Daily 5 Chapter 4!

Hello Kinder Friends,

I am excited to share with you the Daily 5 Chapter on Read to Self. To me this one of the easiest parts of the Daily 5 and it sets the stage for developing true independent readers. I will be linking this post up with Mrs. Miner so hop on over there and read what other teachers saying about this chapter when you are finished here.

Read to Self is something that is easily incorporated into the first week of school. It really only seems natural in order to set the stage for the year. Learning the steps to teach independent learning behaviors from the Sisters will shape all the different parts of the Daily 5. Simply put, read to Self is a period of time when children will be reading independently and engaged in books. All in all, you are setting the stage for children to be working engaged and independently while you work in focused small groups. But before you start thinking about planning for Read to Self and the Daily 5 implementation you need to consider a place for each child to keep their "just right" books.

I use these from Really Good Stuff. I have also seen similar ones in the Dollar Spot at Target before. I have not seem them yet this summer but keep an eye out for them. An interesting alternative that I have seen and heard of teachers using were the standing white ice buckets that go in your freezer. I have seen those at Family Dollar. Those are cheaper and have a very similar shape as above.

1. Launching Read to Self- When did you start this process in your class?

I started Read to Self within the first week of school. I made a big deal of showing the children where their book boxes were located, how to take care of them and what would be stored inside of our book boxes. I made sure that we had a "Just Right" book that was ready to go inside each book box because without that we had nothing to start Read to Self. The books were simple one word picture books because we were going to discuss one of the three ways to read a book...by reading the pictures. One simple way of adding some "Just Right" books to your book boxes is to use environmental print books. You can ask parents for labels and you can create environmental print books by using those logos. I have always loved environmental print books and children love them too. I am currently creating and looking for books I will fill book boxes with that are "just right" for the beginning of school.

2. Three Ways To Read A Book-
Here is the HOW for young readers. Using an emergent reader, I follow the steps that the Sisters have outlined in chapter 4. The children will learn that reading can be either reading the pictures, the words or retelling. In the first lesson the children will learn 2 ways to read a book by reading the pictures or by reading the words. I start by reading the pictures and then we read the same text with the words. On the second day I review the lesson from the previous day and then begin to model how to retell a story in detail. Each session is filled with the teacher modeling and thinking aloud the reading strategies used. When the children learn and understand the thinking and the three ways to read a book, they are ready to practice being readers and they begin their journey of becoming effective, independent and hopefully lifelong readers.

This is an example of an anchor chart that I made for this lesson and used last year. It is small. I laminated it and taped it to a child sized hanger to hang in the room or on a stand. Each time I needed to refer to this I just grabbed it and put it in my meeting area. We used it daily for several months. If someone needs to look at it they know where to find it and also where to put it back. I had to create a way that worked for me and my class. I do not have the wall space in our meeting area for an entire year of anchor charts. And it does me no good to run back and forth pointing to something posted across the room when I am teaching. I have tried the big teacher flip charts and they do not last in my class. If the children and I feel like we need to add, delete or change something, I write it on the chart in class and change the one on my computer to reflect our new thinking...no big deal. And yes, bring the new one to class and so on.

2. I Charts and practicing Read to Self-
Read to Self starts with a three minute session. You will be placing the children in good reading spots around the room. You will guide this process the first few days and help them understand what a good spot looks like and how to make that choice independently later. Spots are not assigned because they are a choice. Once everyone is settled you will begin your three minutes of practicing Read to Self. If someone is off task it is time to come back together in the meeting area and once again you will discuss and model the appropriate behaviors and inappropriate behaviors and then you can gear up for...practicing again! Each time you bring the class back to the meeting area you will be using the I chart.

The above is an example of an I chart AFTER we edited and revised the chart tablet one in class.



For me, this chapter was the most important chapter when I first became interested in the Daily 5. This chapter clearly shows the entire lesson format or cycle that the Sisters use. I recommend reading this chapter more than once. I also think that this is the easiest way to teach a child to be independent at anything. If you work through the steps through Launching Read to Self it will make all of the other parts of the Daily 5 seem so much more simple.

Focus Lesson Recap
Day 1
Model 3 Ways to Read a Book
Brainstorm I chart
Model and practice the behaviors of Read to Self
Begin building stamina 3 minutes

Day 2
Model and practice 3 Ways to read a Book
Review I chart
Model and practice student behaviors of Read to Self
Continue building stamina 4 minutes

Day 3
Discuss where to sit and how to choose where to sit
Continue building stamina adding 1-2 minutes per day

Day 4
Continue reviewing I chart
Teach how to pick "just right" books

Alright friends head on over to Mrs. Miner's and see what other teachers are saying!


Be sure that you check out her ideas to Spice it up! I am going to brainstorm a few of my own! If you need to grab the charts above go ahead but I hope you create the charts with your class as we did prior to me making those!

Thanks Kinder Friends!