The Daily 5....I need your help!!

I know that we have all heard of The Daily 5.  It is growing to be so popular among primary grades teachers. I have dabbled in it for several years now. I had not read the book by "The Sisters", but I had read a lot about it on blogs, and heard about it at some of the professional learning sessions provided by my district.   However, I have always been a bit intimidated by it, so I have only tried the parts that I was comfortable with.  I have decided that next year I am going to take the plunge and fully commit to the program.  That means that this summer I am reading the book.  I am also reading The Café Book.

I know that you train the students on Read to Self first....adding a minute or two each day until they reach the desired length of independent reading time. Now, this happens to be the part of Daily 5 that I have dabbled in and feel comfortable with.  I always train my students to read to self which takes a few weeks. Then, reality sets in. It is almost September!!  I have to complete DRAs( the reading assessment used by my district), because they are usually due sometime at the beginning of September.  I also start feeling the pressure to start Guided Reading groups because we are required to report a reading level each month from a running record.  Well, I won't have a running record score if I don't start guided reading.  AHHH...I am feeling stressed just thinking about it!! So we move on...I start guided reading, we get in a routine, and I never teach the other components of The Daily 5. 

So, I need advice from all of you experienced Daily 5 users.  How long does it usually take to train students on ALL components? How do you balance training students on all components with the demands that come with the beginning of the year?  What tips do you have for me????

HUGE Blog-a Versary Giveaway!

Hey guys!!  I hope everyone is having a great summer!  I certainly am:)  I am enjoying sleeping late and staying up late too! I am also hoping to use the summer to catch up on blogging, and creating some new products for TPT!!  

I wanted to let you guys know about something super exciting coming up!  Christina Bainbridge is having a giveaway to celebrate her 2 year blog-a-versary!   There are TONS of goodies in this giveaway!  There have been over 100 items donated to this giveaway including products from TpT and even some gift certificates!!  I am so excited to be participating in this giveaway!  Make sure to hop over to Christina's  blog to get all the details!  It starts on Monday, and you definitely don't want to miss it:) 

Teacher Appreciation Sale!!

There are so many things to be excited about during this time of the year. 

 

1. Summer is quickly approaching! There are only 13 days left of school in my district!!! 

 

2.The weather (except for this weekend) has been beautiful!! 



 

and last but not least.......

 

The Teachers Pay Teachers Teacher Appreciation Sale!!

 

 

I am so excited about this sale!!  I already have some items in my cart:) Teachers Pay Teachers is offering the 10% when you use the check out code TAD13. I will be offering an additional 20% for a total of 28% off everything in my store!! 

In addition, with any purchase of $5.00 or more from my Teachers Pay Teachers store from May 7th- May 8th you may choose any item from my store of equal or lesser value for FREE!!!  After you make your purchase, simply email me (britneycowart@yahoo.com) with your TpT username and order total.  Also include which item you would like for free!  I will then send it to you:)

Happy Shopping!!! 

New Product and a GREAT Deal:)

In second grade we spend an extensive amount of time of two areas: Place value and addition and subtraction strategies.  Common Core really allows us to teach these concepts in great depth.  Because this was my first year in second grade, it was the first year that I spent a great deal of time teaching addition strategies for the basic addition facts.  But, I really enjoyed teaching the unit. So, I put it together to share with you! 

This product is a four day unit.  The students learn strategies to solve the basic addition facts. Those strategies are doubles, double + 1, Make a ten, and counting on. Here are some things included in this unit:

-Four Lessons with hands-on activities

-Doubles Facts Posters with real world picture examples

-two games (Doubles Match, and Double + 1 Bingo)

-A Sorting Activity

-An addition chart to copy for students and/or to use as an anchor chart. As you teach the unit, you color code the addition chart. At the end, the students see that there is a strategy for every addition fact.

 

This unit is $6.00 and can be found on my TPT store .

