This past weekend, I met up with some other fabulous Hawaiian bloggers and went to a conference put on by the Ka Hui Heluhelu Hawaii Council of Teachers of English and saw the Two Sisters!  It was so exciting!! 

From left to right: Gail Boushey, Courtney from Teaching In Paradise, Tonya from Tonya's Treats for Teachers, Corinna from Surfin Through Second, Me!, Angelia from Extra Special Teaching, and Joan Moser.  We had such a blast and learned so much!

I even got a teacher hat that I can wear all the time with our Hawaii Council of Teachers of English logo!  Cute, huh?  My "teacher hat" may never come off - watch out naughty kids in the grocery store! ;)

The conference focused on The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literary Assessment and Instruction, but before you can really dive into your small group lessons and assessments, you need to set up what the rest of the kids are doing while you are meeting with those small groups.  That's where The Daily Five comes in.  Last summer, I was a part of a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade blog book study all about The Daily Five.



If you are interested in learning more about The Daily 5, you can start by downloading my bookmark, then going to my blog post as I introduce the study.

In my room, I follow the Daily 5 for Dummies plan that I found on Pro Teacher.  It is a great way to help you introduce everything at the beginning of the year.  It walks you through the anchor charts and stamina building.  As you build stamina, make sure to snag my free stamina chart, as well! 

Another awesome resource for introducing the Daily 5 is Lyndsey from A Year of Many Firsts' The Daily Five {Free Classroom Resources}.  She has posters, printables, and bookmarks to help make your journey with the Daily 5 easy and smooth.  I use her Student Tracking Cards every day for the students to see which activity they have done!

In my room, I use Ladybug's Teacher Files' Bright and Clear Daily 5 signs.  They are perfect for my space and my decor!  I like that the font is fun, but not too crazy and the design is bright, but clean. Here they are in my room:

You'll notice that I do not have Read to Someone up.  My students can buddy read as a What to Do When I Am Finished activity.  I updated my pack last year with poster sized versions, as well.  I made the big one this year and like it a lot better, since I can see it from across the room.  I attach it with little super-strong magnets and velcro dots, like Corinna from Surfin Through Second does.  My velcro dots are brown because those are the ones that were on clearance at the fabric store :)


Instead of Read to Someone, I decided to do Respond to Reading this year.  With permission from Ladybug's Teacher Files, I made a matching sign in both purple and blue so you can have one, too!  Just click one of them to download from Google Drive.

I plan to use composition books for the kids to write their responses in each day. Luckily, I got some for 50 cents each at Walmart this summer.  Inside the composition books, I plan to use Sara Soucy's Journals for Reading Response.


I'll have to teach my kids in the small groups about how to use them, then I think they'll be able to independently do them each day.  At the beginning of each group, I'll be able to quickly check each book to see if they were done and talk about what they wrote.  I hope this helps start great conversations about books in my groups, as I want to work more on comprehension and less on fluency as my kids move up the 2nd grade reading levels.

I got my first informal walkthrough today, and it was right when I was calling student names to tell me their choice for Round 1 of Daily 5.  The kids immediately started working, everyone knew what to do, and I got to work with my small group right away.  Needless to say, my new principal was floored and impressed.  So I have to give a huge THANK YOU to The Sisters for making me look so good :)

How is Daily 5 going in your room?
I am over at Melissa's (previously from Lesson Plans SOS) new blog, Inspire me ASAP!

Inspire Me, ASAP

I'm sharing some tips for having subs, including an editable freebie - a substitute cheat sheet!


Make sure to check it out and follow her on her new blog!  She will for sure have some amazing ideas and tips for you in the future.  If you read my post, you will find out how much she has helped me in the past! :)
Read to Me International is a Hawaii organization that helps foster the love of reading in children by reading aloud to them.  I had the pleasure of hosting the President of the Foundation, Lynne Waihee, in my classroom today!  Not only did she bring with her beautiful Hawaiian picture books for my classroom ----> Look!

But she also read a book to my class, played the ukulele, sang songs, and did a cute craft project!

The book she read was Kolohe ‘Iole (or naughty rat in Hawaiian).  It is a darling book about a rat who did things to scare the people, and he never listened to his mom when she scolded him.  But when the keiki (kids) set up a trap to catch him, his makuahine (mother) saved him.  He learned to finally be kind.  Such a cute book with adorable illustrations and full of native Hawaiian words to teach your class.


After the book, we all made a cute little mouse craft.  The kids loved it, especially the pipe cleaner tails that they could position how they wanted!

We started with a heart and two circles on card stock, 5 inches of black pipe cleaner, scissors, glue, and some tape. 

The pipe cleaner gets taped onto the top of the heart, so it doesn't fall out.

Next, fold the heart in half and glue together.  Then glue the circles on both sides to make the mouse shape. Draw on an eye, nose, and whiskers!

Lynne had brought a template with her, but I quickly made up a digital one so I could share it with all of you!  Go ahead and grab it from Google Drive!

If you are interested in teaching about another culture, but also about the importance of kindness, this story and easy little craft might be just the thing for you!

I'm also teaming up with my fav Hawaiian bloggers for an October Giveaway!  

We are each giving away a fall-themed unit, so make sure to rush over to Corinna's blog Surfin' Through Second to enter the Rafflecopter!  The giveaway ends on Friday!

Remember when I shared my classroom reveal?  There was a blank little space that was just calling for a makeover.

When I got the opportunity to review one of Mohawk's rugs, I knew this was the perfect spot for it!  It would make this space cozier, more purposeful than just a walk-through, and much more appealing to the eye.

I ended up re-arranging the furniture a bit, put fish in the tank, and got the computers all hooked up.  


My new rug is now in front of the students' book boxes and also our shelf of math manipulatives.  Do you notice my new pink Classroom Friendly Supplies pencil sharpener, too?  I'll blog about that soon!

This rug is called the Felicity Ziggity area rug.  I really like how the blue and grey don't compete with the other bright colors going on in my room.  It is so incredibly soft.  My students love sitting on it and sometimes I kick off my slippahs (flip-flops for all you mainlanders) and just stand on it barefoot (Megan - don't go into hysterics, I know you have feet issues).  

Another thing about Mohawk that I love is that their rugs are all made in the USA!  Check out this awesome YouTube video about the company: http://youtu.be/naJbBltQTbE

How would you like to win your very own rug for your classroom?  Mohawk is generously giving one to one of my followers!  You will get to chose a 5x8 rug that costs under $150!  Woohoo!  But wait, there's more.  Three more of my blogging besties are also giving one away - so you just upped your chances!  After you enter here, go check out their giveaways as well!




All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter below!  A Mohawk representative and I will be checking all the entries, so please be honest.

Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway