Daily 5 for Firsties!

I've used Daily 5 in my first grade classroom for the past four and a half years, and I must say I absolutely LOVE how it really encourages independence among my kiddos. It takes quite a while to establish (usually about 5-6 weeks), but once it is up and running, it sustains itself. (Okay, so there's usually a few times a year - particularly after breaks - when we need to review expectations, but hey, that's to be expected with six and seven year olds!)

If you have not yet read The Daily 5 book, I would HIGHLY recommend it! It's a quick and easy read. I'll be posting some documents this summer to help with planning and implementing D5 in your classroom, including a guide to the first few weeks of school and corresponding books that work well to teach CAFE strategies (if you choose to integrate CAFE and D5).

Anywho, I thought I'd post a file you might find helpful - a Daily 5 choice recording sheet!

Click {HERE} to download!

Before each round of Daily 5, I call the kiddos to the rug, tell them which reading group I'm meeting with during that round (I use color groups - red group, orange group, etc.), and I quickly mark a "T" in the square for that round for the kids in my reading group (a T for TEACHER since I'm meeting with those students). I then alternate between starting at the top, middle, and bottom of the list of students. I list the students in alpha order by last name, so starting at different points in the list allows students the opportunity to have a chance to choose earlier in the selection process, increasing the likelihood they'll get their top choice.

It takes a bit of practice, but the students get VERY good at calling out their choice - I can typically get through the class of 30 students in less than two minutes. As I'm calling names and writing choices, I keep track mentally of how many listening students there are (since we have a limited number of computers and Tag Readers). I also track if we have an even or odd number of students doing Read to Someone. After I've called all students to pick their first choice, I call students who are doing Listening to move to their choice (this clears some kids off the rug and allows time for students to make sure they can log into the computer and get started before I start meeting with a reading group). Then I call all students who chose Read to Someone, then the remaining three choices. 

As I'm finishing my reading group, I clap to signal time to clean up that activity, we meet back at the rug, and we repeat making our D5 choices. I don't allow students to choose the same choice two days in a row, which means that every other day, students are doing ALL the choices. (This year, I only did two rounds, but next year, with a longer school day, I'll have the chance to take three groups and thus three rounds of D5. So my most proficient students, who I meet with less, will probably repeat one choice every other day. Not too bad.)

PHEW! Okay, that was an unnecessarily wordy explanation. I'll post more soon with more files, including the calendar/organizer for the first few weeks of school!