Launching Daily 5 and CAFE

Daily 5 and CAFE

This was my first week back at school and I started the launch of Daily 5 and CAFE. I have previously launch both but never at the same time. I have done Daily 5 for two years and CAFE for one.  Here is what my week look liked.

Day 1: I started by introducing I choosing good fit books. I let my students then pick books for their book boxes. I then read aloud to them and introduced Check for Understanding. We took a brain break and played a boggie game and then started back up. I introduced Read to Self and we practiced independently reading for 2 minutes. We then graphed our progress, kissed our brains, and set off for other exciting activities. 

Day 2: I reviewed what we had learned from yesterday and introduced 3 ways to read a book. The students caught on fast and were ready to get into their book boxes. My students read to 4 minutes! We celebrated by graphing our stamina and gave ourselves a pat on the back!

Day 3: We reviewed everything and I was thinking my students might be a little overwhelmed with information. Perhaps launching Daily 5 and CAFE was a little too much for them. My students only increased their stamina by 1 minute and we graphed this time talking about making sure we stay in one spot and read the whole time (no talking to others!) 

Day 4: Thursday came with a bit of a shock! My students were asking when we were going to read. They really knew the information when we were reviewing! My students read for 8 minutes independently! WOW! They did such an amazing job! I even got to read with some of my more wiggly friends to keep them on track. I was super impressed and I celebrated their progress. They were excited to see our stamina graph growing.

Day 5: We reviewed everything we had learned from the week and let me tell you my students are super smart this year! They remember everything we had learned! This time my students read to 9 minutes. Not much of an increase but they read the whole time, stayed in one spot, and we stopped because 1 person stopped reading. I heard groans when I rang the bell and one student didn't even stop reading. I had to tap him and say please put your book box away.

My principal also came in during this time and not one child noticed she was even in the room. She came in took a look around and then left a little note in my bucket. We are a bucket filler school so everyone has a bucket outside their door. She said she loved my common core standards, today's password sign, that my students were all engaged, and everything was organized! What a compliment! It really made my day! Thanks to all my blogger friends I'm super organized this year! Daily 5 is also really organized too so that helps as well. I'm glad that my principal approves of what I'm doing. It confirms that my professional decisions are correct and truly working for my students.

I told them when we came back to our meeting spot that their ultimate goal was 20 minutes. They look a little scared...but then asked "what happens when we get there?" "do we get a prize?" I was taken aback...I have never had this asked before. I said we would celebrate and that then I would get to read with everyone individually. They nodded their head in approval. I continue to encourage them and tell them they were so smart and I knew they could do it! Now what to do to celebrate?? I've made a promise...which I have to keep! I thinking balloons or a special snack? Thoughts?

Anyways I hope your week went as well as mine! I will be posting more about launching Work on Writing next week and the continuation of Read to Self. I have a good feeling that my students will do amazing!