First term holiday update

Hello all!

You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet here at Oh the Little Wonders, that’s because we’re half way through first term holidays. I’ve spent them so far reading books and blogs, online shopping, and watching movies and YouTube hauls and tutorials. I have also enjoyed catching up with friends from high school who have been back in town. The circumstances of their visit have been extremely unfortunate; nevertheless it has been great reminiscing about the old days and supporting each other through a difficult time.

After recently reading some blog posts on how others run their Daily 5, I have decided to make some changes to the way I run mine. For those of you who don’t know, the Daily 5 is a literacy program focusing on 5 aspects of reading and writing. The book is suuuper easy to read and gives you a step-by-step guide to introducing the Daily 5 into your classroom.

In the past I’ve organised the rotations so that I hear each group read everyday, spending 10-15 minutes with each group. I read a post by The Curious Teachers that made me rethink the effectiveness of only spending 15 minutes with each group.

I definitely recommend heading over to their blog to have a read! They have some great ideas for guided reading.

I've decided to change my rotations to be able to spend half an hour with 2 groups each day. The other groups will continue through their Daily 5 rotations, and when the teacher group is finished they will return to rotations as well. This will allow time for tuning in and focus activities, sight word work, listening to children read, assessing comprehension, sequencing texts and other essential teaching opportunities. 

I plan on doing a post after I’ve implemented the changes to let you know how they go. I’m also going to show you what’s in my ‘Teacher Time’ basket that I use during guided reading. I hope all the other Australian teachers are having a lovely break so that they feel excited and ready to take on a new term.

I'd love to hear how you all run your Daily 5 or literacy block, so please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading!