The Daily 5 Part 1

I've been asked to put together a Daily 5/Cafe handbook for new teachers. I have also received quite a few emails asking what I do for reading, so here it goes.I have so much to say about the Daily 5/CAFE so I decided to break it into 6 parts. Today I'll be describing an overview. 

For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about you have to read The Daily 5 and CAFE books by Gail Boushey and Joan Mosher.

This is what my schedule looks like: 

9:45-10:00- check in and Daily Language Review.  

10:00-10:20- Round 1

10:20-10:30- Mini lesson 

10:30-10:50- Round 2

10:50-11:00- Mini lesson

11:00-11:20- Round 3

11:20-11:25- Wrap up 

Rounds- On Mondays I teach 3 different word study groups and introduce spelling words for the week. Every other day I meet with guided reading groups 2 out of 3 rounds and use the 3rd round to have individual conferences.

Check in- this is what students see when they first come to the carpet. If they see "Ms. D" they know they are working with me that round. You can download a blank copy here on google documents (if it shows up weird, click file, download as word)

We gather on the carpet and the first thing the students do is make their choices for the day. Afterwards it looks like this: 

You'll notice I have a small dot next to Thalia's name. I do this to keep track of who I leave off on so I know whose turn it is to choose first the next day.

I do have a few rules to keep Daily 5 running smooth. Each student MUST choose read to self every day. Listening can only be done once a week. My original word work rule was that it couldn't be done on Monday or Friday since spelling words are introduced Monday and the test is first thing on Friday. I have since allowed my students to play word work games on Monday and Friday BUT they must also make sure they choose word work on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday to practice their spelling words. I will talk more about each choice in separate upcoming blog posts. You can download the rule sheet here. 

I also keep track of what my students choose each day because I do require they do everything at least once (except read to self that's every day). I tried several different recording sheets but ultimately this simple one ended up working the best for me because I can glance quickly and see what each student has and has not done. I just write their names in and each sheet lasts me 4 weeks. You can download the track sheet here. You can see that on Thursday I circle what they have not done yet so that I can remind the students before check in. I also intentionally didn't include read to self since they have to choose that everyday anyways. This was my first attempt. It's cuter and fancier but didn't serve the simplistic approach I was looking for.But maybe it will work for someone else! 

Tomorrow I will post about the mini lesson part of my schedule with an amazing resource that describes the first 27 days to a T (well almost!). This post will also include anchor charts and behavior modeling.