First Days CAFE / Daily 5

Wow everyone it has been a while! We have survived the first 10 days of school. My students are adjusting well to the responsibilities of First Grade. I am so proud of them. For my entry today I will focus on ELA and how Daily 5 and CAFE is going.

We now have 4 reading strategies on our CAFE board and we are building stamina for 3 of our Daily 5 activities. My students so far are doing Read to Self, Word Work and Work on Writing. We have created our " I " charts and are working to be Independent in these activities. The class is handleing this responsibility VERY well. Our mornings are going so smoothly and I am able to read with many students individually every day. For those you wondering how I structure my Daily 5 and CAFE here is how a typicall ELA block goes....
1. Read to Self (Daily 5 Round 1) : Every morning we begin ELA with Read to Self. I find that for my first graders having a structured time where everyone is reading allows me to circulate and meet with more students as well as manage the students better.

2. Mini Lesson : My mini lessons are skills that I pull from our Scott Foresman Reading Series. Each mini lesson focuses on either comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, or the grammar skill for the week.

3. Work on Writing (Daily 5 Round 2): This is also a structured time. Just as in Read to Self I find it easier to conference and mange the students quality of writing if they are all working on the this activity at the same time.

4. Mini Lesson

5. Student Choice (Daily 5 Round 3): This is our 3rd and final round for the day. During this time students choose which Daily 5 activity they would like to do. They check in and begin working. I take this time to meet with my Strategy Groups. My Strategy Groups are based on reading level rather than CAFE strategy. I found that first graders are working on all of the CAFE strategies as most are still emergent readers. It was difficult to conduct reading groups according to strategy. I meet with 1 group each day. If we can build more stamina and have more time then I may meet with 2 groups.

6. CAFE Lesson: Here I introduce or review a CAFE strategy. As of today we have tackled Check for Understanding, Back Up and Reread, Good Fit Books, and Tune In To Interesting Words. 

Because it is only day 10, we have not done 3 Daily 5 Rounds or met with reading groups. We are taking everything very slow :o) and we are working hard to build up our stamina. Below are some pictures of my Fabulous First Graders working hard during our ELA block. 

Picking Good Fit Books for our book boxes

Shoe Boxes for our book boxes - Thank you Diane for the amazing idea!!  Free, easy and cute. We keep all the tools we need to do ELA in these boxes. I allow my students 4 good fit books, a read a phone, strategy folder, and our "handy dandy" writing notebook. 

 Reading to Self

Helpful posters for when we need to pick a good fit book.

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.”
^{- Jacqueline Kennedy}