Daily Five

So most of us are probably around 2-3 months away from being done with school (too long or too short?)...but I thought I would share how I use Daily Five in my classroom just to provide an idea for maybe next school year?

So prior to Daily Five, I had been doing 30 minute workshop time using a "May Do" and "Must Do" list. That worked out fine and dandy and kids were learning independency and getting work done. However, I also really wanted to try out all the awesome centers I had seen on the many teacher blogs I follow. I just wanted sure how to fit it all in my already tight schedule. A former Master Teacher from my graduate program had recommended Daily Five as a way to structure my workshop time. Over the summer, I read the book and jotted ideas down as to how I could fit Daily Five into my schedule.

In the end, I came up with Daily 5+2. I don't have a picture of my board but there are basically the original Daily Five "rotations" (as I call it) plust two more: Work with Teacher and Work on Computer. Every day, table groups (assigned by color) would be assigned a rotation to do. They get 15 minutes to work on their rotation and 15 minutes to Read to Self. This way, everyone has a chance to read. I don't require them to do one or the other first, they just have to get both done by the time the two rotations are over. This month, I decided to change things up a bit and replaced "Read to Someone" with "Work on Math" to give the kids some more independent time with Math. Here's a current picture of my board with the change:

Forgive the missing sign. It's supposed to be Word Work.

So now the question is, how to incorporate centers? Well, I categorized all the centers/activities I had gathered under a specific Daily Five rotation and made a checklist that includes all the things I want them to get done. The checklist is created monthly and everything is organized in each students' Daily Five folder.

Now I don't want to make this entry TOO long so I'm going to stop here but come back tomorrow to find out more about the checklist and Daily Five folder!!! :)