Daily 5 Part 1

I started Daily 5 in 2011 and I feel like I am now comfortable enough to blog about it and how I started out. When I first started Daily 5 I was completely lost, I had no idea where to start or what to do. But then I discovered Pinterest, Oh My Word! I was in Education Heaven!  I found the Daily 5 for Dummies compiled by Jayne Haenel. Click the picture to grab your copy. It has instructions for the first 20 days of the daily 5 with CAFE instructions also. It's an awesome resource and it has truly helped me kick start Daily 5 in my classroom. ***UPDATE: I found a website where you can download it for free, just click here or click on the picture.

Daily 5 asks to incorporate 5 individual anchor charts on how the stations are supposed to look like. You fill out the anchor charts with your students. Once all the anchor charts are filled out it is suggested to keep these anchor charts up throughout the year so students can refer back to them and remember the "rules."

My classroom is in a portable and I have limited space, so having all 5 anchor charts up was taking up so much valuable space. I still plan to fill out my anchor charts in the beginning of the school year because it helps introduce Daily 5 to the students. I love how Mrs. Lemons has her anchor charts ready to be used for this school year. I plan on making mine look just like this. Thanks Mrs. Lemons!!!

After having the anchor charts up for about 3 weeks or so I will exchange all 5 posters for ONE anchor chart. This anchor chart will stay up through out the year saving me wall space. 

Once my students have mastered the rules of daily 5 they are ready to start their stations. I group my students according to their reading levels. My students to do not get to choose which station they would like to work on. I have a system that I use that tells them which station they are to work on. I put Velcro behind the labels and names so I can switch them around when necessary. 

You can download the station labels for free here.

I strongly suggest you start off by reading the Daily 5 book by "The Sisters" during the summer just to get your feet wet and get a better understanding of what Daily 5 is all about.