Daily 5 Chapter 2

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 develop trust in my students as the year progresses.  I think that they need to learn about the classroom, classroom procedures, how to use classroom materials and how to “do” school those first few weeks of school.  As they gain this understanding of what kindergarten is all about I release more responsibility to them.  I don’t think that walking in on day 1 of Kinder any of them can be independent throughout any aspect of their day.  Yet, it’s a goal for us and we build up to that as the year progresses. My goal is to allow them to be independent throughout all/most aspects of the day, but that’s a lofty goal.  I think some of them will always need more support than others.  But if I can get most of the class to work independently, then that’s great.  I think I can stay out of their way if we’ve taken the time at the beginning to learn how to be independent and make the correct choices 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?

I need to work on this.  When students go to my stations, they are assigned to a group and assigned to stations for the day.  Within the station, there are some choices of activities to do.  For example, at the Games and Puzzles station, there are always a few choices of activities.  At the writing station, they are making a choice about what kind of writing they do and what they write about within a theme.  So, I guess within each station there is a little bit of choice, but they do not choose their stations for the day.

Our schedule is posted- at the beginning of the year I am always good about going over the schedule, but as time goes on, we forget that part of our morning routine. But that’s definitely something that I need to bring back as an important ritual in our classroom.

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

That sense of community develops over time as we learn and grow together.  I think in Kinder there is a fine line between holding each other accountable and “tattling” because someone is not making the correct choice. So I need to model how to do that over and over again.  Making anchor charts is a great way to talk about it and visually display it so students are reminded often of what to do in a situation.

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

Some children are more intrinsically motivated to learn than others.  I find that some really love learning and others could do without it.  So, I think you need to get to know your kiddos those first few weeks of school.  Which ones are you going to need to “sell” this idea of learning to and which ones are already on board and ready to go? Then make learning fun and exciting and hopefully more will realize that what’s going on in the classroom is interesting enough to get their attention.  I agree with the idea the Sisters shared about making students understand the urgency of what we are doing.  I try to explain to students why we do the things we do- how these activities will make us better readers and writers. 

5. Stamina! How are you going to build stamina with reading? independent work? Will you use a timer? Will you set goals?

I think the key is move slowly!  I always get too eager to begin the real tasks of school and forget that we need to work slowly.  I think setting small goals is important at the beginning and work our way up to what we ultimately want to accomplish.  I love timers- so, yes, I think a timer will really help with reading and independent work goals. Head over to Kindergarten Smiles to link up and read what everyone is talking about.

Kindergarten Smiles


We will be back for Chapter 3 at

Live, Love, Laughter