Back from Cali and STRESSED ...

My oh My.... Vacation before school begins is bitter sweet. It's so hard to concentrate on relaxing when you know that you have a stack of to do lists waiting for you at home.

So I spent a week in California visiting my sister and her family and it was such a great time. Beautiful weather and excellent company. Unfortunately my mind was half there and half here at home... thinking about work... I KNOW RIGHT?!?

So here is what is stressing me out ... THE DAILY 5 & CAFE . I want to implement these programs but they feel so JAM PACKED. Last year I felt as though I could only fit one teaching point and active piece a day. I'm feeling so overwhelmed that I can't even get all the parts to a day done that they recommend to do.

So I'm looking to you, blog friends, for advice... I've got A MILLION questions (well just a couple) as this is my first year implementing both programs.

1.When is it a good time to start implementing??? ... 1st Day of School? or should I hold off a day or so? What do you do?

2.Is it okay to just focus on one point a day... ie focus one day on read to self ... next day CAFE lesson one and practice read to self... next day review previous day then CAFE lesson two and practice Read to self and so on?

I can't think of anymore questions but I know I have more... but for now PLEASE HELP.

I'm trying to plan my first week and I just feel SO OVERWHELMED!!!

Daily 5- Wordstudy

So I am excited to start using the Daily 5 program in my classroom this year. I'm a bit nervous because when I start implementing new things, I worry I'm not doing it the right way or using it to its full potential.
When I was reading the Daily 5 I thought to myself "hey, I kind of already do this with my stations- we listen to reading, we buddy read, we go to reading groups, and we read to ourselves". I thought, "Okay, now lets think about word work and work on writing and include these into our literacy block.

So here I am ... open to your opinions. This was my idea about how I would make a word work run in my classroom this year. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

I plan to have students work independently on word work in a way that will help students study for spelling tests. I work in a very low income community and have always wondered how I could raise students spelling scores. I know that they are not getting enough practice at home (due to lack of home support) and so I figured, I should support them in school and what a great way to do so then in word work.

First I created 6 bags (various colors) as well as bag labels.

In these bags I plan on including various activities in which students can practice their spelling words in fun ways.

Here are some things I've included in these bags:

Rainbow Write- Papers and Markers so that students can write their spelling words in a rainbow pattern (each letter a different color).

Dry Erase Board & Markers- Kids love to write on dry erase boards. I found these erasers at Target for a dollar.

Magnetic Board and Magnetic Letters-

I also made these cute holders for the magnets-

Stencil Writing -

I also plan on having a "Look, say, cover, write, check folder in the bag.
(I'll include a pic later)


I'm just getting started on these bags but would love to hear the opinions of others.

Do you all have any more suggestions? I'd like to fill the bag with lots of things to keep the kiddos entertained.

What do you do for word study?