5 on Fridays. I think it is still important for my students to work independently on some seat work. Fridays we kind of use a catch up day to finish any work that didn't get completed during the week. I also use this time to assess some of the skills that we had covered earlier in the week. While my littles are working on their seatwork I meet with students to have a reading conference.



For the afternoons, my days are a little mixed up. First grade has their specials in the afternoon and mine are at all different times. It drives me crazy but my littles don't seem to care and eventually they get use to the schedule.

On the left side I have a place to plan for my math centers. I am going to be using the Down Under Teachers math labels to start up my math centers this next school year. I am only going to change the centers once per week. There are 4 different centers and we will only be doing guided math/math centers 4 days out of the week. So it works perfectly. :)

I also have a place to write my plans for my writing workshop mini lessons. This is something new that will be taking place this year as well.

My favorite new spot on my lesson plan template is my planning time spot on Friday afternoons. I have art for an hour Friday afternoons. I still haven't decided itfthis is a good thing or a bad thing! :) I left a spot to write little reminders of things I need to get done during this time. Last year I didn't have that space and I was very unorganized when it came time to plan on a Friday afternoon. :/



Next week I hope to have something crafty! But we will see.

Yours in Teaching,

Fabulous Feedback Linky Party

I'm so glad it's finally Friday. The hubster is off all weekend and we get to celebrate his first Father's Day. Which I have to admit, I haven't gotten him anything yet. :/

I'm linking up with Christina Bainbridge from Buntings, Books, and Bainbridge for her Fabulous Feedback Linky Party. I love it when buyers leave feedback for my products. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, and it makes me happy that others are using some of the things I have created. I can say I always leave comments for my purchases because I expect the same in return. Plus, who doesn't want free credits towards future purchases. Just from leaving comments on purchases I have made I have received almost $50 worth of free products!

Anyways, here is one of the comments that made me feel warm and fuzzy.

My Grammar and Punctuation Rule Book will be 20% off TODAY ONLY! Check it out!

I also like Christina's writing of How-To Leave TpT Feedback. Click on the picture below to see her write up on this topic.

 

Happy Friday to Everyone,

A Spontaneous Trip to IKEA

Just yesterday I woke up, blog stalked, and BAM it hit me. I need to take a trip to IKEA. Well, the nearest IKEA is almost 3 hours away (wah).

The day before the hubster and I were thinking of something we could do together, just the two of us. We couldn't think of a thing. Since I was stalking A Cupcake for the Teacher and she managed to make a trip to IKEA, I thought why couldn't I.

I woke the hubster up very quietly and shouted "I know what we should do!" He immediately agreed (which is a big surprise, no husband wants to drive 3 hours to IKEA). I ran downstairs to call my mom so she could watch the little man, and in less than an hour later we were out the door and on our way!

Ok, so here is the best part....I had only planned on getting a couple of things for our house and some things for my classroom. Whelp, we came home with a new 7-piece home office! First of all, the hubster and I never take spontaneous trips nor do we just spontaneously make large purchases that we don't take the time to think about.

Here is the before picture (Yikes!). I don't know how we managed to live like this for almost three years.

Here is the after picture. I have been bouncing around all day. I love me some organization!

The hubster has already been informed to keep his area clean or else! :)

I did manage to find a couple of things for my classroom but not as much as I had hoped for. I purchased this mini pocket chart. I'm thinking an organizer for my writing center?

I also purchased this hanging thing with numbers. I think this will be a great place to store "early finisher" work.

Now off to Target to buy two MATCHING rugs for our new home office!

Anchor Charts for Monday Made It

Hooray! Finally my first Monday Made It of the summer is completed. I have been working very hard while my little man takes his 4 hour nap each day. He is definitely a sleeper and I'm loving every minute of it.

 

So while the little man was sleeping one afternoon I knocked out these fabulous anchor charts. When I go back in August to set up my room I plan on laminating and hanging all my anchor charts in my cabinet. I want to laminate them so that they can be reused throughout the year and in the future.

 

I have also thought that some of the charts that can be filled in might be good to hang in the writing center so my littles can work together to fill them out on their own time. Has anyone else tried this before?

 

The opinion writing chart will go get with the formula writing format that my school already uses.

 

The same thing goes for the informative anchor chart. I also can't wait to use this with one of my recent purchases on Tpt. :)

 



 

I'm not to sure if I really like this one or will even use it. The topic of the how-to goes in the black dotted box. Then you add your sequencing words to the other colored boxes. For example, green might say first, red says then, blue says next, and orange says last or finally.

 

I don't know how many bubble maps I have made in the past but this one will definitely get used. This will be great for writing workshop and guided reading groups.

 

Last year my littles had horrible pictures. They never took there time, never added details, and used very little color. It's mostly my fault because I didn't enforce or really monitor their drawings. However, next year I am going to be a stickler about this. I plan on actually taking some time to teach my littles how to draw appropriate pictures.

 

This one I plan on using to introduce my narrative writing unit. But I really haven't put much thought into that yet.

 

Let me know what you think of my reusable anchor charts. Definitely leave me a comment if you have created some fabulous ones. I have a weak spot for anchor charts and I get excited like a kid in a candy store when I see some great ones that I could make. :)

 

Yours in Teaching,



A Writing Keepsake/Progress Monitor and Writing Workshop Resources

I am already getting so excited for next school year. I am changing so many things. After spending my first year in first grade I now know what's going to work and what's not going to work.

I am completely changing how I do writing in my class. The old writing curriculum was so outdated and I need to be able to hold my littles more accountable for their writing.

I am implementing a writer's workshop next year. I have already created some resources to help me get started.  So far I have, my first month of mini lessons planned out, a writing process student check-in chart, conference sheets, rubrics, and mini anchor charts! I can't wait to put this packet to use. Check out my Writer's Workshop Resource Pack here if you are thinking about do the same or you just need to revamp your writing workshop!

 

Also, I have finished by Writer's Keepsake/Progress Monitor Journal. Check it out here. I'll be posting a little more about it later.

 

 

Now off to enjoy the day with my little man!