I am also offering a very special deal: Purchase this item, and receive any other item of equal or lesser value from my store for FREE!  Here is how it works: Purchase this item.  Email me (britneycowart@yahoo.com) with your TPT username and the item that you would like for free!  I must receive your email by Monday at Midnight in order for you to receive a free item. 

 

Have a great Sunday!!

My New Favorite Thing

Ok, I am a little torn.  I want to share something wonderful with you. It is a fabulous FREE website that a teacher from my school discovered and shared with us.  BUT, the selfish side of me doesn't want to share it because I am afraid that if it gets too popular, it might not be free anymore!! 

But, I will share anyway:)    I. AM. IN. LOVE. The website is   www.scootpad.com. Have any of you heard of this?!? It is wonderful.  When I started browsing around the website and saw all that you can do with it, I thought to myself, "There is no way that this is free!!" But it is. Totally free.

Basically, you create an account using your email address (and they don't send you tons of emails, which I was also worried about).  You register each of your students.  Then, the students are given a username and password.  When the students log on they go through a series of math and reading lessons.  All of the lessons are aligned with common core! The questions are challenging, and they are not all multiple choice!  I love that!  Some of the questions even have students explain their thinking!  The program does not allow the students to move on to the next lesson until they have scored 80% or more on the lesson. 

Everything that I have mentioned is wonderful, right??? It is free, they don't send you emails, the students are given challenging questions that make them think and are aligned with common core.  But, that is not even the best part! 

This website provides the teacher with wonderful data.  Here is a picture from the "Reports" section of my page.  As you can see it tells you the number of students that have met the target in math and reading ( I haven't gotten too many of my students on yet.  I have only tested it out with a few).

You can also look at data for each concept/standard. This picture shows my class data for each math concept.

 

You can even review specific student data by concept!  



I have thoroughly enjoyed this website, and just wanted to pass it along:) 

It has been a while.....

Hey guys!  So, it has been a while since I last updated!  I hope that everyone is having a happy new year so far!  Since it has been sooooo long since I posted, I wanted to have a giveaway! I will be giving away two products to three lucky winners! 

Valentine's Day is right around the corner!  So, the first product in this giveaway is my Valentine's Measurement and Line Plot Graphing Activity.   

 

I have created a measurement and line plot activity for.every.holiday!  They have been a huge hit: at my TpT store) 

This pack includes: 

• Valentine Owls for the students to measure
• A table, line plot graph, and questions to complete based on the measurement data.
• A set of differentiated worksheets to use for additional assessments.

The next product that I am giving away is a Snowman Geometry and Graphing Activity. 





For this activity the students create a snowman, decorate it with different polygons, and then graph the number of each polygon that they used on their snowman. My kids had a lot of fun with this activity:) 

To enter my giveaway, just comment on this post with your email address.  I will choose THREE winners on Monday January 14!  Good Luck!  

Produt Swap

 

I am so excited about the 2nd Product Swap! The last one that we had was a lot of fun! I loved looking at all of the amazing products that people have created! So, let's get started! 

 

I had the privilege of reviewing a product from Cassandra.

 

 

She has such a fun blog!  You should definitely check it out! 

 

She also has some really great items in her TPT store!  I chose her Halloween Literacy Super Pack.

 

 

There is a lot included in this pack! 

 

There are Halloween themed writing prompts, really cute writing paper, and words on a ghost template.  You could have these ghost words at a writing center, and the students can choose these good, interesting words to use in their writing. 

 

 

Also Included included are:

 

*Two acrostic poem templates

 

*Making Words (Students make as many words as they can from the words "Halloween Night"

 

*Two recipes to make with your class (kids always LOVE that....they are engaged right away if they know your are making a recipe)

 

*How to writing template for students to complete after you make the recipe.

 

 

You should definitely check out this amazing product:)  You can pick it up from her store by clicking here.  Normally this product is only $3.50, but it will be on sale today! 

 

Don't forget to check out her blog by clicking on the links above!! 

 

Happy Browsing:)