Daily 5 and Cafe and Storytown

Well the school year is well under way! I am now 4 weeks in! I have to say that my class is the best I have ever had! They are very sweet and hard workers. It doesn't hurt any that I only have 20 kiddos (last year I had 28!)

Anyway, we have been practicing our Daily 5 procedures and they love it! We have covered Read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone and Work on Writing. We are adding Listen to Reading next week! I have been trying and retrying a few different schedule approaches. I thought that I would share my current plan for all of the upper elementary teachers out there trying to figure this out like me!

I have decided to use my basal reader a little bit this year. I have not used it much in the past and decided to give it a try this year. One of my teammates has been using hers and has so many great ideas to go with it! I am excited to use her great activities in my room as well. Our school has the Harcourt "Storytown" series. So, I have been trying to figure out how to use Daily 5, Cafe, Storytown, and all of the cutesy lessons that I find online.

My Cafe board and meeting area!

Here is my plan as of today:

(I have an hour and 50 minutes for reading time.)

15 minutes: Teacher Read-Aloud (usually a historical fiction novel to go with our current Social Studies curriculum.)

10 minutes: Mini Lesson on our focus reading skill of the week (example: conflict/resolution)

20 minutes: Read to Self (I make my class all do Read to Self at the same time so that the room is silent.)

10 minutes: Mini Lesson on one of our Cafe strategies (example: choosing "good fit" books)

20 minutes: Choice of Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, or Word Work

10 Minutes: Mini Lesson on our Writing Skill of the week (example: subject/predicate)

20 minutes: Work on Writing (I make my class all do Work on Writing at the same time, once again, so it is quiet.)

5 minutes: Share time (my class this year LOVES to share their writing.)

Just a few other details- my class is sooo good at Read to Self! I even had a teacher that stopped me today and said that he saw through my window that my class was reading silently, and they were actually reading! He said, "They were actually reading and seemed to be enjoying it! What's the secret?" He wanted to know how he could do it too! They slowly built up their stamina and it has paid off greatly!

As far as incorporating my Storytown series:We will review vocabulary during the second mini-lesson on Mondays and then I will read aloud the story to them. I plan on reading the story of the week on during the choice time. They can then use the same story during Read to Someone on one of the other days of the week. I also will use the Storytown assessment on Friday during Read to Self, so that when they are done with the test they can go straight into reading their own book. I think that this layout will allow me some structure on my skill of the week as well as give some solid assessment data to base their Cafe goals off of. 

Does anyone else use all 3? I would love to hear how others use them.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Writing Test

Hello all! I have not blogged in waaaayyy too long! Can you say busy??

Well anyway, my 5th graders recently took their state writing test. I wanted to share with you some cute little snacks that I provided them with. I find that food is very comforting to everyone and helps ease their nerves. My kiddos always get really nervous before the writing test (as do I). I think it is because we don't know what the topic will be so I worry that I haven't prepared them properly and they worry they won't know what to write. So all of that to say, I provided a few snack for them as they came in that morning.

The first one is juice to help them remember "juicy" details in their writing. 

-I teach the kids to use "juicy" or detailed words all year long.

Next, I gave them Cheerios! This was so they knew I was "cheer"ing them on to success.

Last, I gave them Chex mix. This was to remind them that a good writer "chex" their work when they are done.

Here is a picture of the snacks all displayed for them as they came in the morning of the writing test. They were very pleasantly surprised!

So do you provide snacks on testing days? I would love to hear what other teachers do!

Snow Days and Writing Ideas

Well, no school for 4 days in a row makes it difficult to prepare for the upcoming writing test! However, I have had time to get all caught up on grading and house work.

Speaking of writing, here are some of the ways that I prepare my students for the writing test:

- 4 Square Writing: A great organization method that allows the students to lay out their writing into manageable parts.  They make a book that has everything you need for upper and lower grades.

-Creative Writing: My students do a lot of creative writing that we integrate into other subjects. We do letters from the perspective of people from history, alphabet books for different topics in science and social studies (like space and the American Revolution.) Another creative writing idea is to let your students create their own books. They can do this a variety of ways. One way that my school has started using is Student Treasures. With this company, your students can make their very own books that come back with a hard-back cover for free! It is time-consuming for them to work on them, but fantastic to see how excited they are when they get them back. Here is a link to that company's website: http://www.studentreasures.com/

- Bing, Bang and Bongo: A great technique to make a five-paragraph essay easy to create. Here is a link to a great PowerPoint that will help you introduce the concept. alex.state.al.us/uploads/27732/Howtowritea5paragraphessay.ppt


-Writing Workshop: This is a way to teach writing in which you do a mini lesson for the skill of the day and then let your students work on their writing. Each student may be working on something different. The important thing is to let students work at their own pace because we all write at a different rate. While students are working, the teacher has individual meetings with students to discuss their writing and what they need to work on. Here is a link to a great reading and writing workshop approach website: http://quest.carnegiefoundation.org/%7Edpointer/jennifermyers/workshopapproach.htm

Well that is all for today! Have a great weekend and stay safe on the icy roads.