Chapters 5 & 6 {The Daily 5 Book Study:The Second Edition}

Today we get to talk about the next two chapters in our Daily 5 book study.

Whenever you start Daily 5, you start by teaching your students HOW to read to themselves.

Without the ability to read to themselves with stamina,

the system does not work as strong.

“Teaching children how to read on their own for extended periods of time each day creates the self-winding learner that we want in the center of our comprehensive literacy program.” (p.66)

Plus, if all else fails in a day…

when nothing works right…

when something extreme happens that you have to take care of…

your students will know how to activity engaged in a book for a period of time.

Start read to self very small…

and work your way up.

We usually can go three minutes the first time,

but by the second week, we are usually BACK down to three minutes.

Why? You stop if it is not being done perfectly.

If we start Read to Self in August,

we are “ready” to do Daily 5 in October

 once they have at least 15 minutes of read to self stamina built up regularly.

It just takes that long.

And if we start to struggle with our Read to Self time,

we model it, practice it and start working to build the stamina again.

I love the suggestion the book made to have students fill their book box with their parents at the meet the teacher time. I give my students their first book with their parents at meet the teacher, so it is similar.

Sadly, very few of my students come before school starts, so this isn’t an option for me.

Upper grades… do this!

Remember this book I adore???

It was a $1 thru Scholastic last school year, so maybe it will be this year too.

I also don’t always get to start Read to Self on day 1…

but I do start it by Day 3.

{Day 1 is survival… feed them and get them home the right way.}

I do not have my students enter the room and start reading.

We actually have to talk it up big time and make it seem like a

HUGE

EXCITING

SPECTACULAR

deal that each student GETS to read to themselves.

The more I talk it up, the more determined they are to read to themselves.

In the world of K, talking about the three ways to read a book is a big deal.

I usually do this with the Brown Bear book because my kids CAN read this book all three ways!

I use this simple back with a word wall and reader to help support their reading of Brown Bear.

Next, we talk about how they can pick their own good books to read.

I insist on having my classroom library set up and since I already show they were to place their books when we do classroom read alouds, they are thrilled to get to choose their own books.

 Here is a freebie chart I made for you guys to grab.

 Here is how you can grab it.

 The Daily 5 book goes into a lot of GOOD details

on teaching students to pick a good fit book, so def check it out.

They suggest letting students shop for books once a week,

but honestly… we do it whenever they are ready.

If you students can handle an open library, let them. It is less for you to manage.

Since we work on Reading to Self for only a few minutes a day,

we still have to time to work towards independence with

Working on Writing and Word Work.

I use these Daily 5 elements in my small groups daily

so I will be more than ready to start a choice board when we build our stamina.

One of the newer elements to this book is the foundation lessons to teach under the choice.

So for Working on Writing, they give you three lessons you need to teach asap for that choice. PERFECTION.

These “foundation lesson” ideas can make sure to remind us of the smaller steps that lead us to the top floor… learning.

They are on pages 81, 84, and 85.

I know I will be referring to them and adding these critical elements

into my lesson plans to set my classroom up for success.

This chapter is all about those foundation lessons.

I love this because it is a guide to make sure you get it right.

And it is a chapter I will have to refer back to each and every year to make sure I do each step.

There isnt much for me to add except to tell you to use this chapter!

I did make a freebie a few years ago and I updated it for these chapters specifically.

 One side is a reminder of the Read to Self rules.

No, at first they can’t read the words, but the picture is a great module.

Plus this matches my set of rules so they can and do quickly track the text and ‘read’ it.

 I added a girl version because so many of you wanted one…

 and I print these bookmarks on the other side… as a Read to Someone reminder.

You can print one sided or two sided… whatever you need.

These bookmarks all match my Starting Literacy Workstation

 that is a HUGE time and headache saver.

 It has rule posters…

 and choice board options!

 AND

I updated all my Library Book Labels.

{Over 140 read to use labels and stickers}

You get a large label to put on large bins, a smaller label that fits the Really Good Stuff Bins most teachers use, PLUS label sticker sheets to print and apply to your books for the easiest picture labeling possible.

I added an option to PRINT ONE LABEL 30 times per page… just like you asked.

You can catch up on my other Daily 5 posts by clicking below…