Sunday, July 29, 2012

Very Short and Sweet!

Well, I am trying to relax and get some school items created without spending hours and hours on the computer Blog Hopping.  I'm not sure with everyone else but I seem to Blog Hop more than I do getting things done for my classroom that I see and love.  Crazy Teacher, huh???

But even though I am trying to work on school items, I do want to tell you about Michelle over at Mrs. G's Kindergarten in Heels.  She is having a 50 Follower giveaway. Click over to her site and enter her giveaway.


Good Luck Everyone!
Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Traveling, Blog Tips and 3 Awards

I was traveling pretty much all day today in the state of Kansas.  My niece just graduated from college with her Elementary Education Degree and she received her first job in Lawrence, Kansas.  My mother-in-law and myself traveled for 31/2 hours to go visit her new apartment and to visit her new school and look at her classroom.  We went to lunch at a place called Jefferson's and talked mostly about school. I felt so bad for my mother-in-law because she is not a teacher but she listened to both of us go on and on and on.... and was very patient. (You know, us teachers, when we get together.) My niece is so excited and as I reflected about my attitude about teaching (even after 19 years of teaching), it is still the same.  I am just as excited about teaching as she is!  What a great feeling!!!  I LOVE MY JOB!!!!  How many people can actually say that?? When we finished visiting, we hopped back into the car and drove the 3 1/2 hours back home. Needless to say I will be sleeping in a little bit tomorrow.

Blog Tips:  Thank you so much for all the blog tips from the Newbie Linky Party at
Grade Three is the Place for Me!  I am still not finished looking through them.  There are soooo many new bloggers out there. It is going to take me a while.


I especially appreciate learning about the Word Verifier. I did not realize that mine was on. I thought that since I wasn't having to put in letters and numbers it meant my blog was fine.  Not the case!! When I went in to check it ~ the Word Verifier was set to yes/on.  I turned that baby to no/off. Please let me know if you are still having to write letters and numbers after you publish your comments. I know it drives some bloggers crazy so if you haven't checked yours, please do. Here are the easy steps:

1. Click on your dashboard.
2. Click on Settings
3. Go to Word Verifier
4. Click on off/no (Can't remember which it was)
That's it. Hopefully, I followed the directions correctly and some dear blogger will comment and let me know if it worked correctly. I would greatly appreciate it.  

Three Awards
What a nice surprise as I was reading comments left on my blog.  I had three teachers give me three awards. I felt so special. I sooooo LOVE reading peoples comments and giving comments to others. It is so nice that people take the time to read my post and leave comments. I read every single one and respond to them.  Here are the three awards that I received:

The first award is "The Versatile Award" for Angela at "Hoppin in First Grade"

I'm not sure how this works so if anyone knows any different after I post this, please let me know.  Since I already received this award, I am going to still "Thank Angela" for awarding it to me because it is still a great honor to receive one and leave a link to her blog, which I did above.  BUT I'm not going to follow the rest of the rules because I've already done that in a July post. I hope that is okay. If not, please let me know. I'm not sure about all the blogging rules yet. Thanks again Angela!!

The second and third award is a new award that I have not received yet. It comes from Tammy at The Resourceful Apple and Joella at Totally Terrific Teaching. It is the "Liebster Award".  Thank you both so much.

Here is what you need to do:
This blog awards bloggers that have under 200 followers.
1. Copy and paste this award on your blog.
2. Thank the giver and link back to their blog.
3. Reveal 5 other bloggers and let them know by commenting on their blog.
It is that easy.  I love things that are easy.

Since I have been going through the Newbie Linky Party, I have found some great blogs. Since I am a second grade teacher, I think I am going to give this award to some wonderful beginning second grade bloggers like myself. So here are the 5 that I have choosen.  Congrats!!!


I hope you all go visit these wonderful teachers and follower their blogs. They have some amazing ideas and are inspirational people.  Thanks again Tammy and Joella.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Monday, July 23, 2012

For Newbie Bloggers

I was visiting a new blog called A Passion for Primary and she posted about a linky party for New Bloggers. Well, I Blog Hopped on over to the party and decided to add myself to the linky.  The linky party is hosted by Grade Three is the Place For Me.



I still feel like I fit in here since I just started my blog in June. So here is a little bit of information about me.

