The Daily Five

I love the Daily Five! I've been using it in my classroom, in some form or another for many years. It is FABULOUS! Of course, every teacher needs to tweak it to fit their needs!

I hand my I-Charts along the wall in the back of the classroom for easy reference.

Response to Literature

My kiddos keep Reader Response Journals. They write a letter to me and I write them back each week. We discuss books they are reading, along with some personal items and our read alouds.

I use a checklist of required items kiddos must have completed by Friday. Work on writing is an early finisher activity that a lot of kids select.

Word Work is another early finisher activity. The Hot Dots and Boggle are VERY popular.

Listen to Reading is our reading series on CDs. I created trifles with short response questions based on the stories that the students must complete by Friday.

Flocabulary.com is where our vocabulary comes from and it is AMAZING!!! Super cool. 

Once again, computers are early finisher activities, or a resource if researching something.

Read to Someone. Class Daily Five. We use whisper phones and call that "Read to Someone." Usually, I will see kiddos sharing the nonfiction texts for this I-Chart.

Just read! 

Computer area. CRAFT board for reference. (Clearly this was September.)

Word of the Week is from Really Good Stuff and it is the Grade 4/5. We love using the Word of the Week in our daily conversations and Reader Response Journals.

This is a snapshot of the listening center. That poster has the story title and some challenging vocabulary from the text. The picture frame has the page number and cd track number. The textbooks are there is follow along while listening. The black, white, and pink chart is the schedule for when your day for listening occurs.

PS Those white and pink tables? WHITEBOARD TOPS!!!! I painted them with whiteboard paint, so kiddos use them during math ALL THE TIME. Or to keep score in Boggle. They are so cool.

You need books for Daily Five. And cozy seating.

...did I mention books?

And book boxes.

Aaaaaaaand more books.

The Reader Response Journal is hard work, writing to every kid in your class every week. But worth it.

We keep this blackboard outside of the classroom to quickly state what we're working on that week.

This is hallway boggle.

Hot Dots. Check out my other posts on Hot Dots. Awesomeness.

GIANT BOGGLE BOARD!!! 

I used this to teach the entire class about using the hallway Boggle board.

So, Daily Five looks different in every classroom, but at least you see an overview of our version. While kiddos are working independently or with peers on their Daily Five must do activities, the teacher is working with guided reading groups. It usually goes pretty smoothly. The easy days are Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, when kids are working furiously because they want to finish. Sometimes my naughty children become naughtier when they finish the must do activities early and don't choose an appropriate early finisher activity. That's when the meanie teacher emerges. One look from meanie teacher and those naughties usually make better choices. It's all about the choices in fourth grade.

Anyway, if none of this post makes sense to you, I would totally recommend reading The Daily Five.

The Daily Five

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