Daily 5 in Kindergarten

I get a lot of questions about how I implement Daily 5 in Kindergarten and when I start.  DAY 1!  Since I'm about a week in I thought this was a good time to share a little bit about how our days are going so far..... 

I can not tell you how wonderful it is to get your kiddos working independently.  It is hard to get it going (I won't sugar coat it) but once you get it rolling you can do ANYTHING! 

This is the key to everything! 

First off we introduce Read to Self.  I start with how to read a book 3 ways (and we focus on reading the pictures).  It gets everyone ready to read, otherwise you have a room full of doubters.  I read A Ball for Daisy to show them they can read without reading words at all! 

We practice Read to Self on the very first day.  I place them around the room and we read for 2 to 3 minutes. When we come back together we talk about what we noticed and put it on our chart. 

 That's just about it for Read to Self every single day for a couple of weeks.  Talk about the importance of reading, why we do it everyday, and then practice it every day! 

Next up: Word Work 

I keep it SUPER SIMPLE!  I just want them to go to these centers independently every single day.  I make them fun and easy at the start so they are motivated to do them. 

Before they get a center they have to complete one of these: 

I created these to align with our reading curriculum so I could make sure I was introducing all the concepts I needed to for a week.  Of course these start out really simple, but later we are focusing on sight words, writing sentences, and grammar concepts.  

 Here it is in my store! Click HERE to see it!

Once they complete this I give them a stamp (or sticker, or star drawn with a marker) and they go to their independent station. 

Today we introduced Read to Someone.  AMAZING!

They loved going to a spot to read with their friend.  And we when came back together to create our anchor chart one of my littles said it was fun because her partner HELPED her.  Swoon!  Exactly what I wanted to hear! 

So THAT'S how I do Daily 5 in my room in the first few days.  Here's the biggest hint.  READ THE BOOK!  I hear about so many people wanting to "do" Daily 5 and they've never read the book!  GASP!  The 2 Sisters are truly innovators in their field and they know their stuff.  Read from the experts.  I reread the book every single summer to get myself in gear to relaunch Daily 5 in my room.  For the first few weeks when my kiddos are practicing Read to Self I am reading the book.  Seriously.  It's a must!

Thanks for stopping by today.  If you haven't read Daily 5 you can get it on Amazon HERE.  I've also read CAFE and use that too, but that's a post for another day.  I have a hard copy (actually 2!) and a copy on my Kindle too.......and the 2nd edition too.  I'm telling you, it will change your life!  Good luck getting started!