Birthday Giveaway Winner and Daiy 5

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

I used a Random Number Generator to select the winner of my Birthday Giveaway (Yes, I know about Rafflecoptor, but it was just one more thing on the computer I had to figure out!!). So, I decided to do it the old fashioned way and was going to print out the comments, cut them apart and have one of my boys pull the lucky winner out of a hat:)  BRAINSTORM at midnight:  use a random number generator!  Much better thank waking a sleeping tiger up at midnight and who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!! 


So I headed back to the comments to check out number 4 and the winner is...(drum roll please)


So let's switch gears to the final chapter of Daily 5:  Pulling it all together and troubleshooting.  The sisters discuss checking in, scheduling, assessment, room arrangement and interruptions.  For me, scheduling was the problem.

During our reading block, our first grade team switches students for reading intervention groups (this will be a future post) for 30 minutes which leaves us with 90 minutes to cover our Harcourt reading series, Daily 5 and the Common Core.  I kept reading through the chapter to see if the Sisters addressed the number of rotations we should get through a day, etc.  To me, I want my kids reading and writing daily but this might not be the case if they have choices and you only get through 3 centers. 

I found an answer to my problem in the last past of the chapter that was titled:  I teach 5th grade.  How can I adapt the Daily 5 for older students?  OK, REALLY?  I almost skipped over this section, but continued to read.  The Sisters said that intermediate classrooms may split up their writing and reading blocks.  BINGO!  This is the answer to my problem.  We will have 3 rotations in the morning reading block which will include Read to Self, Read to Partner and Listen to Reading.  In the afternoon, we will continue with our writing block which will include Work on Writing, Word Work and perhaps a Science/Social Studies  activity or experiment.  I still need to workout the details of that. 

I have to say that I am so EXCITED now!  I feel like I had not committed to do Daily 5 the Sisters' way until now!  I could not wrap my brain around the time constrains and getting everything in.  I'm in!

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