1. What state do you live in?
             I live in the state of Kansas.

2. What is your current teaching position?
            I currently teach 2nd grade.

3. What is your teaching experience?
            Well, I started my teaching career in New Mexico in a third grade classroom. I taught that grade for 3 years and then moved to Kindergarten.  During the middle of my fourth year of teaching, my husband got a job in a small town in Kansas, so we moved during Christmas Break. Needless to say, someone had to die in these small towns in order to get a teaching job so I did a lot of subbing. We lived in this town for about 2 years and then my husband received another job in Nebraska SOOOOO off we went to Omaha. It did not take me long at all to get a teaching position there. I taught 2nd grade for a year and a half and GUESS WHAT???? my husband did not like the BIG corporate company he was working for so we  up and moved again during the middle of the school year.  We headed back to his hometown of Pretty Prairie, Kansas and THANK GOODNESS!! we have been here ever since. I interviewed for a job share position during that Christmas Break and started teaching third grade in January of 2000 in Wichita, Kansas.  It is a 50 minute drive for me each day (one way) but I enjoy the wind down time that I have before I get home. I have been in this building every since but different grade levels at times.  I taught 3rd grade for half a year, then 1st grade for 8 years and now 2nd grade for three.  I am very happy in 2nd grade. 

4. When did you start blogging?
             June 2012 ~ I began my blog because I wanted to be part of the Daily 5 Book Study that was going on at the time. I had already done the Daily 5 last year but I wanted to make it even better. I am so glad I did. It has been so much fun reading others comments and meeting new teachers.

5.  Share a blogging tip or resources.
          Well, I really don't have many. I did have to learn how to attach my blog name to comment posts so people can visit your blog. If you don't know how to do that, here are the directions:

First type in this-<a
href="http:// 
then add your website address
then one of these  ">
then add the name of your blog
and finally this </a>  

This is what it should look like all done 

<a
href="http://tammyflickingerpage.blogspot.com">Mrs. Flickinger's Butterfly Oasis</a>

I hope that helps some of the newbies out there.

I also agree with Rene from A Passion for Primary. Blogs that have sooo much on it are so hard to follow and they look messy. I am an organized person and I like blogs that have clean lines.

I hope you enjoyed reading about me and I hope you come over and visit my blog and become a follower. Hopefully pretty soon I will be sharing teaching ideas and activities once school starts.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging





Sunday, July 22, 2012

Daily 5 ~ Chapter 6

Working on Writing & Word Work

Well, in about 2 hours, my husband and I will be empty nesters for a week. My daughter left this morning around 3:00am to go on a Missions Trip with our Church Youth Group. They are traveling to Illinois and should be there very soon.  My son is leaving in about 2 hours to go to Church Camp for the week. I don't know what I am going to do with myself for 7 days!!!  I usually do pretty good for 2 days and then after that I am so lonely without the noise around the house. I am going to have so much time on my hands. I guess it is about time to get into my classroom and start getting things ready for the new school year.  I should be excited about all the free time but on the other hand it is so different not having the kids around. I'm sure some of you understand where I am coming from. :)

Anyway, let's get to our post for today!

Working on Writing
Well, I will be honest ~ Last year I did not put Working on Writing into my Reading Block with the Daily 5.  In our schedule, we had a 30 minute block of time for writing and I decided that I was going to keep it that way (Even though 30 minutes is not enough time to work on writing).  I was not very happy with my writing last year so this year while I was rereading The Daily 5, I made a decision that I am placing working on writing into my Dailies for this next year.  My 30 minute writing time is now going to be another Focus Lesson and Daily 5 round.  My only concern is on page 80 with the introduction to the new chapter, they talk about having another time to write called writer's workshop. I'm not sure that in my schedule I will be able to put a writer's workshop in.  SOOOO needly to say, I am a little nervous about doing writing during the D5 and I will just have to try it and see how it works for me.
While I was reading the chapter, I did like the Focus Lessons that they discussed especially underlining words you do not know. Since I work with low SES and ESOL students, some of them have a hard time with the spelling aspect. This strategy will be great for them because then I can meet with them after my Focus Groups and I won't have any interruptions while I am teaching.

