I am LOVING Daily 5!!
By January things are running so nicely.
The kids know the routine, they enjoy their work and their progress is evident!
We have all 5 areas up and running... towards the end of December, I began wondering if my students could do more while completing Word Work.
Lory made a decision (not against the Sisters...at all!!!)
I decided to push my little ones a bit more during this specific area of Daily 5.
I determined 12 various skills that I wanted my students to practice daily and then created activities and an independent assignment they could complete in 15 minutes (during Word Work). The 12 skills I decided with are:
nouns
verbs
antonyms
synonyms
contractions
compound words
prefixes
suffixes
ABC Order
Syllables
adjectives
Plurals
I purchased 12 storage boxes at Walmart (about 7x9) just the right size.
I place a skill activity inside each box and labeled it.
To save paper, I created the independent assignments into a booklet form. This "book"let stays in their book box. When they choose this particular Daily 5, they complete the activity and then pull out their booklet to complete. If time permits they can redo the activity or read a book from their book box. 15 mintues has been about perfect! A couple kids didn't finish their booklet assignment and so the next day, they picked the same box. They were much quicker completing the hands on activity... so they were able to complete the booklet the 2nd day. I felt okay with that. We've been working on the centers since Christmas break and we have really enjoyed them. I must admit, I thought they might grumbled that they missed the fuzzy balls, stamps, stickers, wiki sticks, etc. Not one student said ANYTHING like that!! They have really enjoyed them and I feel relieved that they are getting a bit more practice with these skills.
I'd love to hear what your Word Work looks like 1/2 way through the year.