Daily 5 and a look at this Craziness!

To think this is just the 1st half of the morning . . .

What the heck! Look at that craziness! I wanted to get a clearer idea of exactly what it was I was doing and what the kids were doing so I made a diagram. Just looking at the diagram made my head spin. Wowie! Wow! Wow! as Junie B. would say. Looks crazy but It actually runs really smooth. UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE. Now let me cross my fingers and hope it stays this way and that the learning measures up when I assess. I want to do a Prezi using this diagram that includes the type of activities and pictures so follow me if you want to know when I do.

Small Groups: This does allow me to work with small groups or with students 1/1. This shows how the morning flows M-Th but this is just 1 day! I have been working on a unit to use during these rotations. I am trying the 2nd unit out this coming up week to make sure it is solid and STUDENT APPROVED : ).

Here is a peek at the unit: (this has taken me forever and a day to get the format and also meet the needs of students and teaching styles). DONE! YEA! Tested and Tried and Student Approved! Click on the pictures to go to the unit.

The unit has everything you need for "simplified" centers, RTI groups, or whole group. As a bonus, if you use Reading A-Z, this unit compliments the decodable book, "Clare's Sharp Car" and can be used in conjunction with it. The idea behind these units is simplicity. Basically, the same picture cards are used for ALL the activities. Print 1 sheet if you are only using it for small groups or 1 sheet for each center. The other units follow the same format to promote student independence. Many options are provided along with ideas to accommodate different teaching styles . . .coming soon! My students benefited a lot from these activities.

Keeping It All Organized
I have this as a widget on my class web-site. Each picture is clickable so each picture takes me right to the activity or resource. If you are interested in the widget code let me know. Just leave me a comment so I know. Try it out by clicking on the pictures.

Writing: I am training my students on the writing component and when they are ready, I hope to be able to add work on writing which will incorporate more of the grammar and author's traits. Writing workshop is separate.

Shopping for Books: I had to add shopping for books into the rotations or it seemed we never had time. I have a schedule where 3-5 kids shop for books each day during the 1st rotation.

Word Work - I keep it simple! I don't do well with managing pieces with center type stuff though it all looks so wonderful. Phonics programs on the computers, charting words using decodables with the focus sound for the week, easy to use board games that follow the same format (phonics, making words, and grammar type games, stamping words in play-dough - soon to be gone and replaced).

Rotations: Every student goes to read-to-self and read-to-someone everyday. They can pick 1 word-work activity per day but get through all 4 by Thursday. The students are loving their morning.