Literacy Studio for the Little Ones

So I’ve been chatting about how I’ve been planning to implement ‘Daily 5’ in my classroom. I made several changes to it, so I can’t call it a perfect Daily 5. Also, our 4th grade and 5th-grade teams run their reading blocks as “Literacy Studios,” so my kiddos feel extremely special when I tell them they are practicing for 4th and 5th-grade primary literacy Studios

Primary Literacy Studios have three main components:

Crafting

Composing

Reflection

In our Literacy Studio, we have our ‘crafting’, which is our mini lesson before our Daily 5, our ‘composing,’ which is our Daily 5 structure, and our ‘reflection’ which usually happens in the students Learning Logs. This looks much different in the older grades because of what they are capable of doing and the sorts of activities that will interest the little ones! And we have a blast with our version of it. Since I have shown you all the ways that I have planned for Daily 5 changeover in my classroom, I’d love to show it to you in action!

Primary Literacy Studios in Action

When you read the 2 Sister’s book on setting up Daily 5 classrooms, they suggest Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, and Work on Writing. That was perfect for my second grade darlings last year, but this year, I had to change a few things around. Here are my five groups…

This is my daily small group time with my five leveled groups. Since we are focusing this part of first grade on fluency and comprehension, I took a cold read running record and level of my kids from those results. Students will regroup in another two weeks if there are any changes. I meet with all five groups from 12-20 minutes a day! This is where a large amount of my reading differentiation comes in.

Sample things done here:

Running Records
Fluency Passages
Comprehension Passages
Guided Reading

Two different groups work… how different my firsties are! Some groups are working on fluency and comprehension, while some are working on letters and sounds! This is a great chance to help teach skills that are no longer taught in first grade for my kiddos that need extra attention for their reading.

Closeup look at folders for the classroom

As crazy as this binder looks, this is how I stay sane. It tracks what I want to do throughout the week and what we actually do!!

This is my favorite room. We have a Guided Reading room with leveled books for each Guided Reading level.

Tech Time

There are two components of my Technology round. We use computers and a listening center.

More.Starfall.com and Compass Learning are great for these computer centers. A.R. tests are also fantastic to give during this time! I am currently working on a DonorsChoose project to fund two mini iPads for my technology round (and math, too!). Once I get those in my room, I will certainly update how my technology round is working!

Daily Reading Time in Primary Literacy Studios

I had to leave this one! The kids need their daily reading time no matter what. Some days, I change it to Read to Buddy, but for the most part, they are working on Good Fit books to take A.R. quizzes on!

Each kiddo gets a book bin. They pick five books on Friday for the next week. If students finish their books, they can take A.R. quizzes on them or trade them out for new books.

I also get 50 books from my public library once a month. There are a lot of leveled readers for my firsties at the library, so I can grab those and give my lower readers more opportunities for reads closer to their reading levels. Most of my books are second grade books from last year. And of course… a huge staple for my Read to Self time.

Whisper Phones and Sit-Upons are two of my favorites! These sit-upons are great. I had two sets in my classroom, which was 12 in all. Since we did centers, only half the classroom would need them at once. Check out the affiliate link for Whisper Phones on Amazon to grab a set of six. (Click for Whispher Phones) (Click for Sit-Upons)

Working the Skill Drill in Primary Literacy Studios

I have a daily mom volunteer in my classroom every day (except for Tuesdays!) They are truly beneficial for my Daily 5. This is my chance to do my seasonal center sets that I don’t normally have time to do. I can also throw in random lessons, like Time for Kids or a writing piece in Skill Drill. But the main purpose of Skill Drill is to work on that group of students differentiated needs! Here are a few activities they participate in….

Word Work Breakdown in Primary Literacy Studios

Here is the Word Work corner where they get their supplies. We rotate through the following activities…

Play-Doh
Chalk Boards
White Boards
Rainbow Writing
Scrabble Tiles
Pipe Cleaners and Letter Beads
Shaving Cream
Stamps and Ink Pads

This is an exciting center for the kids because they are getting their hands on the most ‘fun’ things. Little do they know, they are working on their ten spelling words and five sight words for the week! And somehow, I don’t have one picture from this to share. I took pictures throughout the week and somehow didn’t snap that round.

And those are my kids being absolutely amazing Literacy Studio participants!
I have blogged about this before, but here is my bulletin board to keep kids on task where they need to be when I’m busy teaching. This prevents kids from interrupting my group to ask where they go.