Tips and techniques for implementing The Daily 5 for reading groups in a pre-k classroom

So, you want to use the Daily 5 with your 4 year olds but you are not quite sure how you are going to get them ready or if they can even do it. I can tell you after implementing the Daily 5 in my Pre-K classroom for the past 3 years I am confident that not only can you teach it but they can accomplish it! Not sure what the Daily 5 is? You will want to get your hands on the book "The Daily 5" by: Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. My school used this book and accompanying videos as a professional development study three years ago and my classroom has never been the same. Tailored to elementary students who can already read I had to tweak it to meet my classrooms needs. I wait until the class is acclimated to school before even thinking of teaching the 5 areas of the Daily Five. Each day the children are supposed to: Read to self, Word Work, Read to someone, Listen to reading and Meet with the teacher. I always start with teaching read to self. I have the whole class bring one book to the carpet and explain the procedure (no talking, eyes in your book, stay in your area etc.). I time them for 3 minutes on the first try correcting them as needed. We practice each day for 2 weeks adding a minute each time until they can easily read to self for 10 minutes. Honestly, ten minutes in about the max I have been able to get out of my 4 year olds in this station so after 10 minutes I ring a certain bell that allows them to choose a quiet toy from a special bucket (puzzle, pop beads, links etc.) I also begin teaching word work stations at this point. I set up enough stations for the whole class and teach the children to work quietly, stay where they are and not interrupt the teacher. I make sure these are centers that they are familiar with so there are not many "how to" questions. I time them for 5-7 minutes and then show them how to rotate to the next station. We build up to 15 minutes of word work. Once I have completed my Daily 5 instruction there will only be 3 stations per day. All of this instruction is getting them ready to be completly independent so my Meet with the Teacher times will be successful and uninterrupted. I also do not limit my word work to letters/sounds, I also add basi skills practice and numbers practice, most of the time with a manipulative of some sort. See the pictures below to seean example of what this looks like. I made one of our play centers this week the listening center and each day I am teaching 4 students how to use change cd's, volume etc. This takes care of the first 4 of 5 stations they are supposed to do each day. This leaves Read to someone which was the one I had to tweak the most since my kiddos are not truly reading yet. The first year I just skipped this and added word work but then I thought if they can't "read" they could certainly practice their letter/sound recognition and number recognition. So I bought a product on TpT that layed this all out in a binder and it works great. It is called Kindergarten RTI by Babbling Abby (no I don't know her and I have not been asked to promote this item)Click on the name to be directed to her product page. I set up my binder and put 2 children together, one strong and one who needs some help. This way if they get stuck on a letter or number they can help each other. I give them each a pointer to help them track across the page and allow them to work on this on our carpet laying or sitting on beanbags, whatever is comfortable for them. There are so many resources out there for word work, I have created a few items that are working great in my classroom and there are many teahcer authors that I have bought products from that are awesome. It would benefit you to take some time searching TpT to find some great word work before you even get started teaching this system. I just love this system for my reading groups, everyone is learning and happy, my reading groups are smooth with little interruption and everyone knows what is expected of them. I can't say enough about how much this system has improved the reading instruction in my classroom and how smoothly my day goes once the students are comfortable with the stations. I would highly recommend trying this with your pre-k students and getting your hands on the book if you have not already read it. Below are a few pictures of my students learning the word work stations today:

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section, I would love to have a discussion about the Daily 5 for Pre-K here on thecrazy pre-k classroom. Till next time, Christine