Favorite websites: The Daily Cafe / Daily 5

www.theDailyCafe.com
With great in-class videos, printable templates and more for non-members and even more goodies for members.

This year I introduced the Daily 5 program in my class for the first time. It has been working wonders! A colleague lent me the Daily 5 book last year and I started to use it at the start of the new school year. Students are now reading independently, staying on task, loving the option of choice and I'm having the time to sit down with individual students and teach them to their needs.

The Daily 5 program is set up in a way it is hard to fail. Step-by-step the students get introduced to the 5 reading activities:

1. Read to Self
2. Read to Someone (I call it Read-Together in my class)
3. Work on Writing
4. Listen to Reading (I call it Listen-to-a-story)
5. Word Work

A big focus lays on building independent work stamina. Students start working on an activity for only a very short period of time in the beginning of the year. You increase the amount of time step by step, literally a minute at a time.

The other great thing is that the students get to choose on which activity they work at a given work time. They get to practice being balanced in their choices.

To make it work in my class I have made a "Choice board" in the class where I write down which activity each student does per session. This helps me and my Teaching Aid to have an overview of "who is doing what". The students have a "Planning sheet" that they color in after each activity. This helps them to see if they are balancing out the activities over the school week.

Since I love the Daily 5 program, I would now also like to learn more about the CAFE and I am also looking in at becoming a paid member to the website.