Word Work
My students loved to do Word Work. The students had their phonics lists for the week (either the regular list or challenge list) and 5 sight words.  (Each student also had different sight words)  They would practice these words by either doing a  color quilt, word sorts, practicing using a whiteboard, or use magnetic letters.  I did try Wikki Stix and I just didn't have enough so I put those away until I could get some more and of course I totally forgot about buying more.  We also used letter templates where the students would trace out their phonics words. We played many sight word games and also phonics word games for reading practice. I am hoping to get some new ideas from other blogs about word work and adding some new items for this school year.

Well, we are almost done with the Daily 5 Book Study. I have so enjoyed reading other teachers ideas. It has been very uplifting. Thanks for all the help that teachers have been giving me.  It is truly a blessing that we can communicate this way without even knowing each other and feel comfortable doing it. 

When I was reflecting after Chapter 6, I got to thinking about the order of how I was going to introduce the Dailies into my Reading Block. After some discussion with my teammates, we decided that this order would work for us:

Read to Self & Working on Writing
(Our Read to Self is at a different time than our Dailies so we will do both of these together. One in the morning and the other in the afternoon.)
Read to Someone
Listen to Reading
Word Work
Computers
(I add computers because we do the Lexia program)
How are you organizing your Dailies for this year? Do you have a different order than we do?   Looking forward to reading about some great ideas.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Daily 5 ~ Chapter 5

Well, I am back to write about Chapter 5
Read to Someone & Listen to Reading


READ TO SOMEONE
When I read this quote last year, I highlighted it in the book because I wanted to see if it was true. 
"Research shows that taking turns reading increases reading involvement, attention, and collaboration."

 I will have to say ...... that it is sooooo true! I saw so much more involvement, attention and collaboration with my students this last year than in previous years. They actually LISTENED to each other as they read their books and they HELPED each other when needed.  They SHARED with each other and DISCUSSED their books.  I was so pleased with what I saw as I observed this Daily. My students also did a great job with EEKK.

Checking for Understanding was a big + positive + for my class last year. I was not sure how the students would respond but they did great with repeated lessons on this strategy. I plan on making about 9 checkmarks for my students and writing on the checkmark "I just heard you read that ...." so they know how to start their conversation with each other. I will also write "Who?" and "What?"

Figure 5-2 talks about Read to Someone Definitions ~ I did most of these with my students last year but there is one that I will not do.  I will  not do "Reading Different Books" with my students. Since I teach in a low SES school and have many ESOL students, I feel this would make it very confusing for comprehension, like getting the two stories mixed up with each other. I leave this activity out of Read to Someone.  The one other activity that I want to put into the mix is Coaching or Time. I did not do this one last year. I kind of forgot about it once school started. I'm sure you all know how we get. Our minds are on a million things at one time.  I will be making a "Coaching Sheet" for my students, like on page 74. I hope it helps them know what to do.

LISTEN TO READING
It just amazes me still the difference in my students from previous years to this last year with using the Daily 5. I am in LOVE with this approach. In years past, the listening center was a play time. There would be four students reading the same book and basicly watching each other or just listening to the story and not following the words in the book. They would agrue about what book to listen to and other behaviors. (I'm sure each teacher could add a few) Last year, I decided to get CD players for my classroom. Instead of going out and buying them, I sent a request through Facebook to all my friends to see if anyone had them laying around and if they weren't using them, could I have them for my classroom. WOW! Did I get a good response. I got 9 CD players for my classroom. Now, my problem was how to get all my tapes with books onto CD?? Well, it turns out that our church has a great system in the back and I could run the tapes through and put them on the computer and then burn them to a CD.  (This process did take a LONG time because I had to listen to every single book for it to be recorded to the computer.)  So now I had books set aside for all 4 quarters so each quarter the students would have new books to listen too.  I loved it. I did have to show the class a couple of times how to use the CD players but pretty soon they were rolling along with it by themselves. The only thing that was a bother was the batteries. They needed to be changed a lot. Next year I think I am going to have a basket of batteries and when the students need them, they can get them. Last year, I was interrupted a lot because of the battery issue.

Well, I am glad to find a Book Study that I can finish with and hopefully some of my comments have helped.  If you would like to read my other posts about Daily 5, they are on my blog.  Stop by and see if I have any suggestions for you. Thanks for reading.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Friday, July 20, 2012

100 Follower Giveaway

I just got done visiting Tammy's blog at The Resourceful Apple and she is having a Birthday Giveaway but she needs 100 FOLLOWERS.  Click on the link below to go to her page.


She is giving away that wonderful pencil sharpener that everyone is talking about. I would love to have one in my classroom.

( HELP ~ I am still trying to learn how to link to the button. If someone could help me that would be fabulous. I've tried a couple of things and have had no luck.)

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

What is YOUR Guilty Pleasure??


I was visiting First Grade at Storybook Cafe today and she introduced me to a linky party that was going on The Resource Room Teacher.  I thought is was a great idea and decided to join in on the fun...  SO here are a few of my guilty pleasures......

1.  About four years ago, I decided to do Weight Watchers. It was a great program and I lost 24 pounds but on the down side I got pretty addicted to Diet Coke because it had NO POINTS.  Even though I am not doing Weight Watchers and I have gained those 20 pounds back, I am still very addicted to Diet Coke.  I don't drink coffee so my morning would be getting in the car and driving to the nearest Sonic and ordering a Route 44 Diet Coke for the day. What can I say....I sure wish Happy Hour was in the morning time.  Diet Coke just makes me happy!!!
2.  I LOVE Design Star and watching HGTV's improvement programs.  I get sooo many great ideas and I never can decide what to do first.  My husband is not too fond of me watching this shows because each time I start a project, I end up needing his help.  I have done pretty good with the project that I am doing now.  I have only needed his help a couple of times with the patio.  (Laying pavers evenly is soooo much harder than it looks on TV.)



3.  Since I have just started blogging about a month ago, it has been all that I have done besides going to Pinterest.  Love, Love, Love Pinterest and all of the great ideas that are posted in one spot. I do love blog hopping and looking at all the wonderful ideas that teachers have in blogland.  Pinterest and Blogging are becoming both guilty pleasures for me.




Well, those are three of my guilty pleasures.  Have a blessed Wednesday evening.
Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging





Sunday, July 15, 2012

A Shout Out

I just want to do a SHOUT OUT to two amazingly talented bloggers and TEACHERS out there. I just finished reading their wonderful blog about their trip to Vegas and BOY am I jealous that I was not in the blogging world a little longer to find out about this wonderful trip.  Their blog site, 


was the first blog that I blog stalked. They has such great ideas for the classroom and you can tell that they LOVE teaching. I was so inspired by them and some other blogs out there that I decided to start up my own blog and .... WaaLaa ...... here it is.  Very simple and down to earth like me.  If you have not visited their site before, it is a must do.  You will not regret it.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Daily 5 ~ Chapter 4

THE DAILY FIVE IN ACTION

YAY!!!!!

After having done this last year for the first time, this quote from page 47 is soooo true!!

"The tone for the entire year is established during the early weeks of school. When we take our time during this critically important period, moving slowly and thoughtfully to build a solid foundation, it pays off all year long." 

I love the lesson "Three Ways to Read a Book".  It really helped my English Language Learners in my classroom. They started to feel more confident in themselves because they were allowed to read the pictures and tell the story in words that they knew.  They also would read these books over and over again for continued practice when they were trying to read and learn the words. It was evident when I would confer with them one-on-one that they were becoming very comfortable with reading books one of the three ways.

After seeing all of the wonderful creations out in blogland for the D5, I decided to create one myself. Since my blog is called Butterfly Oasis, I have to incorporate butterflies into my designs SO I took an idea from The Teacher Wife (because I love her poster about "Getting Started" and want to use that next year.) Here is what I came up with for my class to remember what their brain need to be doing when they are reading.  This is one of my Focus Lessons that I MUST teach my students because they don't realize that they can talk/think inside their heads.




I have bought some Scrappin Doodle Clipart and a License to use it. I have not learned how to share my creations yet so that will be my next learning lesson with blogging.  If anyone would like to help me with that lesson, that would be wonderful. There is so much to learn with blogging and I would love to be able to share some ideas that I have. You can comment below or email me at tflickinger@usd259.net.  Also, if you would like this document, you can email me and I will send it your way. Thanks!

Okay, back to chapter 4.... I had such great success with Read to Self. Our district has a separate Reading and Conferencing time for our students so my Read to Self is not part of my Reading Block.  It is a separate 30 minutes of my day.  It did take us a while to build our STAMINA with Read to Self. It was not until Sept. 16 that we got to 10 minutes. (We started school August 17) No one in our building had every really trained their students to sit and do something for a long period of time.  I am hoping that this year we may go a little faster because our first grade teachers did try to build their students STAMINA last year. I was amazed by mid October that my students were reading for 20 minutes a day without moving.  There were even some days that I would let them read for 30 minutes. It was amazing to watch. They were so engaged in their books and they were learning to make those books become movies in their heads. That is another Focus Lesson that I taught my students.

