I start introducing Daily 5 the first or second day of school. It depends on when I can get books in my kids' book boxes. We start off with Read to Self and work on building up their stamina day by day.
After a couple weeks, I introduce Read to Someone, which makes them very happy since they get to be with a friend.
Then it just depends on which center I introduce next. This year I introduced Listen to Reading. I have 6 iPod Nanos in my classroom for my students to use during Listen to Reading. I got the iPods thanks to three grants I had funded through Donor's Choose. For each grant I asked for two iPods so I'd have better odds at getting them funded.
Then I plan on implementing Work on Writing and finally Word Work. For Work on Writing I have lots of different writing activities that the students can do: recipes, letters, creative writing, poems, lists, and postcards. I also have an Art of the Week project that I do each week where the students do a craft and writing that goes with it. I also have some fun Word Work activities for the students to do. There are magnet boards and magnet letters, white boards and markers, letter cubes, and different spelling and grammar centers.
My students love all the choices that they have at each center and in which centers they do during the day. Taking all of the time to introduce each center and expectations of Daily 5 really pay off and help to make them independent while I'm meeting with groups. Even though I don't get to guided reading groups until October, I feel it's very worth it.
I have a Smartboard in my room so I've created a Daily 5 board for my students to use to make their choices. I take each students picture and they move their face to the center they want to go to. Each center has a certain amount of spaces available for each rotation. Students can easily see which center has spots open and make their choice from there. I also teach them that they can't repeat the same center on the same day. So they aren't allowed to do Read to Someone twice in one day. They would have to wait until the following day to do it again. We usually only do three rotations each day, but all five Daily 5 choices are available to them.
Some of the changes that have come to Daily 5 are in regards to adding more or different technology into the stations. I usually introduce it as the year goes on. They start off with the iPods. Then I introduce using the iPad minis for Read to Self. I have QR codes that the students can scan of new books they can read on the iPads. That usually helps to re-energize Read to Self and get the students to stay focused again. Then later on I introduce the app Epic! books. With this app, students are introduced to a TON of books that they can read. They can search series, topics, and authors, besides what's recommended for 2nd grade. I also introduce new Word Work centers where students can use the QR reader on the iPads to check their answers.
I have another Donor's Choose grant proposal out now to try to get 2 more iPad minis for our classroom. I would love to be able to have some Work on Writing choices for students to do on the iPads, like using Smore or Chatterpix to bring their writing to life.
Adding in little changes helps to keep Daily 5 fresh so students stay interested and I don't have behavior issues while I'm meeting with groups. It's one of my favorite times of the day, as well as the students.
