Daily 5 Chapter 2

This is the second week of the Daily 5 linky parties! Head over to Kindergarten Smiles and join us.

1. Do you trust your students? How do you build this trust? Are you able to trust them and allow them to be independent throughout all aspects of your day? Are you going to be able to stay out of their way?

I do trust my students, but only because they work to earn it. I take lots of time to teach them the routines, rules, and consequences. I don't release them to do any type of center time until we have spent several weeks going over and practicing. Once they spend that time earning my trust they have it, until they do something to lose it. Then yes they can be independent throughout the day. 

2. How much choice do you give your students throughout the day? Do you go over your daily schedule with your students or is it just "posted" in the room?

The way I do centers every day is they have one must do center and two choices. They also have choice for indoor recess centers. I am looking into changing my math centers and that will allow them some choice there too. Our daily schedule is a part of our Morning Meeting. We talk about it everyday.

3. How are you going to create that sense of community where students will hold each other accountable?

The best way to do this will be to make them feel at home. I always ask kids to bring in family pictures for us to display in the room. I like for them to make it their own and know we are all one big family. During the first few weeks we talk about what family means and how we treat each other. That also means support in everything, encouragement for each other, and not letting anyone slide. We have a saying "We are a family, we don't fight with each other, we fight for each other."

4. Student ownership in learning? How do you instill this in every child?

I conference with my children every Friday to discuss their week and do an assessment. This year I am going to be trying data notebooks, where the students will keep up with their own progress. I will discuss it with them in our conference and then ask them to take it home and discuss it with their parents. I think this will help them take ownership, plus they will want to push harder to have great things to share each Friday with their parents and me.

5. Staminia? This one I am not sure about. Like I said with week one I like the way I do things so I don't know if I will be changing to this system. I guess I would like for my students to work a little more toward longer times sitting to read. I might use a timer and set a goal for the amount of time. We will see on this one! :)

Next week we are back over at