Launching Read to Self:
If you follow these guidelines, your Read to Self time will be an enjoyable time for you and your students.

Focus Lesson:  Three ways to read a book
Brainstorm Read to Self Behaviors
Correct Model
Incorrect Model along with Correct Model
Build Stamina ~ 3 minutes (if you can)
Signal and Check in at the gathering spot
Model again
Build Stamina again ~ 3 minutes
Signal and Check in
Closure ~ Review their learning for the day.

And you will do all this on Day 1 of your launching of R to S. In the back of your book on page 111, you will see what I wrote above.  If you turn to page 119, it has it broking down for each day and what you will need to do. I LOVED this and copied it and put it with my lesson plans. It was a great reminder of what I needed to do each day with my students.

I hope I have helped you in someway with launching your Read to Self.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging



Saturday, July 7, 2012

Completed Projects

Yeah!!!!! I finished two of my projects this week.  Here are pictures of the two projects.....


These are the tiger pillows that I made from Bandana's that I bought at Hobby Lobby for .99 cents. The pillow stuffing was pillows from Goodwill. I used some Febreze to freshen the fabric and it worked out great. My students are going to love using these during Read to Self or Listening to Reading.

Another project that I did was made curtains for my classroom windows. I am excited about the new look. I have painted my bulletin boards pink and will be putting black border around them for my Daily 5 and CAFE. SO I tried to find material that would match the buttetin boards and I found this material at Hobby Lobby also for $3.00 a yard. I bought 2 yards and made 2 curtains.



I need to add some green into my theme of my classroom but that won't be hard. Green is my favorite color. So now I am off to finish my other projects that I have:  patio in the backyard, book stand for my chapter books, and my new project: painting a 2-drawer filing cabinet that I found at Goodwill for $12.99.

Until Next Time,
         Happy Blogging


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

July Linky with Farley!

I am so excited that I met Tammy at First Grade at Storybook Cafe. She is introducing me to so many fun things in blogland.  Here is my first CURRENTLY.  Farley, I hope I make you proud by following the rules. :)  Here we go:




Well, since the Fourth of July is tomorrow night, everyone is shooting off fireworks this evening. It has been fun and relaxing to watch others spend their money while we just sit back and enjoy it.  Thanks to all my neighbors.

We have been having between 103 to 108 degree weather here in Kansas.  It has just been down right HOT..... but this evening we had a nice breeze and it cooled down to about 89 degrees.

I have sooo many projects that I am currently working on. I don't just do one and finish it. I do about three or four of them at a time and none of them are finished yet.  Close but not finished.

I need to go to bed ........but I am soo addicted to this blogging. I just love......... reading everyones great information and insight.

That is for sure!!!! I am needed some energy to get these four projects completed: laying pavers down for a patio out back, pillows for classroom reading, book stand for my chapter books and curtains for my windows in my classroom.  Hopefully before this weekend.

Library Lion is about a Lion that learns to love reading. He goes to the Library everyday until something happens. You will have to read the book to find out what that is. I love reading this to my students at the beginning of the year. Its a great book to get the kids excited about reading.
Product Details
DAILY 5 and CAFE ~ I read these books last year and started to implement them into my classroom last year. I didn't get it done completely so this year my goal is to have it all up and running for 2012-13. I have reread the two books. I have joined a Book Study with Anna, Lory, Cheryl and Lindsey. (If you would like to link up, go to Anna's page.) AND some of the teachers in my building are doing a book study also.  Having a great time learning.

Product Details             Product Details

Well, Farley, the only thing I think I have left is to comment to 2 bloggers behind me and the 1 blogger that is after me.  Thanks for letting me join your linky party.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging

Monday, July 2, 2012

The Daily 5 ~ Chapter 3

I just LOVE the Daily 5. Everytime I reread a chapter, I get more and more excited about the upcoming school year.  YES, I said it! I am a teacher through and through.  There are times during the summer that I feel lost because I am not in the classroom doing my normal routine everyday.  Does anyone else feel that way sometimes?? As I was reading ch 3, the key materials, concepts and routines for launching the D5 are incredible. If you follow the schedule of how Gail and Joan launched their D5 (Appendix pg. 111 Launching Chart and pg. 119 The First Five Weeks), you will be just as amazed as I was with what your students can accomplish by learning to be
Independent.  

