Daily Five Literacy Rotation

      I introduced math rotations a few weeks ago and it has been going well, so I thought it was time to introduce the reading/writing version. The students handled it so well. They did not want to rotate out of some of the stations, and I might get to the point where we truly do the daily 5 where they can choose how long they spend in a centre but for now, 15-20 minutes is how long each rotation lasts. During the summer I won a management system from the awesome Ashlyn Ellsworth  and I use that to help my students know what station to go to.  There are 4 stations that the students rotate though, and the only one missing is "Listen to Reading". I may add that one in, as we have an awesome app for reading that I want to introduce. 

This is a picture of my rotation boards. Green and orange is math and yellow and teal is reading. You can buy a copy here

So in our rotations we go through: Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Read to Someone. We use the acronym R.E.A.D. 

R is: Read to Self

In this station, students read to themselves and fill in a sticky note using a bookmark I adapted from Pinterest. They read and when they come to a part they want to respond to, they draw a symbol on their sticky note and leave it in their book, at the end of the session they put their sticky note into their reading response journal and write a sentence or two about what the sticky note is about. So for example if they draw a heart on their sticky, that means that they liked that part of the story. then in their journals, they write down what they liked. Some of them got it, but we will keep trying.

The E is: Exploring words

In this station students sort their words (we are using Words their Way this year for the first time) and then they do a word activity. In our first rotation we did rainbow words. 

A is for At Your Seat Writing: 

For this station the students were either working on finishing their fractured fairytales, or writing in their free-write journals. (I love how she was writing).

Finally, the D is for Duo Reading or partner reading: 

I have a few bins of books that I have put 2-3 copies of the same book in, and they can choose what books to read with a partner during this station. Eventually I will add in a response element but for now, reading together is our main goal.

I was so proud of how well they did, I can tell that last years teachers did some Daily 5 stuff, and the ones that didn't, those students caught on quickly. I am really enjoying how quickly most of them adapt and just get into the flow of the routines and expectations, and that I can trust that the majority of them are doing what they are supposed to do. It has been a great start to the year! 

Word Work Activities

I introduced our word work activities today! We rotated through them like centers because I think that before they can use manipulatives for "educational purposes"  kids need a chance to play with them. Some of the centers allow for more play then others, but I did not have a specific skill or concept they had to focus on.

 Students used their week one word list from our spelling program and scrabble tiles to practice the words. They also made their names and other words they knew.

Students used wiki stix to make words, stick men, flowers, etc.

Similar to the other two stations, the used the foam letters to build words and made up a song when they found a sticky J in the mix! haha

Students used letter stamps to stamp words, their names, and a butterfly that they found in there for some reason....

I bought this game, BRAND NEW from a garage sale this summer for $5! It has word cubes inside with word chunks, blends, and individual letters. Students are encouraged to make words, but some of the weaker readers and writers decided to put the blocks together randomly. We will revisit this one, and use it during small group instruction.

The last station was Spellmaster. Its an older game where students choose a card with pictures on them, they find the letters to write the word that goes along with the picture. So if there is a picture of a cake the have to spell cake.

Most of these stations will be Word Work choices as we launch our full fledged Daily 5 in October!