Daily Five Update

So last year I started implementing some components of daily 5 and had every intention of doing a full implementation this year in 1st grade. I use a lot of the components of Daily 5 but I had to find a way to make it work for me. I know i'm not alone in trying to figure out what works best for my kids and my class. I got as far as having the components of Read to self, Read to someone, work on writing and word work. I just couldn't get listen to reading going like I wanted. I also couldn't get  letting the kids pick what they wanted to do work for me. But I love that by trying daily five, it has forced me to spend some time on writing. I have been working on trying to implement writing workshop. So this has helped me carve out a time for this. I still need to work on the minilesson aspects but I think my kids are improving their writing and getting comfortable with writing. Usually everyday we do Read to self, Read to someone and work on writing. I try to carve out time for word work a couple of times a week. It took me a little while to figure out what would work for me and my class. I use a menu for word work. This has worked the best for me. The kids have several different options to choose from and it helps them from always picking the computer or the ipad. I took a few pictures this week during word work to share with you.

 These students are working on magnetic letters. They have the spelling word list and they build the words with the letters. I worked this summer on organizing my letters.  I think it has helped as long as they put them back like they are supposed to. I just use pizza pans I bought at walmart for them to build the words on.

 This student is working on popcorn words 3 ways. This is from my Words that Pop Up Units on TPT. (Check them out here.) These units uses the sight words from the treasures reading series for first grade.

These two students are doing write the room. This is one of my kids' favorite things to do during word work. I have tried making several different ones based on the season. This past week they were working on ai/ay from my Spring is in the Air pack. I'm in love with the clipart in this path. It is so cute and springy.
I thought I had the file on my hard drive that has my menu. I'll have to add the freebie on Monday when I get back to school. I have one that shared earlier this year but that one didn't work too well for me. There were too many choices. So I've revamped it and now there are 8 choices. So it lasts a couple of weeks. This is what works for me.
How is daily 5 going in your room? I'm not sure when I go back to kindergarten next year if I'm going to go back literacy centers or what.

Multiple Meaning Words and a freebie.

Today was the 100th day of school. I had plans to post all about our 100 day activities but I had to go to a meeting in the middle of our celebration and didn't get things finished. So stay tuned and hopefully tomorrow we'll finish our activities and I'll get it posted.
Last week one of our skills in our reading series was multiple meaning words. I don't always follow exactly what is in the reading book. But multiple meaning words are part of common core so I started thinking about how to teach this. My one little word is intention and I'm trying to be a lot more intentional with my lessons. I've been trying to use resources I have to create better lessons. I have been using Brain Pop a lot more. This is the first year we've had a subscription to brain pop as a school and I'm loving it. There are some great videos but I couldn't find anything for multiple meaning words. So my next resource was my computer. I created a powerpoint presentation. I just used clip art from microsoft. The presentation has the word and then one picture showing that is what the kids expect the word to mean. I asked them to think about other meanings of the word. Then with one click, you can reveal another picture of the word. I think I'm explaining too much. I'm sharing the file. Just click here to get the presentation.
Here's a picture of one of slides,

It's not super flashy but it was perfect for my class. I was really proud of how well the kids did coming up with different meanings of the words.

After we went over the presentation, I gave each student a piece of paper. They hot dog folded it and then cut three flaps to make a flip book. They picked three words and wrote and drew a picture showing the two meanings.

This was the first lesson on this topic. I think my next step is to see if the students have any words to add to the presentation and then have them write sentences using each meaning of the word. This was one of our tested skills on our weekly reading test and most of them did well with it. Do you have any tricks to teaching multiple meaning words? If you grab my powerpoint, leave me some love. It makes me smile that I can help other people. My store is still on sale until midnight tonight if you didn't get your shopping done yesterday.
I'm linking up with Classroom Freebies Manic Mondays. Be sure to check out all the other freebies.