A gathering place is a MUST and most classroom teachers already have this established in their classroom so it is nothing new. I so agree with Stepahnie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, "Gathering kids in front for instruction, releasing them to pracitice, and then bringing them back to share thier thinking represents the steady flow that is at the heart of effective teaching and learning." It gives our students that brain and body break that they need.

My students got a "kick" out of the I-PICK Good-Fit Books lesson. (Hee! Hee! I just had to add that.)They really related to the shoe lesson because they understand the purpose of shoes and why we wear them. One thing that I will probably do more of that I did not do last year is returning to this lesson and reteaching/reviewing for my students after each quarter. I would like my students to be more reflective of the choices they are making with their books. Whether they need easier books, stay with the books they have, or they need to challenge themselves, I want them to be able to figure that out on their own. I will probably need to do some coaching on this but I really think the students can learn how to do it. I also will be using the different reading material that they suggested on pg. 32 dealing with comprehension and know the words. AND also letting their peers share their good-fit books with the class.  (Most kids love to read out loud to the class at the gathering place.)

Setting Up Book Boxes ~ Last year, after our first lesson, I let the students go out into our classroom library and choose two books that they could put into their Seat Sacks. (I used Seat Sacks instead of Book Boxes)It worked okay but I've decided to try something different this year. Mrs. Patton's Page had a great idea for Open House Night. Our school has Open House two nights before school starts which I love because the students can come in, put their backpacks on their desks, look around the classroom and get a feel for their new classroom home. I think it's great for the parents also because they have a chance to talk with me and get any questions answered. So during Open House this year, I am going to have the students go to the classroom library and pick out two books they would like to read the first day of school. While the students are doing that I will have a chance to visit with the parents and answer any questions that they have. I thought that this was such a great idea. Thanks Mrs. Patton for sharing your idea. Then on the first day of school, the students will have two books on their desk and they will have a book box on their table to share with their classmates. I am going to use Figure 3-5 Sample Selections for Book Boxes as examples of books that I will put into the boxes. I want the children to get a feel for what books are in our classroom library and let them see if they can figure out what book is a Good-Fit book for them.  I did not do this last year and as a reread this chapter again I thought, "Why did I not do that last year? What a great idea!"

Anchor Charts and Repeated Practice (Stamina) are a MOST HAVE for this process to work for you. I would return to my Anchor Charts all year long. I would make my Anchor Chart out of the big chart paper and then after a couple of days (after school), I would make a smaller version of the chart and place it in the work station where they get their materials for a visual reminder of what to do. I did save my big anchor charts in case I needed to remind the whole class what the expectations were for being Independent at that Daily.  Figure 3-8 Ten Steps to Improve Muscle Memory is an important document that I kept on my clipboard for the first quarter of school. It was a reminder to me that I needed to build the muscle memory with my students. The last paragraph with repeated practice (pg. 38) I highlighted this section because this happened to me. I know in a past post I wrote about how my first round of Read to Self was only 1 minute long. I signaled for the students to come back to the gathering place. I use a bell. We checked-in by going over the anchor chart as I pointed and we talked about how long we read. We then tried Read to Self again. I sent my students back to where I had placed them and this time it was only 30 seconds. I signaled for the students again, checked-in with the students, and then let them know their time. We tried it one more time that second day of school and the students made it for two minutes. We gathered, checked-in and graphed our stamina. The students were very excited that they made it for two minutes. They felt success and I was still smiling with no frustration brewing at all.  I LOVED IT!!

The last section of this incredible chapter of information, Correct Model/Incorrect Model, was a fun part of the lesson for the students to participate in. They enjoyed watching each other do the model correctly and incorrectly. It was just like Gail and Joan said, "The students found the modeling of the wrong behavior very entertaining." It works like magic with most of your students.

I hope you enjoyed reading some of my insight into how it went in my classroom last year. I am very interested in hearing how others are going to implement the D5 into their classrooms or reading reflections of teachers that have already tried it.  If you would like to join our Book Study, please come over to Crazy for First Grade and link up with us.

Until Next Time,
        Happy Blogging