Monday, February 13, 2012

Daily 5 in action...

Last year I visited Amanda at Summerland Primary School in Auckland.  I was fascinated with the literacy programme she was running and have spent considerable time becoming familiar with Daily5 and CAFE.  I am soooooo convinced that the programme will help learners with all aspects of literacy and will make it possible to teach to the learners need.  A key component of the programme is reading mileage - reading more everyday.  To make this possible all learners today were given their literacy kit, or learning lunchbox as one excited learner called them.  With this kit, learners are prepared for reading to self, reading to someone (reading buddy or teacher), listening to reading (reading buddy or online), writing, or vocabulary/sounds alive work.  The readers have a range of reading material and 'work in progress' in their kits.  A really exciting moment was when we set up our individual learning zones so we are now ready for the movement of some desks to bring in collaborative tables and learning spaces.
As I was working with a group I glanced up to see the class in action.  I had tears of joy as I saw motivated, engaged, focused learners working in and around the class.  I sent a couple of learners of with cameras to record what they saw. These photos give an idea of the exciting learning in action.

There are so many places around the class where we can read with our buddy.  The important part is EEKK, we are reading elbow to elbow, knee to knee, so we can really focus and share our reading.





There are many learning spaces for working on our writing or sounds alive.  It is soooo exciting to see our learners trying many different learning spaces and working out which ones work well for each learning session.   I even saw learners listening to a CD in the cave and writers writing at the 'writing desk'.  I will try to get someone to take photos of these tomorrow.

I think the most exciting of all was to see how easy it will be for us to spend our time on learning, not searching, organising or being distracted!  We have now set up our learning space to have our individual workzone - with our bags now stored in the back room.  EXCITING!  I can't wait for the sessions tomorrow to tell and show you more about it!
A message to all the learners in Room 6!  I am sooooo excited about the development of our learning spaces.  And I am so in awe of your enthusiasm and excitement for our learning.  YAY!


15 comments:

  1. Wow Room 6! The daily 5 looks like so much fun and I love your learning lunch boxes. What do you like about the daily 5? What are some challenges?

    Stephanie (Room 15 Teacher @Tawa Intermediate)

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  2. Sounds like a buzzing classroom :-) Can you share what goes into your literacy kits?
    Your flexible learning areas sound great - making me wish I was in the classroom more to start implementing something like this!

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  3. Stephanie, Thanks for your comment. We reflected on daily 5 today. We like: how it is so easy to organise; we get to try different things; we get to read with other people; we are always organised; we have a range of activities; we get to learn and have fun at the same time; we get to learn in diferrent spaces; we get to see how others read; we get to help people; its really fun doing our Bio poems; its cool doing our sounds alive.
    Some of the challenges are: Having enough time in the day (Mrs K); Sounds alive is a challenge; having a go at the difficult words; Learning our Maori words, especially our pronunciation; reading harder books; learning new words.
    Today in room 6 we had to stop our learning and celebrate the fact that one of our class members had researched exciting new information over night from his reading book. Learning doesn't just happen between 9 and 3! Yahoo for Kurt! You are really showing that you are a confident, reflective, risk taking, life long learning in a Catholic school.

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  4. Hi Pam, thanks for your comment. Our literacy kit holds: our reading books; our literacy book; our pocket of 'work in progress'; our notebook; a pen; so we are all ready to get learning wherever we are!
    Mrs K and room 6

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  5. Learning and working like this makes it fun and easy.
    We are also always organised with our creative kits
    (well, most of us....)
    -Michaela

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  6. Hi there room 6, your classroom looks very colouful with the new literacy kits! I especialy like the photos of you all reading with your buddy and also that Janaya is wearing her glasses!
    From Lee-Ann

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  7. It's great to see the cubby holes that I helped make are being put to such good use. You look lke your all enjoying your new learning spaces.

    Janaya's Dad Michael

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  8. Hi Michael, I didn't even know that you helped make the cubby holes. They are amazing! Now that we have our bags in the backroom we have awesome learning space!
    Thanks
    Mrs K

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  9. Hi Lee-Ann, thanks for your comment! Our learning spaces are very exciting. I think the learners are really enjoying choice and our learning is fun!
    Mrs K

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  10. i like how we moved our bags aaliyah

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  11. my [dad]michael and i thought it was a good idea and its really fun



    chelsea and michael

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  12. Hi
    This programme looks interesting.
    Is it loads of fun?
    The cubby holes are a great idea Mrs K
    Jenny

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    1. This programme is awesome! I am really enjoying it, and the class are too. It is fun and has a lot of freedom and choice, but has loads of reading time! The cubby holes are sooooo much better for the learning kits, rather than backpacks!
      Mrs K

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  13. Aaliyah, I like have we have our bags now too!
    Mrs K

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  14. Chelsea and Michael, thank you for checking in on the blog! It is a lot of fun.
    Mrs K

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