Fun in PreK-1 & Kinder

I'm back from vacation and ready to roll after a fun week of hiking, free wine-tasting and poolside lounging!  :)  Just in case if you're new to the blog, here's how it works: Swing by the blog on Saturdays to snag a sweet free treat See a sneak peak of the Sunday Super Steal Deal item (or items) Super Steal Deals start on SUNDAY and last all week! Facebook Fans have an additional opportunity to win the Sunday Steal Deal (so make sure you're a fan!) Today's free treat comes from my two class book packs.  There are TWO covers (black and white/color options) and book-specific prompt pages to help your class start creating class books on Day One!  Click on either picture to snag your sweet freebie.  :) My kiddos love to create class books.  We usually make 1-2 per week (on Fridays when we have a shortened literacy block).  During this time I do a whole-class writing lesson, modelling my response first before letting them go ...

Welcome back to another blog post all about the new Daily 5!  This post is all about Chapters 3-4.  We are really getting into the meat of the book now! One thing I love about most about the Daily 5 Model (and there are many things!) is the gradual and structured release of responsibility.  If you follow the 10 Steps to Teaching and Learning Independence, most of your kiddos will catch right on and it will be smooth sailing from here on out.  Here they are! This whole process is grounded on what many of us know about memory.   Let's look at each step in detail! 1. Identify What Is to be Taught Right from the beginning it's important to create a lasting anchor chart (called an I-Chart) with the kiddos.  The first step (in the words of my college supervisors) is to set the objective.  This step outlines WHAT will you be teaching today and is written at the top of the I-Chart. You may be wondering what an I-Chart looks like...

I'm FINALLY getting around to linking up for the new Daily 5 book study!  I was lucky enough to attend a training by the two sisters last fall, so I got a sneak peak of some of the content and was able to use some of the info to manage my D5 Literacy Block last year.  I've been dying to read the new edition ever since.  On to Chapter 1! I LOVE this quote from Regie Routman at the opening of the chapter: This chapter details both the two sisters' journeys from their first years of teaching (aka seatwork), through centers and workshops to the newest version of Daily 5.  The current Daily 5 is a great management system for your literacy block and is structured so that children can independently engage in authentic reading and writing tasks.  It's flexible , easily differentiated , and incorporates student choice . The teacher, on the other hand, has more time to give individualized instruction and spends less time managing behavior. ...