Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 3

Welcome to week three of The Daily 5 book study...our host this week is Mrs. Freshwater's Class.

This week's shared reading: What's the Difference?: Key Materials, Concepts, and Routines For Launching the Daily Five

What "rings" true for you in this chapter?


Book boxes!!! Thanks to generous donations through DonorsChoose.org, I got these fabulous book boxes...that replaced our dumpster-diving teacher-created recycled cardboard boxes. You would have thought it was Christmas when they arrived in early October!! We just love 'em! Plus, they held up when they were dropped repeatedly accidentally on the way to the 6th grade portables for buddy reading.

beautiful, new book boxes

I think it's important for each student to have their "own" place to keep their books. If they have books at home, they're kept in the closet, under the bed, or in a box. And you know they fill their book boxes with high-interest books of their choosing...and a few more from me, too, for good measure.

cardboard recycling at its best

Signals...need I say more? When I first read this book last summer, I fell in love with the idea of tabletop chimes...they're melodic and not as harsh-sounding as a bell. I want to get their attention, but not jar them like an alarm - that's what the fire alarm is for, right? Think about coming out of Shavasana after yoga...you would be startled if your teacher rang a bell, wouldn't you? It would kind of defeat the whole relaxation thing. My lovely chimes are at school, so sorry, no picture...

How are your students progressing with picking appropriate books?

Do you have a system in place for when your students choose good-fit books? Do you have certain groups pick books on certain days? I've kinda just let my students go book-shopping whenever they ask. I thought about having them "shop" on certain days, but then we have so many holidays on Mondays and Fridays or one of my kiddos wants new books after a couple of days...and who says no to that? Here are two super cute I-Pick signs I found:

from Casey McArdle

from Frogs and Cupcakes 

To help my kiddos with selecting appropriate books on their reading level, I found these amazing Five Finger Test bookmarks...and they keep one...or two, or seven...in their book box. And since they l-o-v-e bookmarks, it's a win-win.

click here for your copy

What (if anything) could help improve the processes from this chapter in your classroom?

One big question that still lingers is...what do I put in my students' book boxes so that we can start Read-to-Self on the very first day of school? Well, I thought that since I always do a quick review of my students' cumulative folders from Kinder, I can see their end-of-year DRA scores. That way I know what reading level they ended on the previous year and start from there.

I'm going to put a couple of books from the level below, the same level, and one level above their DRA score so that they have a range. Then, after we have modeled our just-right shoe lesson, they can add more books of their liking.

What were your ah-ha moments in this chapter?  I would love to hear your thoughts about how you prepare for your first lesson!

Don't forget to join Mrs. Freshwater's Class and Jan from Reading and Thinking Out loud for the blog hop!