Daily 5 Update

Daily 5 Update....

So its the end of Week 3 Term 3 and I have my Daily 5 programme up and running.  Its been a hard few weeks to get it going but already I am loving the results.  I was away from work a couple of days of week 1, then had a course to attend in week 2, and 3 way conferences this week.  BUT I stuck with it and feel really proud of the results.
I actually found it very slow to kick off.  I was really enthusiastic about wanting it up and running in my class and really just wanted to click my fingers and it be running smoothly.  However I knew that it would take a bit of work both for me and for the children.  I started with just introducing the Read to Self and only did a few minutes each time.  The children love the idea of building up our stamina and I have found using a chart to record this has really been successful.   When I talked to the children about building stamina I said it was like me asking them to go outside and run 50 laps of the school field and that there was no way any of us could do that.  But just like the Olympic athletes if we train our bodies and do a little bit every day we will be able to build up to the 50 laps.  I introduced IPICK and the class were able to pick their own books for their Daily 5 boxes from my own huge basket of old books.  I will need to collect myself some more books which I will probably head to some garage sales to see what I can find.  We do have a limit of how many we can get out from our school library and I don't really use the public library for class books as the fees are too much if a book should go missing.  We have been reflecting as a whole class each day after doing the Daily 5.  We talk about what's working really well and also what might work better.  The children have really enjoyed the role playing of the right way to do things and also we have had a lot of class laughs when children role play the wrong way.
As the days went on I introduced Read To Someone and Listen to Reading.  Our class iPads have been a fantastic resource for Listen to Reading.  The children are using the MeeGenius App at the moment and are able to read themselves or be read to.   On the last two days of this week I have run a guided Daily 5 rotation in 10min blocks.  The children were coping really well with this and would often say they didn't have long enough especially when checking for understanding when Reading to Someone.  This made me smile when they said that because I could tell that they are really getting into Daily 5 and enjoying what they are doing.  I do find it hard to adjust the amount of people doing Read to Someone so that we have an even number, however on Thursday when we did have an uneven number, one of the children read to our class kiwi (soft toy).  I hope to introduce the Word Work and Work on Writing in the next couple of weeks.  I have not introduced the CAFE yet because I haven't got the book (it's still on its way from England) so watch this space for an update on how I go with that.  This morning I missed a #d5chat on twitter, but I have found out that these run every Saturday at 12.00pm our time so I am looking forward to joining in on that and sharing ideas with other teachers from around the world.  There is also another teacher from my school who has started to run the programme in her class and I think that will be good so we can bounce ideas off each other.

I use this iPad app for Listen to Reading

A few pictures of my class doing Read to Someone.

Pinterest and Daily 5

I joined up on Pinterest some time ago now and didn't really get the jist of it.  But as with Twitter if you hang in there and spend some time on it you will finally realise what an amazing place it is.  As I said in my last post I have been wanting to change my Literacy block in my class and I had this idea of setting up a new Literacy centre.  So I went to Pinterest and was amazed at all the different ideas.  I came across several pins about The Daily 5 and it really took my interest.  After reading several blogs people have written about it I decided that it was a perfect fit for what I have been looking for, for my Literacy block. 

First step I needed to get the book called "The Daily 5" by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (The Sisters). Amazon had it  online but it was going to take ages to get here so I ordered it on Kindle. (my first ever online book).  It was fantastic, didn't cost that much and I had it at my finger tips in a few minutes BUT I have since found out that I am a person that needs the book in front of me, I like to turn pages and go back and read something again and mark them, so I will probably buy the book anyway.

With what I have read so far and all the helpful blogs, tweets and pins on Pinterest I have been able to set up my classroom ready to give it a go at the start of term 3.  I want to make sure that I do a good job so am only starting out with the 'Read to Self' part and will work my way through the rest. 

I have spent a fair few days in my class over the holidays trying to get it sorted so I am really hoping all that work will pay off.  I plan to use my 4 ipads as part of the Daily 5 and can see them being used for 'Listening to reading' and 'Word Work'. 

Here are a few photos from around my class.

Writing Table with my new Pencil!

What writers write pencil - Thanks for the idea from Pinterest

Old ipad boxes put to good use for my individual reading boxes which contain books and journal for Read to Self.

Daily 5 wall all set to go.

A close up of the Daily 5 Wall.

My new reading corner, trying to make little separate spaces in my class.

Another idea from Pinterest, Book covers with a blurb in the back.

More book covers.

A Weekend on Twitter....

Over the last 5 weeks I have had a student teacher in my classroom.  During this time she has had several days of full control.  This has been a fantastic time for me to be in my classroom as an observer and watch how my classroom works, including things such as...

- Transitions
- Literacy Time
- Maths Time
- How we are using elearning in the class
- Where children sit
- How they are working independently 


I have really valued this time and now have a very busy school holidays coming up, planning for a new Literacy Centre in my classroom.  I want elearning to be intergrated in my classroom, so I know that part of the Literacy centre will include digital learning of some description.  Thats where Twitter comes in...
I have had a classroom twitter account (@pinehill11) since last year and enjoy using it in our class with the children, Tweeting about things we have done.  However I recently started using my personal twitter account (@katesmith99) and I am amazed at how much information is available.  It has taken me a while to really get how Twitter works. But once you start following the right people, there is an endless supply of FANTASTIC ideas. To be honest some of it all seems a bit much, I feel way out of my comfort zone reading things that I don't really understand.  BUT there is also a lot that I do. I am still learning with Twitter, I think there is a certain amount of Twitter Etiquette that I still need get my head around, like thanking people for following and making sure I mention a person if I got something from them. I just need to remember some advice that I often give to children, 'keep trying and you will get better'
So keep watching this space and I will share what I put together....

Show Me App

I was introduced to the Show Me app a couple of weeks ago and I love it!One of the biggest things for me about having an ipad in the class is that I want to make sure that I am using it for the right purpose, not just playing games to keep kids busy.  The Show Me app has shown me (excuse the play on words) a fantastic way that I can get groups of kids to share their learning with me, when I am not actually working with them.  Last week we were learning about money.  Some children had been working independently in a group to find out how many different ways they could make 80 cents.  When they were finished I set them a task of using Show Me to tell me what they had been doing.  We quickly went over using Show Me again and I sent them off to a quiet place to start recording.  Here are some examples...

My First Post...

I have made some changes in my teaching and tried some new things in the last year.  I have decided that I should keep a track of what I am doing and what I've done.  It might be fun to look back on this in a few years time and see how far I have come. 

It all started because I could see that schools were making a move to to digital learning. Actually not only schools, in general life as well.  Facebook and twitter...there was so much talk about them, everywhere I went.  Then I purchased my own iphone...and haven't looked back :)   

I have always felt that reflection is a very powerful tool in life, in my personal life raising 3 children as a single parent and also in my work life.  So....let the journey begin and lets see what happens.....