Daily 5 Book Study

(Just a warning, the post is going to be a little rambly about my thoughts on daily 5)
I have been so slack in posting about the Daily 5.  I missed listening to reading and read to someone completely. I read the chapters and took notes on them but I never did get around to posting about them. I didn't really have much to add to what everyone else posted about the topics. I'm still working through all this is my head. I've sketched out schedules to make sure I can make this work. I think I am ready to give up control and let my students have a go at Daily 5 completely. I still have some questions about which things I want to teach whole group and what I want to teach in small groups. I'll have an assistant for most of the day so that will help with the small group part.
So here's what I'm looking at for a schedule for the upcoming year:
While I don't have my special times or my lunch time, I know that I'll have the mornings to do all my reading and language instruction.
8:00-8:30 - Morning Work time - What I'm thinking for this time is a writer's workshop type time here. We're going to journal time. I just bought Rachelle Smith's Journals through the year pack on TPT. I'm pretty excited about it. They will also have to answer the question of the day and take a bathroom break during this time.
8:30- Morning meeting - This time we go over rules, question of the day, morning message, and calendar. I need to try to squeeze in some language and grammar lessons using the morning message during this time. That's one of those areas I'm not sure what to do about with Daily 5.
8:50 - Minilesson #1 - This one will be a read aloud lesson that focuses on a comprehension skill. Then we will have round 1 of daily 5.
9:20 - Minilesson #2 - This one will be a phonics lesson or spelling. Maybe. I'm still trying to decide if I want to do this whole group or small group. Last year I did my phonics lessons small group and loved that. I'm not sure if I can swing individualized lists or not. I used Words Their Way when I taught in Nashville and liked it but when I looked into purchasing the book, my budget just couldn't take it right now. This is an area I'm still mulling over. Then we will have round 2 of Daily 5.
9:50 - Minilesson #3 This one will be writing and grammar. Then the 3rd round of daily 5.
10:20 Mini lesson #4 I want to still use some of the reading out of the basal so that will be this time. We will use our reading books during this time. Then they will have the last round of daily 5.
The order of the minilessons might vary. I'm not sure that it is important what goes where. During their group time, I'd like to work on phonics, spelling, writing, and reading workshop type lessons with small groups.
As I'm typing this, I'm starting to think maybe I'm completely crazy for trying this. Am I being too ambitious with this scheduling idea?
I realize too that this post isn't about working on reading or word work at all, yet. I feel like having activities for the kids to during that time, is the easy part. I use Deedee Wills's writing workstations and I also use some activities from Caitlin Clabby. She has a pack of writing center activities.

Then I've been working on word work activities to go with our reading series. We use Treasures. If you are interested in checking it out, I've finished unit 1 and am almost finished with unit 2. It's called Words that Pop Up. 
There's a freebie there. I like to use games where my students practice reading the word. Then I've included a variety of activities like a magazine hunt for the word and then popcorn words three ways. This is for high frequency words.
Last time I was in first grade, I had my students sort their spelling words, put them in alphabetical order, write with them. I think these activities that I asked them to do as a whole group would lend themselves to work work time as well. I'm seeing some spelling freebies in my future. I also reorganized my magnetic letters to make them easier to use. So I plan on having the kids use these as well.
Ok I guess I've rambled enough about my thoughts on Daily 5. I have a couple of other pieces of exciting news.
The first is my I just got my first Donor's Choose Project approved and posted. I'm super excited. If you are interested in making a donation, I would love it and so would my kids. The project is to provide my kids with a wider variety of non fiction texts on their levels. I discovered when I was organizing my books and making my classroom library more accessible to the kids. I was lacking in this area. Click here to see my project. If you have done several of these projects and you have some tips or suggestions for ways I can improve my project or get funding, please let me know I'm new to this and very excited about it!
The second exciting piece of news is my blogiversary is coming up next week. Tuesday July 24th to be exact. I've got some good friends helping me with a giveaway that will go up on Tuesday. I'm having a sale in my TPT store from July 24th -28th. Then starting on the 25th through the 28th, I'll be having a flash freebie each day. So be sure to follow me to get your freebies.
Let me know if my daily 5 ramblings made any sense. I'm liking up with Fabulously First. Be sure to check out the other posts on Daily 5.