Daily 5 - Chapter 3

This week, I read chapter 3 of The Daily 5 which is all about routines!  If you're just starting to follow along with the book study, you can see all of my other Daily 5 related posts here.  Last week, I promised you all a freebie...if you missed it, I posted two freebies on Friday.  Go check them out here!

So, on to...

Jana, at Thinking Out Loud, is hosting this week's book study!  She posted a graphic last week that I used to take some notes as I read.  (The shoe lesson and book boxes should really be in the second column...ignore that please!)

Let's Get Together

Chapter 3 talked about the importance of having a gathering place.  My first year of teaching, I was hired (for kindergarten) about 2 hours before the parents' open house!  Yeah about 2!  So the teacher who had taught kindergarten let me use her rug and a few other things (she took a Math Recovery job in the school).  I loved having a rug, but when I was moved to third grade of course I had to leave it behind.  My room now is smaller than that kindergarten room too, so space (or a lack there of) is an issue as well.  So I don't have a gathering place in my room.  

Source

But I may have found a solution: earlier this month I found carpet squares!  We can store them easily and quickly when not in use, move them around the room from the dry erase board to the projector and screen, and even use them in all sorts of places for read to someone and other partner and group activities!  And they're even numbered (they can be used with a calendar rug) so each child can be assigned a square!  So hopefully my Donors Choose project will get funded and I'll have a great gathering place next year!

Readers have to Read

I love the I-PICK strategy for finding good fit books, but I need more!!  Where do you all get books for your classroom library?  I just got a lot of 50 books for a pretty good price on ebay, but I probably won't be buying many more...I have had success with donors choose in getting chapter books for my classroom!  My first project got us three series of chapter books and I just had another project funded for another series of chapter books (and the same books on CD)!  Have any of you all asked parents for old books or just mentioned that you would gladly take any books they no longer want or need?

A Little R & R

Routines (and rituals) are an integral part of the classroom no matter what programs you're using, whether it's Daily 5 or anything else.  A classroom full of little ones without routines is not a place where I want to try to teach!  There were a lot of things in this section of the chapter that I liked and some things I already do too but can improve.  After all, we can always improve!  Chapter 3 suggests starting every new part of the daily 5 by making an anchor chart.  I make anchor charts with my kiddos, but it's not something I do all the time.  I can definitely make more!  I just wish they would look a little more like these!

And if you're looking for a way to manage all of those anchor charts check out this pin.  It comes from Teaching My Friends!  Click on the picture to go straight to the post about her binder!

At my school we talk a lot about respect.  I loved the Debbie Miller quote from the book that basically said 'I expected them to show respect and be kind, but I didn't teach them how'.  We can't just expect kids to know what it means!  That quote reminded me of this anchor chart...I knew that we had to make this one as soon as school starts this fall!

While my loud voice isn't all that loud, a quote from the sisters that I liked was when they said "introducing one loud voice in the classroom is the quickest way to have the noise level in our classroom go spiraling out of control."  I love their idea of using a signal noise of some sort to bring students back to the gathering place rather than having to call out to them.

I could go on and on, but I'm going to end with that!  You can see a couple of other ideas that I thought were important in the graphic at the beginning of the post!  I do have one more question for you guys...does your school use accelerated reader (ar)?  If so, how does it work with the I-PICK strategy?  Do you let your kids have ar books in their book boxes to read during daily 5?

Don't forget to visit our host for chapter 3, Jana, and link up your chapter 3 post!

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