The Daily Five...In Action

With a brand new school I have decided to introduce a brand new reading structure in the classroom.  This structure removes all of the guesswork from the children concerning classroom routines and procedures and allows them to concentrate fully on learning.

The structure I have introduced is called the “Daily Five”. Soon your child will be talking about “The Daily Five” at home. This literacy structure teaches independence and gives children the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading and writing. It consists of five tasks that are introduced individually.

• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Listen to Reading
• Work on Writing
• Word Work

When introduced to each task, the children discuss what it looks like, sounds like,
and feels like to engage in the task independently. Then, the children work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while doing that task.

When all five tasks have been introduced and the children are fully engaged in reading and writing activities, I am able to work with small groups and confer with children one on one. This structure is proven effective, the results are amazing, and the children really look forward to Daily Five time. Ask your child about Daily Five and see what he/she has to say. I anticipate your child will tell you about the class stamina, how we are working towards independence, and maybe you will even hear about some of the fantastic things your child has written, read, or listened to during our structured reading time (www.dailycafe.com).

Here are a few pictures of our "Read to Self" time as we are building our stamina to read independently.