During the Daily Five, the kindergartners practice Five Essential Skills for becoming great independent readers and writers.

1. The students will learn to sit quietly and Read to Self. Since day one, the class has been learning that there are  3 ways to read a book: Read the Pictures, Read the Words, and Retell the story.

2. The students will Work on Writing. This is an extra writing time in addition to the Writer’s Workshop, that is conducted at least 3x a week.  This extra time allows the students to add more details to their pictures or stories from Writer’s Workshop, write a letter to a friend or create a book.

3. The students will also learn to Read to Someone (commonly known as Buddy Reading).  During this time, they will take turns listening and summarizing and reading out loud.

4. The students will Listen to Reading at the Listening Center.  They will listen to books on tape/CD and will follow along in the book or listen.  The children will also read along with stories on the computer at sites like starfall.com and tumblebooks.com.

5. In addition to all of the above, the students will also do Letter and Word Work. First graders can now  read and make words when they know the letters and corresponding sounds. They also know many  sight words.  Letter and Word Work is conducted through magnetic letters, whiteboards and markers, yarn, wiki stix and reading rods.

The Daily 5 starts out as a small piece in our morning activities.  Over the year, the time spent on task increases as the students fully understand all five components and their expected behavior in each area.  The students ultimately become responsible for choosing their own reading and writing materials by the end of the year.  While the students are working independently at these 5 activities, the teacher is circulating around the room listening to students read, helping with their word work, and conferencing with students on writing.

Information taken from: mrsalsup.com/the-daily-five.html