My Daily 5 Classroom

Our classroom is certainly a busy place to be.  Usually parents and sometimes other teachers will ask how I organize it all.  Actually our system is always evolving and growing.

Grand Central Station -  

The CHOICE BOARD

This magnetic board is the center of our day in both Math/Science block and E/LA.  Students place their pockets under the task card of their choice station for the round.  I ring a timer after 20-25 minutes to signal the end of the round.  Student take their "pass" from a cup in their station and put it in their pocket.  They put the pockets on the main classroom board while we do our check-in or mini-lesson.  

 This choice board system really allows me to know at a glance what students have completed. 

Mostly, I allow the students to make their own choices except for the "Work with the Teacher" group.  There are limits for how many students can be in each station at a time and the kids really keep each other honest about this.

THE CHOICE BOARD

The weekly assignments are listed on the work board.  The work board has the same task cards as the choice board and the cups.  Students can refer to the work board for the "must do" jobs for each station. The weekly spelling words are also listed here.

THE PASSES

 There are colored sticks for each of the stations.  Each child has a stick labeled with the name of the station and their name on the other side.  This way,  if  I go to the writing station and pull the passes, I can tell who still needs to visit that area.  It also helps me to keep track of my little friends who rush to Listening and avoid Writing or Spelling.

Each workstation has a cup labeled with the same task card as the work board and the choice board.
When student complete a task they collect their pass and place it in their pocket










Putting the kids names on the sticks has made a huge difference.  I took a lot of time doing this but we don't have the issue of missing passes or friends not putting them where they belong.

MATH/SCIENCE

The same system easily transfers over to our math and science stations too.  The kids really love having the freedom to choose what they are doing.




NEXT YEAR

Next year, I think I will tweak my system a bit

• I think I will use the computer to do the kids names and station labels on the passes.
• I am also going to redo the task cards so that they are all typed and look exactly the same.
• I am going to try to find a better container to hold the passes at the stations.
• Right now, my Math and E/LA station passes have some of the same colors.  Next year, I am going to work to get these all in different colors (10 colors!). 
• I bought the library pockets this year on amazon.  I am making it my mission to find something more sturdy.  These tear up pretty easily.  I figured I would laminate them, but they still ripped.