Wednesday December 7

On Wednesday  James Edgar came into our classroom to introduce us to the two telescopes he will be using for our Star Night! James taught the students about some of the characteristics of light as well as how light is used and reflects inside a telescope! The students were excited when they saw the telescopes and had amazing question for James. Through their discussion with James the students became even more excited about our Star Gazing Night! Check out the telescopes James brought and we hope to see you on the Tuesday night! :)

December 8 Agenda Message

Remember the $2.00 for our food hampers are due tomorrow! Please remember to bring back your letter from the "Star Night" even if you are not attending.:)

December 7 Agenda Message

Rylan won second place in the Legion poetry contest!
Hot lunch forms are coming home.
Early dismissal is tomorrow.

Congratulations Rylan!

Rylan should be very proud of himself.  He won second place in our local Remembrance Day poetry contest.  Mr. Matthews came to our classroom today to present Rylan with his prize and congratulate him on his winning.  Congratulation Rylan!  Your hard work was recognized!!1  :o)

December 6 Agenda

Please see our blog for information about Daily 3 and remember to check the Just for Students section.

Dec.5 Agenda Message

New home reading sheets are coming home today. Please read and fill out the letter that is being sent home!:) Spelling words are in our Agenda's on the top!

Daily CAFE

This post is a continuation of our explanation of Daily 3 and Daily CAFE.  Please refer to the Daily 3 post first in order for this to make sense!  :o)

The Daily CAFE is the second part of our individualized reading program.  CAFE is an acronym standing for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanded Vocabulary.  The Daily CAFE program was also developed by the sisters.  Where Daily 3 is the way our class is organized, Daily CAFE is the way students set goals and are assessed.

Using students reading assessments from Fountis and Pinnell, the student and teacher together look at their reading and determine which aspect of reading (comprehension, accuracy, fluency, or expanded vocabulary) need to be focused on.  Students use magnets with their names on it and add their name under the goal they have chosen.

While the rest of the class is working on Daily 3, students are called to the back of the room to work independtly with the teacher.  I will not see every student every day, but instead will focus on working with 6-10 students during the hour of Daily 3.  The sisters advocate that not all students need equal individualized instruction from the teacher, but rather some need time to work through the strategies.  Other students may need more time with the teacher and therefore will meet with the teacher more frequently.

During their individual time, the student will bring their book basket with them.  We start the session by looking at what materials the student has in their basket.  We remove anything that needs to be taken out and refresh it with new materials if needed.  We check to see if library books chosen by the students are a good fit. 

Next, the student will read aloud from any book of their choice in their book basket.  I (or Miss Frick) jot down notes about what we are noticing about the students reading.  We then share this information with the students.  We discuss how our observations should guide our goal setting.  We set and record these goals in their independent reading log.  This log gives students a place to record what they are doing during our daily Read to Self times.

During their independent Read to Self time, students take a few moments to fill out information in their reading log.  This information is used during the next Daily CAFE time.




This student is working on Fluency.



This student is working on making prediction when reading to guide comprehension.



This student is working on accuracy.

When I notice that multiple students are all struggling with one skill, we explicitly teach that skill to either the whole class or to a group of students.  When we teach that skill we add to our Cafe menu items of things that we know how to do and should practice doing when we are reading.


When I or the student sees the need arise to work on a different goal, students will move their magnet to a different part of the CAFE menu.  The goals are continually changing as their reading abilities change.  After each Fountis and Pinnell assessment, I will meet with the students to make sure that our current goal is on target for what needs the assessment points out.

I am currently working on putting together information for parents that can be emailed home about how home can support reading using the goals and menu items discussed in class.  Stay tuned for that information!

Daily 3

We would like to share with you some pictures and explain to you how our reading instruction programs work.  Our Daily 3 program is based off the book The Daily 5 by Gail  Boushey and Joan Moser.  I had the chance to meet "the Sisters" as they are known in the education world a couple of years ago at a Saskatchewan Reading Conference.  They are dynamic speakers and quickly had me convinced that their program was a way that I would be able to effectively organize my language arts instructional time.  The five strands they focus on in the book are Listen to Reading, Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work and Work on Writing.  Their model dedicates equal time to each of these components.  In our classroom we do Read to Self at a separate time when the classroom can be silent.  Instead of doing the Listen to Reading during Daily 3, students have the opportunity to listen to the teacher model read a novel during Read Aloud sessions throughout the week.  That leaves us to focus on Read to Someone, Word Work and Writing Time.

Before beginning Daily 3 students are given very clear expectations about what they are to accomplish during each of the daily 3 times.  At this point in the year, students are very independent when working on Daily 3.  It was not always like this though.  For all of September and October students were very guided in their Daily 3 time.  As the sisters do, we talk in class a lot about stamina.  The students have practiced up until this point to have 15 minutes of stamina at each of the daily 3 stations.  Once all directions have been presented, student have time to ask questions and clarify.  It is important for them to have this time since during Daily 3 they must work as independently as possible.

After everyone is clear on what to do, students are called forward to choose their first Daily 3 task.  The sisters talk a lot about providing students choice, and trusting that they will make wise decisions about what needs to be done.  Although there is choice, each student will need to complete each of the three daily 3 tasks by the end of daily 3.  The magnets on the whiteboard help the students organize their choices and also allow the teacher to have a quick visual of who is doing what.

  As soon as a student has chosen their first task, they know from practice that they should quickly find the materials they need to begin their chosen task.  This requires the classroom to be very organized so that students are able to find what they need unassisted.

Students have book baskets ready to go.  Their baskets contain reading material that is at their level.  This material included books chosen by the teacher and books chosen by the student.  There is always one guided reading book in the basket that they have previously read.  Research by the sisters shows that rereading a familiar text can help students gain fluency when reading new text.



Here students are finding materials from our classroom library to add to their book baskets.



I have leveled all of the books in the classroom library to aid students in finding a book independently that would be at their appropriate guided reading level.  This helps them to choose an appropriate book quickly.  Using those texts we discuss what to look for when choosing our own books in the real world.  One "trick" is using the 5 finger rule.  If there are five words on a page that are unknown or tricky then the book may be too hard for independent reading.



Our SmartBoard plays an integral part of our Daily 3.  The timer on the board allows students a visual to keep them focused and time orientated.  Other needed information such as writing prompts or spelling can also be found on the SmartBoard.

Students must be able to work independently.  This works well into our spelling program which is worked on during Word Work Time.  All students practice and learn spelling from individualized lists.  After students have written a pre-test using teacher chosen lists from the Nelson Spelling program, students create a spelling list from incorrect words from their pretest along with words from their writing and from classroom words.  Pictured below are two students working on Word Work during Daily 3.  One student is finding classroom words for her spelling list.  Classroom words come from vocabulary in units the class is studying.  Another student is using his "Have-a-go" book.  This is a personal dictionary where students have recorded words they are having problems spelling in their every day writing.





Currently during Read to Someone students are working on Check for Comprehension.  In pairs, the students take turns reading aloud to one another.  The student who is listening must summarize what has been read to see if they were able to listen and comprehend at the same time.



During Writing Time students work on a variety of things including journal prompts, good copies of assignments, cursive writing or writing projects while working through the writing process.

Because there are so many things going on at once, it is very important that students are on task.  Our classroom looks very busy during Daily 3.  Students may be working at the SmartBoard, on the floor, at their desk, in pairs, individually or with the teacher.  Although it looks very busy, all students are focused, on task and accomplishing what they need to.

Because everyone has practiced the routines and procedures of Daily 3, students are able to work with minimal interruptions to the teacher.  This allows the teacher and a student to work on Daily CAFE!

Check back tomorrow for a continuation of this post and information about the Daily CAFE.

Dec.2 Agenda Message

Make sure you are ready to present your Music on Monday  :)